Japan in the Protect and Survive -verse

I know there has occasionally been talk about Japan, but there's never been a thread about it, so I thought I might start one here. How badly hit would Japan have been in the war?

Myself, I think that Japan would get plastered for a variety of reasons:

1) Presence of US forces. US bases would be automatically targeted.

2) Political, economic and military reasons. Japan, a US ally, is the 2nd largest economy in the world and a nation of 120 million in 1984. That's too big for comfort for whatever would remain of the USSR after a nuclear war. Also, though the JSDF is limited by the Japanese constitution, it is a formidable body, particularly the Maritime Self-Defense Force. I could see JMSDF bases being particularly targeted. Also, Japan would be able to construct its own nuclear weapon relatively quickly, and the Soviets would want to prevent that.

3) Historical reasons. The Russo-Japanese War, the Soviet-Japanese War of 1945 and the occupation of the Kuriles. The Soviets would see Japan as a historical foe and a potential danger.

So all of this would lead the Soviets to allocate a sufficient amount of nukes against the Japanese, I think. China would have similar issues as well, and I'm sure they'd lob a few as well, but since their nuclear arsenal is much smaller the Soviets would do most of the nuking. As it is, the majority of Japan's population is packed into a relatively small area, making the targeting that much easier for the Soviets.
 

Sumeragi

Banned
Here are the basic military targets:


USFJ Locations
- Yokohama
- Yokosuka
- Yokota
- Atugi
- Iwakuni
- Sasebo
- Misawa
- Okinawa

JSDF Location (Without USFJ)
- Sapporo
- Asahikawa
- Chitose
- Obihiro
- Sendai
- Higashine
- Aomori
- Shinto (Gunma)
- Itami
- Gotenba
- Nagoya
- Kaita
- Zentsuji
- Kumamoto
- Kasuga
- Maizuru
- Kure
- Ominato
- Iruma
- Shizuoka
 
Japan would get hit pretty hard. I'd say at least 100 warheads for the military targets alone, then another twenty or so to take out major industrial complexes. The population density of Japan is very high, so even barring explicit targeting of population centers the immediate death toll would probably be around 40 million at least. Another 30 million would probably die of disease, injury, and then starvation, leaving 40-50 million alive. My guess is that owing to Japan's close proximity to the USSR, most of the weapons would be tactical and pack a little less punch than strategic devices. Japan also has a lot of mountains and with the proper warning, many people could have gotten to somewhat safer places.
 
We can assume all the main US bases where hit and maybe half of japanese ones although on Hokkaido the island closest to the USSR they probably hit anything vaguely military and main administrative centers meaning Sapporo was wiped out.To this we must add Tokyo itself with main airports like Haneda the port of Tokyo and Yokohama.Other targets would have been Osaka,Kobe, Nagoya with their airports and seaports.Last several nuclear power plants would probably receive hits Fukushima,Genkai,Hamaoka.We should remember that once hostilities started in Europe almost certainly soviet and japanese forces clashed at the maritime borber between Hokkaido and the Kuril Islands also air strikes on targets in Japan where probably conducted by soviet air forces in the Far East.Overall at least 80 nukes probably hit targets in Japan with Tokyo taking somewhere between 7-12.
 
I wonder if Muroran would be targeted? It's pretty small but has shipyards and industry.
I'm interested since my mother happened to be living here in 1984.
 

Sumeragi

Banned
I wonder if Muroran would be targeted? It's pretty small but has shipyards and industry.
I'm interested since my mother happened to be living here in 1984.

Most likely not, since there are juicer targets. However, I'm thinking the massive overkill on regular targets would make Muroran some radioactive playground.
 
Top