Images from The Anglo/American-Nazi War

[Tsar Nicholas The Cringe]

Of course, he would go "Shut up and take my money!"

Also Brazil has a huge tradition of comic books, we even consider ourselves the creators of the style. In this scenario instead of having to make a long partnership with Japan, Maurício de Souza (Brazil most known cartoonist) could work with Tezuka here in Brazil

Also this TL leads to more Japanese people in Brazil! This is fanservice! You rock, dude!

Recently, I've taken an interest in Brazilian life, history, and culture and finding a lot I love about Brazil. I, too, lament it is always the superpower of the future, and so I consider making Brazil a cultural superpower and a prosperous nation is a bright spot in this weary world.

 

[ulan56897]

Oppenheimer's ID photo from the Los Alamos Laboratory (1940)

J. Robert Oppenheimer (22 April 1904 – 24 September 1974) was an American theoretical physicist and the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory from 1942 to his death in 1974. During World War II, his leadership of the Manhattan Project would make him known as the "father of the atomic bomb."

Recruited in October 1942 to serve as the director of Site Y, the secret weapons research and development facility at Los Alamos, New Mexico, Oppenheimer led the effort to design and construct the world’s first atomic bombs, culminating in the first nuclear explosion with the Trinity test in early 1945. Throughout his leadership, Oppenheimer maintained the position that despite the possibility of unleashing apocalyptic destruction onto the world and civilisation, nuclear weapons were a necessity to defeating the Nazis and ending World War II early, as well as the hope that it could pre-emptively prevent future conflicts. During its development, he generally forbade the discussion of the politics and moral dilemmas the scientists in the Manhattan Project were facing constantly.

While Oppenheimer refrained from expressing his views and largely left the decisions regarding the use of nuclear weapons to the military and the government, he was supportive of dropping an atomic bomb on Axis targets during the war. The surrender of the Soviet Union in June 1943, the HMS Quail Shoot in September 1945 as well as the ongoing devastation caused by the naval blockade and bombing campaigns on Japan during Operation Downfall would only serve to reinforce his beliefs. In early 1946, Oppenheimer met with President Harry Truman in an attempt to convince the President to drop an atomic bomb on a Japanese target, hoping that its overwhelming destruction could force Japan to capitulate. Truman dismissed his recommendations and even rejected his assumption that nuclear weapons could bring an immediate end to the Reich and the Japanese Empire.

With the end of the Pacific War and throughout the Warm War, Oppenheimer served as an advisor on various panels and committees, becoming an influential figure in nuclear related policies. He would oversee the increase of the Allied stockpile of nuclear weapons and the development of the hydrogen bomb with fellow physicist, Edward Teller. Oppenheimer also began exploring other uses of the atom, though the US government's desire to keep the Bomb a secret from the Nazis, combined with the successful disinformation campaign by the Soviet GRU and NKVD would hinder and delay these efforts until the end of the war.

With the Hot War starting in March 1954, Oppenheimer once again met with the President in an attempt to convince him to use nuclear weapons. While President Joseph Kennedy Jr. resisted the immediate temptation to bombard the Reich with atomic bombs in the aftermath of the St Patrick's Day Raid, he was more receptive to its use compared to his predecessor. As a high ranking advisor of the Scientific Panel within the Interim Committee, Oppenheimer was successful in pushing proposals and recommendations related to nuclear weapons, culminating with Brest, France being the first city targeted by an atomic bomb on 16 December 1958. In the aftermath of the December Massacre Retaliation however, Oppenheimer would suddenly switch his stance on nuclear weapons, disturbed by its horrific effects and the enormous civilian casualties.

After the war, Oppenheimer—suddenly a household name as the "father of the atomic bomb"—became a national spokesman for science, emblematic of a new type of technocratic power, appearing on the covers of Time and Life Magazine in 1963 and 1964 respectively. As director, Oppenheimer would transition Los Alamos to explore not only non-military uses of the atom, but also the peaceful use of nuclear energy and other fields of theoretical physics. Utilising his celebrity status and high ranking influence, Oppenheimer became a vocal proponent for international control of nuclear power and preventing nuclear proliferation, lobbying Congress and speaking at the United Nations to pass legislation. His extensive campaigning would lead to the signing of The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in 1970, whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology and to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

A lifelong chain smoker, Oppenheimer passed way from lung cancer on 24 September 1974 at his Perro Caliente Ranch in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, New Mexico.

