Ammunition is a toughie. But so long as you have a weapon, you can generally find a way to use it to take food from those who do not. A long and rich tradition of soldiers who cease getting paid or supplied turning brigand.
Decisive Darkness: What if Japan hadn't surrendered in 1945?
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Ammunition is a toughie. But so long as you have a weapon, you can generally find a way to use it to take food from those who do not. A long and rich tradition of soldiers who cease getting paid or supplied turning brigand.
But from whom?
(In case of the Pacific garrisons.Fishing and small-scale farming might be possible though.)
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OTL the last (nutty) Japanese soldier did not surrendered until 1974
See and raise: this poor sod not only surrendered later, but ended up stateless either way. Not that I envy anyone who's thirty years removed from everything they've ever known, mind.
Somehow i have this morbid idea of the remaining large Japanese garrison holdouts in the Pacific islands might be used as living laboratories for future US nuke tests.
(It's discussed several pages back about the possibility of nuking them)
(It's discussed several pages back about the possibility of nuking them)
OTL the last (nutty) Japanese soldier did not surrendered until 1974
Not so much nutty as very, very, very dedicated.
But from an army culture that commonly produced troops willing to fight and die literally almost to the last man, that's hardly a surprise.
Actually, there's a good chance that the US might simply hand it over to Chiang Kai-Shek; the possibility was seriously discussed IOTL, and, given that ITTL the Chinese army has actually liberated the vast majority of its own territory (as opposed to OTL, where most of said territory was still in Japanese hands at the time of the latter's surrender), the transfer might well be carried out ITTL.
Nansi Province, R.O.C., anyone?
Actually, there's a good chance that the US might simply hand it over to Chiang Kai-Shek; the possibility was seriously discussed IOTL, and, given that ITTL the Chinese army has actually liberated the vast majority of its own territory (as opposed to OTL, where most of said territory was still in Japanese hands at the time of the latter's surrender), the transfer might well be carried out ITTL.
Nansi Province, R.O.C., anyone?
I think that, as in our time, Okinawa will have far too much strategic value to the United States for it to be given up.
I can see a fair chance of it becoming a U.S. Commonwealth eventually, in fact (or in the alternate, an independent Republic of the Ryukus, with a base hosting agreement with the U.S.) sometime in the late 20th century. There will be even less enthusiasm by Okinawans for reincorporation into Japan, and whatever is left of Japan will not be in much shape to take it back on, either.
OTL the last (nutty) Japanese soldier did not surrendered until 1974
He's both, really.
70s nothing.
These two Kept going until 1990.
Granted, they did join the Communist Party of Melaysia after the Japanese Surrender, but still.
THAT was one of the most "OTL is ASB" news stories I have ever read and probably ever will.
Well first I suspect it would become a US Trust Territory and then by the 1980s it would have a vote on it's future. At which point it would probably opt for a compact of free association like the Marshall Islands or Micronesia did.
EDIT: This should make interesting reading on the dynamics of the Ryukyus and the Americans and Japan: http://apjjf.org/-Matthew-R.-Augustine/2906/article.html
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IOTL members of Unit 731 and similar units got trials in the Soviet Union.
There was no US-American equivalent trial for such people.
The Impatience of Death
Couldn't have seen it come from an inch away,
But it's here,
Right on time
~ Pendulum
‘Cabin Fever’, the delusions of panic and hysteria caused by being pent up in the same location for too long, was a common theme amongst the Japanese soldiers that were now what was left of the population of Tokyo.
The attempts to raise morale were seemingly endless. Propaganda speeches, vaguely disguised as tactical lectures in urban warfare, were almost as relentless on the harsh beatings on troops who complained about not having enough to eat, of damp, of disease, and the various other malignant grievances that had arisen on top of those factors they couldn’t control.
This was mainly the American bombs, and increasingly, American shelling. The fall of the city of Chiba had put American troops within direct sight of Tokyo and their artillery far closer, the screech of falling shells being the trumpet call of the apocalypse due to engulf the city.
From up above the buzz of American bombers had become so perpetual as to be effectively predictable, even in the case of events prior to the American entry into the city, where the payloads of said bombers were anything but.
The irony of the new gases used against the defenders of Tokyo that day where that they had been derived not from American discoveries but from those of their German ally.
