Japan in China?

On a roll of historical questions these days;

Is there any possible way that the Japanese could have committed to their war in China without drawing the ire of the USA, British Empire, or indeed, any of the colonial powers? Could they have persisted without seizing resources in Indochina, Indonesia, and Malaya?

Looking for ways for Japan to survive with more territory post-war for sort of a dystopic setting I'm envisioning.
 
On a roll of historical questions these days;

Is there any possible way that the Japanese could have committed to their war in China without drawing the ire of the USA, British Empire, or indeed, any of the colonial powers? Could they have persisted without seizing resources in Indochina, Indonesia, and Malaya?

Looking for ways for Japan to survive with more territory post-war for sort of a dystopic setting I'm envisioning.

Really, your best bet is to stay out of China proper. Stomp hard on the first few assassinations, and you should be able to prevent the Army from getting totally out of control. Japan will still be run by militarists, but not batshit crazy ones.

So. Japan extorts concessions from China (special treatment, treaty ports, that kind of thing), but doesn't actually invade. The US is quite annoyed, but it's a trade war, not a shooting war.

Without the ulcer of the Chinese war, Japan doesn't need as much oil, and can better pay for what it does need.

If they're smart, they build lots and lots of oil tankers, merchant ships and destroyers - and then e.g. sell them to the Brits when war with Germany breaks out, using those ships to buy stockpiles of oil, rubber, tin, etc.

Their primary threat is then likely to be Soviets, so they build real tanks, not tankettes.

If the US is busy in Europe with the alt-WWII starting sometime in 1942, say, and the Brits and French even more busy (the latter occupied), then Japan might just be able to make France 'an offer it can't refuse' for Indochina, and build up their powerbase there. They probably offer to 'provide support troops' to help hold the place, so France can pull them out for use elsewhere. Nominally, of course, the Japanese are supposed to leave after the Allies beat Germany, but possession is 9 points of law, right?

Japan treats their new subject nations (just Indochina, for now) properly (OK, in a horribly condescending, paternalistic manner, we ARE talking pre WWII Japanese here), but make a big show of appointing significant nationalist locals to the running of the place. (Not Ho, he's too dangerous for anyone to try to puppetize him). Basically the Greater East Asia Coprosperity Sphere has an example they can point to, where Japan's building up the locals and putting them in charge. OK, so, they're only 'in charge' up to a point, but if Japan handles the propaganda right, they can support nationalist movements in the rest of South East Asia, particularly the DEI.

When the War ends, and Britain and the Netherlands and France are exhausted, most of SouthEast Asia falls into Japan's hands.

Of course, the new native rulers of these nations quickly discover just how much leeway they have (not much), and they end up subject to Japan more strictly than they had been to the European powers before.
 
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