Japan with allies

Hitler made his mind on partitioning Poland with Stalin earlier, so no German recognition of Manchukuo, Germany got more cordial with USSR and China, while antagonizing Japan.

Winter War happened before invasion of Poland, and Finland did worse than historically, so Stalin was viewed as an aggressor earlier.

Nanjing was evacuated during the battle of Shanghai, and when IJA entered the city it's largely empty, with a considerable portion of Japanese sympathizers and boot lickers among those who remain. Perhaps the Japanese soldiers took the piss out of the government buildings Cockburn-style instead.

Either Fall Weiß happened earlier or delay the escalation of Khalkhin Gol in order to have the USSR battling Japan as the Red Army was rolling into Poland. This way the Allies and Japan became friends of circumstances. Perhaps the Allies could agree to turn a blind eye on Japanese invasion of China as long as Japan open a second front against the Communazis and respect foreign interests in China.

Political system side, I hate to say this but Japan appears to have been less repressive than China. Political violence in China was pretty similar to Germany and USSR where the state hunted down oppositions, but in Japan it's more like oppositions killing government officials whose policy they didn't like. Democracy wise, Japan was leagues ahead. While an MP could be removed due to his speech, Saitô Takao made an epic comeback in 1942(!) after being kicked out of the Diet in 1940 even as his dogpilers became the IRAA, and there was a constituency where a defeated opposition filed a lawsuit regarding the legality of the election as he was harassed by soldiers during his campaign. The supreme court actually launched an lengthy investigation and finally declared the results invalid in early 1945(!) and held an reelection which sadly didn't fully close the gap. So it's not really as morally intolerable as many would make it sounds like.
 

CalBear

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Hitler made his mind on partitioning Poland with Stalin earlier, so no German recognition of Manchukuo, Germany got more cordial with USSR and China, while antagonizing Japan.

Winter War happened before invasion of Poland, and Finland did worse than historically, so Stalin was viewed as an aggressor earlier.

Nanjing was evacuated during the battle of Shanghai, and when IJA entered the city it's largely empty, with a considerable portion of Japanese sympathizers and boot lickers among those who remain. Perhaps the Japanese soldiers took the piss out of the government buildings Cockburn-style instead.

Either Fall Weiß happened earlier or delay the escalation of Khalkhin Gol in order to have the USSR battling Japan as the Red Army was rolling into Poland. This way the Allies and Japan became friends of circumstances. Perhaps the Allies could agree to turn a blind eye on Japanese invasion of China as long as Japan open a second front against the Communazis and respect foreign interests in China.

Political system side, I hate to say this but Japan appears to have been less repressive than China. Political violence in China was pretty similar to Germany and USSR where the state hunted down oppositions, but in Japan it's more like oppositions killing government officials whose policy they didn't like. Democracy wise, Japan was leagues ahead. While an MP could be removed due to his speech, Saitô Takao made an epic comeback in 1942(!) after being kicked out of the Diet in 1940 even as his dogpilers became the IRAA, and there was a constituency where a defeated opposition filed a lawsuit regarding the legality of the election as he was harassed by soldiers during his campaign. The supreme court actually launched an lengthy investigation and finally declared the results invalid in early 1945(!) and held an reelection which sadly didn't fully close the gap. So it's not really as morally intolerable as many would make it sounds like.
You have GOT to be joking. Imperial Japan 1938-1945 was as brutal as any country in modern history that didn't march under the Swastika. It conducted biological warfare experiments on Chinese civilians, caused the deaths, on average, of 100,000 CIVILIANS in territories it had already occupied EVERY MONTH from 1942 onward, conducted a well organized, officially sanctioned and funded mass rape program (i.e. Comfort women) across occupied Asia, and trampled the Geneva and Hague conventions so often the ink wore off.

Apologist defense of Imperial Japan is a major violation. You get ONE strike. This is it.

Kicked for a week.
 
China would have to (a) be stable, and (b) remain pro-Axis. German-Chinese relations were fairly good IOTL, but Berlin just preferred Tokyo to Nanking in the end.

A (more) democratic Japan (or at least not as expansionist), coupled with a stable, nationalist (probably outright fascist) China, that has a hankering for a sphere of influence in the Far East could swing it. Korea would probably have to be independent or at least have a great deal of autonomy, depending on the actual POD.
 
I think the OP needs to offer more of a POD and background.
My suggestion....

Japan gets smoked in the war with Russia, likely overland, combined with greater success via a surviving Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov.

Japan thus loses its victory disease and disdain for the west as weaklings without stomach.
 
My suggestion....

Japan gets smoked in the war with Russia, likely overland, combined with greater success via a surviving Vice Admiral Stepan Makarov.

Japan thus loses its victory disease and disdain for the west as weaklings without stomach.
Problem with that is that a PoD that early probably prevents our WWII from happening. If the Russo-Japanese war is a clear victory for Russia, the Tsar won't be in such trouble, which probably means no Russian Revolution during WWI. Which then means that any German demagogue can't use 'Bolshevism' as a threat, which probably means no Hitler.
 
You might be able to get Japan, if not allied, then at least friendly with the UK if Japan offers to build merchantmen in exchange for deliveries of Dutch oil. The only really feasible time for this is summer 1940 though: before this, France is still standing and the Wallies don't need to jump into bed with a state like Japan; afterwards, British strategy to draw the US in is working and they'll always choose the US over Japan. Even then, US aid might come with a condition to cut off supplies to Japan.
 
I think maybe if Germany were to keep relations with China instead of Japan and maybe if Japan was more focusing on the Soviets than the West (perhaps with a worse performance at the border clashes in Manchuria), then these two factors should make Japan lean toward the Allies (albeit reluctantly).
 

Mrstrategy

Banned
Write about about a german and china agreement that gets the Japanese to go pro allies maybe german government ships plans and weapons and more training in a large number and the Chinese agree to attack soviets put Chinese troops with german officers
 
Write about about a german and china agreement that gets the Japanese to go pro allies maybe german government ships plans and weapons and more training in a large number and the Chinese agree to attack soviets put Chinese troops with german officers
A good POD here would be significant early success of German-assisted and equipped Chinese troops against the Japanese in the early 1930s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-...til_1941#Sino-German_cooperation_in_the_1930s
 
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