Sarin had first been discovered by German chemists working for the chemical conglomerate IG Farben in 1939, the Nazis quickly saw the potential for the highly potent nerve agent as a weapon of war and had stockpiled large caches and sarin loaded bombs and artillery shells by the time of their capitulation in the spring of 1945.
Why the Nazi’s had ultimately chosen not to use such a devastating weapon as their regime neared collapse remains an issue of some dispute, the most popular explanation being their fear that the Allies also had nerve agents and would rapidly respond to any German attack with one of their own on German civilians, or perhaps more crucially in the warped minds of the Nazi high command, on the horses that the German war machine was so reliant upon for logistics.
The Germans had been wrong, the Allies development of nerve gases where years behind them, until their capitulation gave them the key.
The bombs carried by those B-29’s above Tokyo were of German design, though preceding them were an American innovation. The T-12 bombs fell especially over areas designated vital to Tokyo’s underground thanks to the numerous interrogations of the starving and often traumatised Japanese officers who had recently been captured by both axes of the American advance.
It was a spectacular site as they impacted on the beaches, the way in which they tore up one of the worlds largest cities was even more warped, entire buildings were carried into the sky only to collapse mid-flight and fall like gigantic shrapnel on those below.
Underneath the situation was almost as bad, the fire and the smoke making the already stuffy and claustrophobic deadly, troops in the affected areas of the city took to the fresh air. Mostly without masks.
The wave of sarin bombs that followed the earthquake makers created a plume of death across the ruined city that there was no answer to, for those above ground there few options for survival, those carrying gas masks hurriedly put them over their faces for a degree of safety, sweet smelling smoke dispersed into an invisible, colourless, reaper.
The strange popping and hissing emanating from the impacts was the only sign that the bombs which had fallen signified something other than incendiaries. From those still shaken from the T-12 impacts it was often unnoticeable. The blurred vision that came was not an uncommon phenomenon for those who had only just ran out into the daylight. The tightening of the chest was the first sign that something was definitely going wrong.
The pain of utter paralysis is very different to that of an irritant, rather than a slow lingering death as it becomes harder to breathe your bodily functions stop instantly. The affected individual is dead in a sense, yet for a time they are still awake. For several minutes the individual gradually muscles control of their muscles, exhibited grotesquely by the loss of all bodily functions before death eventually approaches from suffocation.
The pain is brief but unimaginable, no-one has ever survived a full exposure to tell the tale, the corpses from the mass bombardment of Tokyo in the prelude to the American ground offensive have had to tell their own tale. Those screaming faces which would never speak again.
The atropine and other drugs which in later years would provide relief to sufferers from partial exposure where not available to the Japanese defenders, even those with masks were helpless as the gas struck their skin. Unable to remove their masks there were those who simply choked on vomit that had nowhere else to go.
From those who suffered only a minute exposure the effects were not lethal, yet were damning in their own way. To be barely able to walk was a death sentence in itself as the Americans unleashed ever larger barrages of explosive and more conventional mustard gas shells on a city already bombed to oblivion.
For the defenders there was no time for panic or confusion, yet both reigned nonetheless. On the outskirts of the city the American tanks first appeared, amongst the death and despair there was finally a focus, or at least a rage, as the human bullets surged towards them.
To be able to fight back was a morale boost in itself.
The battle of Tokyo had begun.
Couldn't have seen it come from an inch away,
But it's here,
Right on time
~ Pendulum
‘Cabin Fever’, the delusions of panic and hysteria caused by being pent up in the same location for too long, was a common theme amongst the Japanese soldiers that were now what was left of the population of Tokyo.
The attempts to raise morale were seemingly endless. Propaganda speeches, vaguely disguised as tactical lectures in urban warfare, were almost as relentless on the harsh beatings on troops who complained about not having enough to eat, of damp, of disease, and the various other malignant grievances that had arisen on top of those factors they couldn’t control.
This was mainly the American bombs, and increasingly, American shelling. The fall of the city of Chiba had put American troops within direct sight of Tokyo and their artillery far closer, the screech of falling shells being the trumpet call of the apocalypse due to engulf the city.
From up above the buzz of American bombers had become so perpetual as to be effectively predictable, even in the case of events prior to the American entry into the city, where the payloads of said bombers were anything but.
The irony of the new gases used against the defenders of Tokyo that day where that they had been derived not from American discoveries but from those of their German ally.
Sarin had first been discovered by German chemists working for the chemical conglomerate IG Farben in 1939, the Nazis quickly saw the potential for the highly potent nerve agent as a weapon of war and had stockpiled large caches and sarin loaded bombs and artillery shells by the time of their capitulation in the spring of 1945.