 

[Tsar Nicholas The Cringe]

Ibn Danan Synagogue, Fez

The liberation of North Africa by the Allies not only help end decades of colonial rule in this region, but saved hundreds of thousands of Jews from certain death at the hands of Fascist Italian and Vichy French forces.

With roughly 800,000 Jews, North Africa has become one of the meccas (no pun intended) of the Jewish world. Morocco with roughly 500,000 Jews, has the second largest Jewish community in the world, after the US, and the largest in the Muslim world.

Despite being only just over 1 percent of the population, Morocco’s Jews have prospered in many fields, from Business to politics thanks to the government’s battle to educate the population against antisemitic hatred.

Picture of Mohammad V, c. 1944

Amid the tragedy of Germany’s victory in the first phase of WW2, Morocco emerged as a bastion of stability and, eventually prosperity and freedom in the former colonies of North Africa under Mohammad V.

The liberation of North Africa in the 1940s allowed Mohammad to declare Morocco an independent state in 1948 after a transitional period of Allied occupation.

Under the 1949 Constitution, Mohammad created the most open and democratic state in North Africa, even more so than Republican Algeria, establishing religious rights to Jews and Christians and gave himself a ceremonial role.

While praised throughout the world for modernizing Morocco, some controversy has emerged over whether Mohammad instituted these changes of his own free will or whether he was coerced through the gunboat diplomacy (or “gun-to-the-head” diplomacy as the heavy-handed nature of the A4 is often called. His own tolerance of Jews also had many asterisks, since under Vichy rule, Mohammad signed off on antisemitic legislation.

On the other hand, had it not been for Mohammad’s direct and tireless work, Morocco’s transition to a multicultural democracy might’ve been as rough as it was in the rest of North Africa, where tensions between colonists, Jews, and the allied authorities made nation-building harder.

His direct intervention in the 1947 Rabat pogrom, in which the unarmed king put himself directly between a mob and Jewish school, challenged the mob to strike him down, and shame the rioters into going home, nevertheless led him to be celebrated among Morroco’s Jews as “The Next Suleimann.”

When some sought to compare him to Cyrus, a rabbi objected saying “He didn’t get back the Holy Land, but half a loaf is better than none.”

 

[mcginnis2002]

Oliverio Tezuka, 1968.

Among the most prominent of Brazil's Japanese diaspora was Oliverio Tezuka (1928-1989), who changed not only Brazilian culture but animation and comic books worldwide, to the point where he is considered the father of Brazilian Banda [1] and Animado [2]. Born Osamu Tezuka in 1928, Tezuka was interested in drawing and animation from a young age and was obsessed with Disney and East Asian animation [3]. By the dying years of the Empire of Japan, Tezuka had begun working on both early comic books and the practice of medicine. However, both careers were put on hold due to the devastation of his country during WW2. In 1950, with Japan still struggling to recover in the immediate post-war years, Tezuka, like many young Japanese, didn't see a future in his country and moved to Brazil, settling in Curitiba. After working for one year as a nurse, in 1951, Tezuka decided to use his comic skills to found Parana Publishing. While it would gain fame as the comic book and animation studio Novo, Tezuka's first work was publishing educational aids for Japanese children trying to learn Portuguese. [4] But even at the time, Tezuka still experimented with animation.



View attachment 890633

Excerpt from the 1954 film Bem-Vindo, the first Jose Carioca cartoon produced by Oliverio Tezuka.

Among Tezuka's most popular works were films featuring the character Jose Carioca. Created by the Brazilian artist J. Carlos [5], Walt Disney used the character in films produced due to the Good Neighbor Policy. In 1953, the rights to Jose Carioca were purchased from the late Carlos' publishing house by Tezuka's studio, and Bem-Vindo was released on March 12, 1954. While the film is mostly a comedic series of vignettes, it has one notable action scene where Carioca foils the schemes of an evil German agent.

It was released mere days before the St. Patrick's Day raids, a coincidental event that would change the fortunes of Tezuka and Brazilian animation, when he gained one particularly powerful patron.

Getulio Vargas watching a film, 1956.

While the resumption of the Warm War would create horror unimaginable in modern history, it created opportunities beyond measure for Getulio Vargas.

