DBWI AHC: Japan Bans Guns

As we all know, the Warrior culture of Japan encourages gun rights. Hell, many Anime even show guns as part of the plot. This got me wondering, and when I start wondering, I post threads like this. Here is the alternate history challenge for today: Make Japan ban guns.

OOC: Anime still exists (even H*nt**), but the main difference is that a second amendment-like system is implemented in Japan.
 
Have more of the Japanese people misuse their guns to shoot up schools and the like, instead of just keeping them for their army service and the defence of their homes and businesses. Whilst it would be unfair to stereotype Japanese as ultra-orderly, just like in Switzerland, gun crimes are very rare in Japan.
 

Dolan

Banned
Have them lost the Second World War and have the nearby victor (China, mostly) impose Victor's Justice by disarming Japanese population.

The quickest route would be Japan fought on Axis side and China somehow becoming Allied State. That was honestly a coin toss as Japanese Militarists being somewhat Fascist-ish, while Chiang, even if Kuomintang is obviously modelled after Nazi Party in most aspects, never really going full on fascist.

Hell, in 1930s, US military command at Philippine and Pacific actually fears war against Japanese aggression instead of Chinese invasion of South East Asia.
 
Looks like the only way to be up for that is the Soviet Union failing to join Axis and Japan took its place. Contrary to that the atomic bomb is actually used in the end by US forces, against selected Japanese cities like Nagasaki. That and a possible Allied military governorship could instill an aversion of guns to the populace at a degree.
 

Dolan

Banned
Inejiro Asanuma is shanked rather than capped.

With what? A samurai sword?
No, Asanuma was killed by pistol exactly because death by the sword is too honorable for a dirty communist like him.

Remember that we now knew that the Socialist purge of 1955 turned out to be under the direct order of Emperor Hirohito instead of Prime Minister Yamamoto (after Emperor Naruhito ordered the disclose of the notorious "Socialist Purges" in 2015). The leadership of the Socialist party who are not on Emperor Hirohito's "Shit List" was permitted to actually commit ritualized seppuku (they are only provided with paper fan and their deaths was due to the Headsmen). Inejiro Asanuma was singled up and executed by pistol shot to the neck because he was seen as the greatest traitor, undeserving even a honorable death.

Yeah, considering Japanese death penalty have several tiers, with beheading reserved for "honorable" criminals, shooting for "common" criminals, and lastly hanging for the lowest of the low, maybe in that case, Inejiro Asanuma might've been hanged instead.
 
No, Asanuma was killed by pistol exactly because death by the sword is too honorable for a dirty communist like him.

Remember that we now knew that the Socialist purge of 1955 turned out to be under the direct order of Emperor Hirohito instead of Prime Minister Yamamoto (after Emperor Naruhito ordered the disclose of the notorious "Socialist Purges" in 2015). The leadership of the Socialist party who are not on Emperor Hirohito's "Shit List" was permitted to actually commit ritualized seppuku (they are only provided with paper fan and their deaths was due to the Headsmen). Inejiro Asanuma was singled up and executed by pistol shot to the neck because he was seen as the greatest traitor, undeserving even a honorable death.

Yeah, considering Japanese death penalty have several tiers, with beheading reserved for "honorable" criminals, shooting for "common" criminals, and lastly hanging for the lowest of the low, maybe in that case, Inejiro Asanuma might've been hanged instead.

The Socialists were none too popular in the 1950s, and it's almost hard to conceive just how deep the postwar Red Scare went in Japan. Demobilization lasted into the late 1940s, and transitioning to a peacetime economy wasn't as easy as the 1950s economic miracle made it appear. There were some real concerns that the radical Socialists would gain popularity, or the militarists would rise again.

The papers even blamed Yamamoto's predecessor, Terauchi the Younger*'s death on the stress of having to deal with them, on top of managing the budget- no mean feat with Lend-Lease payments, the massive redevelopment projects in Tokyo, and the completion of the Shinkansen system between Tokyo and Osaka.
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*Field Marshal Marquess Hisaichi Terauchi, Prime Minister of Japan 1950-54, and leader of the New Constitutional Friendship Association party. Died of a heart attack, aged 75. Son of former Prime Minister Masatake Terauchi.

Those are not called Tanto? Still well those are even more expensive than a gun, an army knife is possible

Type 30 Bayonets were in plentiful supply, and not exactly hard to get a hold of. With a length of 21", 16" of which was blade, they handle more like a machete then a knife.

