An "American Kalingrad"

What if the USA kept the Ryuku Islands from Japan after WW2, like the Soviets took Kalingrad? What would be the economic, cultural and political effects? Would a state be formed from all the Pacific islands?
 
What's the use of Kaliningrad? As a forward deployed military base.
What's the use of all the US run military bases in Okinawa? As forward deployed military bases.

Something with the same function is already there and it's not going anywhere no matter how much the locals protest. It would have been easy to just "annex" it after the war like the Marina islands.
 
Kaliningrad is a lot more closer to Soviet core territory than the Ryuku islands are to US soil. Its function would be totally different. They won't throw out the population and let Americans live there for example.

Most importantly, thats a hugely imperialistic move by the US, its allies and the USSR are not going to like that. The Ryuku islands are core Japanese territory.
 
I thought this was about any sort of extgernal territory on land - islands reall aren't the same in my mind. I was going to posit how the Panama Canal could have become another state; just let Colombian relations go differently and isntead of an independant Panama, we get a larger Canal Zone that covers OTL Canal up tot he border with Costa Ricaa.

I don't know how this would come about, but if enough Americans move there it might be feasible. Maybe if enough Democrts push for D.C. or Puerto Rico to become a state, and the State of Panama is more Republican, they could both be admitted as a compromise.
 
I'd say Europe was more important to the Soviets than East Asia was/is to the United States. Taking Kaliningrad and removing its population made a good deal of sense strategically. Doing the same to the Ryukyu islands would make less sense.

AFAIK Kaliningrad was more of a prize trophy, the heart of "Prussian militarism" now being under Soviet control (a bad comparison: imagine an enemy of the US annexing Philadelphia and confiscating the Liberty Bell).
That, and it also removed a direct German border with the Soviet Union.
 
AFAIK Kaliningrad was more of a prize trophy, the heart of "Prussian militarism" now being under Soviet control (a bad comparison: imagine an enemy of the US annexing Philadelphia and confiscating the Liberty Bell).
That, and it also removed a direct German border with the Soviet Union.
It also has one of the largest stockpiles of amber on the planet. It also served a warm water port to the USSR. So it was not just a trophy city.
 
AFAIK Kaliningrad was more of a prize trophy, the heart of "Prussian militarism" now being under Soviet control (a bad comparison: imagine an enemy of the US annexing Philadelphia and confiscating the Liberty Bell).
Which is rather unfair to the historical legacy of the East Prussians, because that province was not necessarily any more the "heart of Prussian militarism" by the 20th century than any other in the Kingdom and it certainly was no longer the heart of Prussia itself.
 
Given that the Okinawans have a separate history from 'Mainland' Japan until the 1800s... the best chance (and it is still a long shot) would be for a referendum declaring a preference for American statehood (IMHO nothing short of full congressional representation and a say in presidential elections will cut it, maybe the best chance to get PR in too) over reunification with Japan.
 
I don't see the US doing this.

However, if China was involved... Assume Burma hilds in 1942, so the Road stays open. China receives much more Lend-Lease and some American reinforcements.Thus augmented, the Chinese push back, clear the Japanese out of south China, and retake Nanking and Shanghai.

This campaign is (understandably) waged as a war of extermination against the Japanese. Soon after Chinese forces reach the coast, a faction of Taiwanese launch a rebellion/coup against Japanese on the islandd, and wipe them out with help from the mainland, which arrives in Lend-Lease amphibious craft. (Object of the rebellion - avoid being bombed by the USAAF, and avoid being purged as collaborators by the victorious RoC. I have no idea whether this was even remotely possible; I base this on the rebellion and attempted side change of Slovakia in August 1944.)

Chinese forces now prepare to invade the Ryukyus, while US forces mop up in the Philippines and destroy the remnants of the Japanese Navy. Many Ryukyuans flee to Kyushu (there are lots of small boats in the islands).

China and the US invade and conquer the Ryukyus. More civilians flee; many others are killed, especially where Chinese troops are active.

At the end of the war, China annexes most of the Ryukus, expelling the surviving civilians. The US takes Okinawa for a base in Asia, and also deports surviving civilians to Japan.
 
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