By this time, Vargas had fully thrown his lot in with the Allies and had taken on the image as the champion of liberty in Latin America for both domestic and international support.

His own past Axis ties, combined with his previous inclinations toward xenophobia and authoritarianism, have led liberal and left-leaning Brazilians to denounce him as a glorified opportunist and weathervane who would've established a fascist dictatorship and joined Hitler had it not been for Allied pressure. Brazilian nationalists and modern Brazil historiography celebrate Vargas as the man who turned Brazil into a modern industrial nation and an American power, ending Brazil's domination by a cabal of landowners who had infamously overthrown the Imperial government. For more moderate historians, Vargas's rule was authoritarian. Still, his reforms are said to have helped Brazil's modernization, making Vargas' rule a sort of transitional period between when Brazil's post-monarchical military rule and its modern democratic government that followed Vargas's presidency.

On the eve of the war, Vargas had been preoccupied with his desire to fulfill the decades-long goal of building a new national capital in Brazil's interior and rumors that military officers allied with landowners were plotting to overthrow him. With the Axis openly resuming hostilities with the Allies, Vargas used the planned coup, and his declaration of war against Nazi Germany to finally put Brazil's army under his control, a step toward making the Brazilian army a civilian institution for the first time since the days of the Imperial government and used war industry mobilization to construct Brazilia.

But Vargas gained another interest: animation. Vargas previously had dismissed animation as gutter entertainment. Still, his agents told him about the massive popularity of Bem-Venidos, particularly how audiences cheered over Jose's defeat of the evil German villain. Drawing inspiration from America's Good Neighbor Policy, Vargas understood how media could be powerful to secure his country's prestige and, by extension, prestige. It was also rumored he had a copy of Goebbel's Principles of Propaganda in his desk [6] and studied how the infamous propaganda minister had turned Germany's media into a means of brainwashing the German people to serve the Nazi regime with unflinching loyalty. He summoned Tezuka to his office in May of 1954 and, with his advice, set up Brazil's Ministry of Entertainment. While it eventually became a mere regulatory body used to promote and regulate Brazil's media market, it effectively functioned as Vargas's propaganda office in its first few years.

Vargas made a deal with many of Brazil's top directors, artists, musicians, writers, and media giants to promote Brazilian greatness, and they would receive massive support from his government. Unlike the megalomaniacal Goebbels, who often personally intervened in the production of propaganda films to the detriment of their quality, Vargas gave his subsidized artists far more freedom for artistic expression and even allowed some criticism of Brazilian society (as long as it did not criticize him personally). Tezuka, seeking to expand his media empire, hoped on board, even renaming his studio to Novo after the name Vargas gave his regime to appease his new client.

The use of film and media to promote Brazil, now known as Miranda Diplomacy after the famous Brazilian dancer, primarily targets film, radio, and animation. Awash with new funds, Tezuka was set to make Brazilian animation among the most celebrated in the world.


[1] From the Portuguese word for comic book.

[2] From the Portuguese word for cartoon.

[3] While OTL Tezuka did love Disney, he claimed his more direct inspiration for going into animation was a Chinese cartoon called Princess Iron Fan.

[4] Tezuka's early work was a form of proto-edutainment.

[5] ITTL, I think there might be a historical myth that Disney, not Carlos, created the character.

[6] OTL, Goebbels principles are universal enough, that they are still used by modern-day propagandists.

Hopefully Brazilian animado does not have the same......issues Japanese anime has with underage characters.

 

[Tsar Nicholas The Cringe]

Hopefully Brazilian animado does not have the same......issues Japanese anime has with underage characters.

I don't think animado is going to be quite the same as anime. Remember, "Oliverio" is making family-friendly stuff and propaganda for a xenophobic Brazilian nationalistic strongman. It is in his best interest to be assimilated into Brazilian society as soon as possible.

But what is Brazilian society's attitude toward the content of its TV? Does Brazil, like America, have a Ratings Board that is somehow more mysterious and unaccountable than the CIA? Will a Brazilian animation studio cater to American TV censors and send the evildoers to the "Shadow Realm?"

Brazil, like all societies, seems very contradictory, with festive parties and legal sexwork but also a reactionary with strong Catholic and Protestant organizations and agribusinesses that lobby for the right to destroy rain forests.