On the matter of expense, if guns were banned in Japan, we would be deprived of some of the artisan-crafted, limited edition rifles Arisaka releases every year. Traditionally crafted stocks in woods native to Japan, beautifully forged chrome-lined barrels, including their signature 30" length, and the beautifully smooth action and excellent sights they're renowned for. There would also be no market for 6.5×50mm Arisaka 38, 7.7×58mm Arisaka 99, or their companion 6.5×65mm 38-Magnum and 7.7×73mm 99-Magnum cartridges, a small but robust industry.
 
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Dolan

Banned
The Socialiats were none too popular in the 1950s, and it's almost hard to conceive just how deep the postwar Red Scare went in Japan. Demobilization lasted into the late 1940s, and transitioning to a peacetime economy wasn't as easy as the 1950s economic miracle made it appear. There were some real concerns that the Socialists would gain popularity, or the militarists would rise again.
The facts that worldwide socialist/communist parties of that time (and even now) largely run on supporting either gun control or civilian disarmament definitely cause the unpopularity of them in both Japan and The USA, despite they have very different system otherwise.

Maybe have Socialists win much earlier, during the Taisho period before militarist ascendancy, and maybe the much maligned proposal to disarm Japanese population would be realized.
 
The facts that worldwide socialist/communist parties of that time (and even now) largely run on supporting either gun control or civilian disarmament definitely cause the unpopularity of them in both Japan and The USA, despite they have very different system otherwise.

Maybe have Socialists win much earlier, during the Taisho period before militarist ascendancy, and maybe the much maligned proposal to disarm Japanese population would be realized.

The idea that anyone who invades Japan will encounter "a rifle behind every blade of grass" plays a big part- it's certainly different than the US Militia Model (or Militia Myth if you will), but plays a stong part of Imperial Japanese society. That the IJA Reserve has such widespread enrollment, and no shortage of sons of peers in the officer corps certainly helps.

The Socialists certainly did make their mark, particularly in the late Taisho and earliest Showa periods, roughly 1926-1934. They were initially quite popular with their expansive relief policies in the wake of the Great Kanto Earthquake, and restraining the Kwantung Army's activities, but they wore out their welcome as their leadership changed rapidly starting circa 1932, locked in endless purity contests and arguments over who was the most socialist. The Meiji constitution also gives the highest taxpayers seats in the Diet, who surprisingly proved to be just the bridge that was needed to allow the liberals and conservative moderates to vote as a bloc, effectively allowing them to push their own candidates and defund the excesses of the radical Socialists and the militarists.

Today's Social Democrats, re-emerging after the breakup of wartime Imperial Rule Assiatance Association, are nowhere near as radical as their prewar predecessors. After the breakup of the New Constitutional Friendship Association into the Liberal Democratic and Conservative parties in the mid-1960s, the Social Democrats split with Labour, differing largely on environmental and social issues. While LD has been in power for the greatest number of years by far, the SDs are the strongest opposition and in second for longest tenure in power. They are somewhat hampered, however, by there being far more right-aligned members of the House of Peers. With both the Conservatives and the New Path on either side of the spectrum small (although both of their bases tend to be loud), the government is usually LD or an SD-Labour coalition.
 
The close links between the US and Japan culturally made it inevitable. Of course, each country mutated things in different ways. Many Southern states still use outdated 1980's era seifuku for school uniforms, whereas Japan went with a more modern look.

The cowboy mythos is idolized in Japan- this is why you see Cowboy Samurai such as IWGP champion Joe Robinson and the Von Erichs.
 
The cowboy mythos is idolized in Japan- this is why you see Cowboy Samurai such as IWGP champion Joe Robinson and the Von Erichs.

You can't forget the impact in the professional rodeo circuit either- everyone was surprised the first time Jun'ichiro "Rawhide" Kobayashi won the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association's National Finals Rodeo in Vegas the first time, and nobody was surprised when he won his second and third consecutively.
 
Go further back, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu both wanted to ban them at the beginning of the Bakufu era. But without the Ashigaru almost wholly equipped with Tanegashima Teppo the Japanese forces would probably not have captured Seoul in 14 days nor held onto it when the Ming began sending troops in numbers, especially after the debacle with the Turtle Ships. Had they lost Korea there might have been more internal fighting with Tokugawa vying for the Shogunate in his own right instead of him becoming regent for Hideyoshi's son and marrying off his daughter to him later. As is, the gun is even more integral to Japanese culture than it is to the American West, they even developed the first true semi-automatic battle rifle out of the Mexican Mondragon prototype and never looked back. Guns became a big part of the foundation for the 'Special Friendship' between Japan and Texas even in the late 1890s, not sure I can imagine a world where they are not close friends...
 
A good POD would be to butterfly away the Japanese revolution and the meiji restoration. The imperial forces successful utilitization of gun armed peasant militias against Chinese and shoganate forces more or less enshrined the believe that it was the duty of citizens to own guns to ensure that they can protect their nation and way of life.
 
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