DBWI: Japan Didn't Go Communist?

[AltoRegnant]

After ww1, Japan felt cheated out of expansion in Asia when Britain and France split German colonies in Asia, especially when Britain took the Kiautschou Bay concession for themselves. This started a wave of anti-western anger in Japan and rage that they'd fought and died for nothing, which with soviet backing turned into anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist rhetoric that led to the Japanese Communist Party seizing power and abolishing the monarchy in 1928 under Sakai Toshihiko. Propped up by soviet aid, the Socialist Japanese Republic would go on an 'anti-colonialist' rampage that turned into slaughter and conquest of Asia with soviet backing- British territories were spared only because of the army exerting too much influence to build the necessary navy. However, they weren't allied until Hitler launched Barbarossa and Japan dragged Korea and most of China (nominally under Mao by then, with exceptions in the north) into ww2.

They eventually eclipsed the soviet union by a wide margin by the 70s and early 80s, but fell into stagnation and eventually the regime was dismantled in 96, as their puppets in China, Manchuria, Indochina and Mongolia started breaking off. But what if they didn't go communist? How could this be achieved?

 

[Sarthak]

Unfortunately if Japan did not go communist, its likely it would go ultra-nationalistic. They were already on the course for it by ww1

 

[CountDVB]

Yeah though it did lead to a lot of confusion and issues. World War II was nuts and Japan was mainly trying to help out the USSR as best it could though trying to get armies from China to Europe is pretty freakin difficult.

It’s why the Japanese bit the bullet and asked the US for assistance (it’s why they spared the Philippines after all. That and remaining good will and sentiment toward the US). The US helped in exchange for Korea’s independent (which had to do more with the Christians, but hey, they agreed).

US didn’t get into WW2 until Hitler declared war on them weeks later and the attempt st biowarfare targeting New York pissed the Americans off big time. Germany pretty much got cut into three separate states (Protestant North, Catholic South and East German which became the dumping ground for Eastern Orthodoxy clerics and holy folk who preferred exile over other fates) when the Americans were done, plus well, the atomic bombs.

Though besides the atrocities committed on other people, Japan fared quite well as a communist state, even for all the war crimes they did.

Korea is pretty much the US’s main Asian ally besides the Philippines though the Thai pretty joined up ASAP.

 

[PolishMagnet]

The pendulum would swing the other way. Arguably Japan going communist prevented further veneration of the emperor and radical nationalism.

Although probably all the ancient temples and shrines would have been maintained and might have been open to the public today. This alternate Japan would definitely be a major tourist destination.

 

[Sarthak]

Another thing; the Emperor and his entire family the Imperial Family was deposed and killed much like the Romanovs, with the ones living in foreign land only spared of it. This created a whole slew of pro-monarchist feelings in the anti-communist branches and we would probably not see a renewed Japanese Monarchy from one of the cadet branches which survived running it today, with basically all confidence in the democracy lost in the Japanese people. It would very much been a constitutional monarchy like the Europeans if the radical ultra nationalists could have been weeded out.

 

[CountDVB]

The pendulum would swing the other way. Arguably Japan going communist prevented further veneration of the emperor and radical nationalism.

Although probably all the ancient temples and shrines would have been maintained and might have been open to the public today. This alternate Japan would definitely be a major tourist destination.

Yeah, instead most fell into disarray and disrepair, but Shintoism’s cultural influence meant actually tearing them down would’ve doomed them. Now they’re under indefinite repair and maintenance.

 

[Aloha]

I don't think a POD starting in the 1910s or 1920s would be enough. I think at the earliest, you'd have to find a way to make Japan win the Russo-Japanese War more decisively while also avoiding the Russian Civil War, which is pretty difficult because just the fact that Russia even lost was a factor (and not the only one, of course) into why the Russian Revolution happened to begin with while the fact that the Japanese just barely won and caused so many casualties made some people question if the Emperor was really the living god that people made him out to be. If you have the Japanese win more decisively, then you would probably have more people still looking up to the emperor as an arahitogami, but a more decisive win for Japan might have made the Bolsheviks even more pissed off. After all, co-operation with the Soviet Union played a pretty important role in the growth of the Japanese Communist Party, and the government as well as the people not affiliated with the Japanese Communist Party were quite fearful of a much larger communist neighbour.

 

[samcster94]

I read a timeline where a Showa era existed and it was very nationalist. Weirdly, it become a stable democracy after a U.S. occupation. This Japan is a popular tourist destination. Our universe's Japan does exist in a way, as Korea is divided and the northern part is run by an insane dynasty.

 

[Aloha]

I read a timeline where a Showa era existed and it was very nationalist. Weirdly, it become a stable democracy after a U.S. occupation. This Japan is a popular tourist destination. Our universe's Japan does exist in a way, as Korea is divided and the northern part is run by an insane dynasty.

I read that timeline too and quite enjoyed it. Regarding that last part, some people have wondered the same thing as you but I actually don't think it was too implausible. I mean, in that TL, Japan was in an extremely bad position by the end of the war, pretty much losing almost every battle they fought. They were surrounded at all fronts and were terrified at the thought of a Soviet invasion, and they were nuked twice. What would they have gained out of fighting further? Surrendering and eventually forming itself into a stable democracy was the smart decision, since they realised that militarism didn't work out very well for them.

 

[Burton K Wheeler]

This is roleplaying, not a DBWI.