I don't know, since I just don't know enough about Brazilian society to say for sure.

 

[Gukpard]

I don't think animado is going to be quite the same as anime. Remember, "Oliverio" is making family-friendly stuff and propaganda for a xenophobic Brazilian nationalistic strongman. It is in his best interest to be assimilated into Brazilian society as soon as possible.

But what is Brazilian society's attitude toward the content of its TV? Does Brazil, like America, have a Ratings Board that is somehow more mysterious and unaccountable than the CIA? Will a Brazilian animation studio cater to American TV censors and send the evildoers to the "Shadow Realm?"

Brazil, like all societies, seems very contradictory, with festive parties and legal sexwork but also a reactionary with strong Catholic and Protestant organizations and agribusinesses that lobby for the right to destroy rain forests.

I don't know, since I just don't know enough about Brazilian society to say for sure.

Long history short, due purges done by the Portuguese colonial administration against the Catholic church, the ambivalence towards the church of the empire, the hostility of it by the old republic and Vargas indifference, Christian values never did get their hold in Brazil.

The reason why people are so afraid right now is that we are having our first Christian awakening right now. The Brazilian culture was always very lax and "live and let live".

 

[Gukpard]

Hopefully Brazilian animado does not have the same......issues Japanese anime has with underage characters.

It is going to be way worse on adult content due the comment I made above, but nothing with people younger than our legal age 16 until the 90s. 90s Brazil was the peak of degeneracy and some forms of pedophilia were shown on daily TV without censorship.

 

[Tsar Nicholas The Cringe]

Long history short, due purges done by the Portuguese colonial administration against the Catholic church, the ambivalence towards the church of the empire, the hostility of it by the old republic and Vargas indifference, Christian values never did get their hold in Brazil.

The reason why people are so afraid right now is that we are having our first Christian awakening right now. The Brazilian culture was always very lax and "live and let live".

In other words, even the OTL military juntas aren't really going to care about the content of a kids cartoon? Would "animado" eventually be violent and explicit as OTL anime, at least compared to American animation?

Is the growth of Protestantism creating in Brazil the kind of culture warriors you find in the US?

 

[Gukpard]

In other words, even the OTL military juntas aren't really going to care about the content of a kids cartoon? Would "animado" eventually be violent and explicit as OTL anime, at least compared to American animation?

Is the growth of Protestantism creating in Brazil the kind of culture warriors you find in the US?

Yes, let me explain.

As you can see, Christianity weaker hold in the Americas was Brazil. You had attempts from the 30s onward to make it more relevant. By the time of the dictatorship the clergy turned on it, so the right wing needed to find something that would give support for them in the aftermath of democratisation, and that something were corrupt neo charismatic churches from the US south. It worked.

 

[Tsar Nicholas The Cringe]

Yes, let me explain.

As you can see, Christianity weaker hold in the Americas was Brazil. You had attempts from the 30s onward to make it more relevant. By the time of the dictatorship the clergy turned on it, so the right wing needed to find something that would give support for them in the aftermath of democratisation, and that something were corrupt neo charismatic churches from the US south. It worked.

I remember reading that while Dom Pedro II and Isabel were staunch Catholics, they had a weird religious dispute in the 1870s that I don’t understand.


So is Brazil becoming more conservatively religious very recently because of the recent surge in Protestantism?

 

[Gukpard]

I remember reading that while Dom Pedro II and Isabel were staunch Catholics, they had a weird religious dispute in the 1870s that I don’t understand.


So is Brazil becoming more conservatively religious very recently because of the recent surge in Protestantism?

As private people, yes, but the empire had the "questão da igreja" since the church was at war with freemasonry and Pedro II sided against the church. This led a Catholic narrative by some think tanks like Dom Bosco that "the empire of Brazil, like the Soviet union, nazi Germany and Rome, tried to bury the catholic church but it was buried by it".

Not only corrupt protestantes, in the 80s a catholic movement called "renovação carismática" arose to make people really follow the faith. What we are seeing now are the first effects of a society who is meeting Christianity for real.

The sad thing is that between all branches, the one that got the bigger piece of the cake are the most corrupt neo charismatic ones...

 

[Tsar Nicholas The Cringe]

Indians celebrating the construction of the 1 millionth Tata Neero, Gujarat, 1974.