Why the Nazi’s had ultimately chosen not to use such a devastating weapon as their regime neared collapse remains an issue of some dispute, the most popular explanation being their fear that the Allies also had nerve agents and would rapidly respond to any German attack with one of their own on German civilians, or perhaps more crucially in the warped minds of the Nazi high command, on the horses that the German war machine was so reliant upon for logistics.
The Germans had been wrong, the Allies development of nerve gases where years behind them, until their capitulation gave them the key.
The bombs carried by those B-29’s above Tokyo were of German design, though preceding them were an American innovation. The T-12 bombs fell especially over areas designated vital to Tokyo’s underground thanks to the numerous interrogations of the starving and often traumatised Japanese officers who had recently been captured by both axes of the American advance.
It was a spectacular site as they impacted on the beaches, the way in which they tore up one of the worlds largest cities was even more warped, entire buildings were carried into the sky only to collapse mid-flight and fall like gigantic shrapnel on those below.
Underneath the situation was almost as bad, the fire and the smoke making the already stuffy and claustrophobic deadly, troops in the affected areas of the city took to the fresh air. Mostly without masks.
The wave of sarin bombs that followed the earthquake makers created a plume of death across the ruined city that there was no answer to, for those above ground there few options for survival, those carrying gas masks hurriedly put them over their faces for a degree of safety, sweet smelling smoke dispersed into an invisible, colourless, reaper.
The strange popping and hissing emanating from the impacts was the only sign that the bombs which had fallen signified something other than incendiaries. From those still shaken from the T-12 impacts it was often unnoticeable. The blurred vision that came was not an uncommon phenomenon for those who had only just ran out into the daylight. The tightening of the chest was the first sign that something was definitely going wrong.
The pain of utter paralysis is very different to that of an irritant, rather than a slow lingering death as it becomes harder to breathe your bodily functions stop instantly. The affected individual is dead in a sense, yet for a time they are still awake. For several minutes the individual gradually muscles control of their muscles, exhibited grotesquely by the loss of all bodily functions before death eventually approaches from suffocation.
The pain is brief but unimaginable, no-one has ever survived a full exposure to tell the tale, the corpses from the mass bombardment of Tokyo in the prelude to the American ground offensive have had to tell their own tale. Those screaming faces which would never speak again.
The atropine and other drugs which in later years would provide relief to sufferers from partial exposure where not available to the Japanese defenders, even those with masks were helpless as the gas struck their skin. Unable to remove their masks there were those who simply choked on vomit that had nowhere else to go.
From those who suffered only a minute exposure the effects were not lethal, yet were damning in their own way. To be barely able to walk was a death sentence in itself as the Americans unleashed ever larger barrages of explosive and more conventional mustard gas shells on a city already bombed to oblivion.
For the defenders there was no time for panic or confusion, yet both reigned nonetheless. On the outskirts of the city the American tanks first appeared, amongst the death and despair there was finally a focus, or at least a rage, as the human bullets surged towards them.
To be able to fight back was a morale boost in itself.
The battle of Tokyo had begun.
Sarin. Yikes. Well, I suppose we should be grateful that there are no persistent nerve agents available yet.
I thought you needed a B-36 for a T-12 bomb, but it seems that they were tested with adapted B-29's.
I imagine most Japanese are hoping to be occupied by the Soviets rather than Americans by now.
I thought you needed a B-36 for a T-12 bomb, but it seems that they were tested with adapted B-29's.
I imagine most Japanese are hoping to be occupied by the Soviets rather than Americans by now.
After all this shit, ISOT'ing this Japan to basically anywhere that doesn't have a United States and/or Soviet Union destroying the very fabric of the country seems like mercy.
And suddenly, an ISOT scenario comes to mind...
And suddenly, an ISOT scenario comes to mind...
Donald Reaver
Donor
After all this shit, ISOT'ing this Japan to basically anywhere that doesn't have a United States and/or Soviet Union destroying the very fabric of the country seems like mercy.
And suddenly, an ISOT scenario comes to mind...
Unfortunately, with all the trauma the Japanese society has gone through so far, if they are more advanced than the rest of the world, I would fear being the rest of the world.
How far can the Kool-Aid train run? It's gonna start hitting WMIT territory, or AAPA, if it hasn't already.
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