One of the best symbols of the "Miracle on the Ganges", India's massive postwar economic miracle, was the 1971 Tata Meera, Tata Motors first ever consumer vehicle [1]. Designed as a car for the common Indian, its incredibly low price and simple repair made it a status symbol for India's growing middle class. By the time its first model ended production in 1988, it had sold 25 million models, making it one of the best-selling cars in history. [2] Gujurat, being home to the main Tata factory, would be labeled "The Detroit of Asia."

Car assembly is at Tata's main North American plant, Lexington, Kentucky.

In 1978, Tata made history by being the first Asian corporation to build a factory in the US. Kentucky, because of its relative proximity to several US markets, low taxes, and relative lack of powerful labor unions, became the prime choice. The trend of Indian investment the US and increasing interest in Indian culture by young Americans led to the quip of "The Indian Takeover."

[1] OTL Tata entered the consumer vehicle market in the early 1990s.

[2] OTL, the Volkswagon Beetle, sold 21 million cars.

 

[mcginnis2002]

Indians celebrating the construction of the 1 millionth Tata Neero, Gujarat, 1974.

One of the best symbols of the "Miracle on the Ganges", India's massive postwar economic miracle, was the 1971 Tata Meera, Tata Motors first ever consumer vehicle [1]. Designed as a car for the common Indian, its incredibly low price and simple repair made it a status symbol for India's growing middle class. By the time its first model ended production in 1988, it had sold 25 million models, making it one of the best-selling cars in history. [2] Gujurat, being home to the main Tata factory, would be labeled "The Detroit of Asia."

Car assembly is at Tata's main North American plant, Lexington, Kentucky.

In 1978, Tata made history by being the first Asian corporation to build a factory in the US. Kentucky, because of its relative proximity to several US markets, low taxes, and relative lack of powerful labor unions, became the prime choice. The trend of Indian investment the US and increasing interest in Indian culture by young Americans led to the quip of "The Indian Takeover."

[1] OTL Tata entered the consumer vehicle market in the early 1990s.

[2] OTL, the Volkswagon Beetle, sold 21 million cars.

How developed does India look like by 2023? Is it as developed as Scandinavia OTL?

 

[Gillan1220]

Memorial lights for the 70th Anniversary of the St. Patrick's Day raids in New York City, March 17, 2024.

 

[Gillan1220]

Military personnel salute the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington, Virginia, as part of the Wreath Laying Ceremony during the 70th anniversary of the St. Patrick's Day raids, March 17, 2024.

 

[Gillan1220]

One of the iconic photos of the St. Patrick's Day raids showing New Yorkers fleeing from collapsing buildings as a result of the Luftwaffe intercontinental bombings on March 17, 1954.

 

[Tsar Nicholas The Cringe]

How developed does India look like by 2023? Is it as developed as Scandinavia OTL?

Not exactly. I think it would be in the 800s on the HDI TTL.

 

[CrashBandicam]

Given that Osamu Tezuka has moved to Brazil ITTL and largely invented "animada" instead of "anime" unlike OTL, I wonder what the state of Japanese animation is going to be like ITTL? Presumably more Western and generic, depending on if the so-called culture of "kawaisa" still invades Japan in the 1970s?

 

[Tsar Nicholas The Cringe]

Given that Osamu Tezuka has moved to Brazil ITTL and largely invented "animada" instead of "anime" unlike OTL, I wonder what the state of Japanese animation is going to be like ITTL? Presumably more Western and generic, depending on if the so-called culture of "kawaisa" still invades Japan in the 1970s?

ITTL Japan is a relatively poor country well into the 21st century. Considering how long and excruciating animation is as an art form, in which you need tons of people working long hours with tons of capital from business executives, animation wouldn't exactly be a priority among the Japanese.

I am surprised OTL Brazil doesn't have a more significant animation industry because of its unique culture, but OTL Brazil's oligarchic economic system, corruption, and cronyism work culture make such ventures incredibly risky.

ITTL, I imagine that Getulio Vargas has managed to solve these structural issues while deciding to spend money on animation to improve his cult of personality.

 

[CalBear]

Not exactly. I think it would be in the 800s on the HDI TTL.

India?

India is a Top Five, arguably Top 3 because of the way the AR economies tend to intertwine, economy