Japanese Soldiers on the Western Front in 1914.

I'm thinking any Japanese Army forces don't leave for Europe or the Middle East until Japan is finished with the German colonies in Asia and the Pacific. Mesopotamia seems like a good place to start with, being a good deal closer to Japan than France. Gallipoli might see older Japanese warships along the French and British. If the Japanese army also goes to Gallipoli.

The Japanese didn't declare war until 23rd of August for starters and wouldn't be conducting a mobilisation-deployment like the British which will slow any thoughts of participation in Europe. Tsingtao didn't fall until November , which will also drive the decision to go to Europe, or elsewhere.
 

Kaze

Banned
And inflict more casualties. I agree that Japan would still lose, but one that knew when to withdraw and when to fight and not to waste lives needlessly would make the Second World War a much more bloody affair.

As to the op, what about sending the to the Eastern Front to help Russia? Is that a possibility?

The Japanese did send troops (token force) to fight for the Whites during the Russian Revolution - they did not do so well, their war aims failed (they wanted the Russian portion of Manchuria at the same time as wanting to establish the Whites against the Reds). As for a war against the Germans on the Western front - look to the Americans, they sent troops a long way, the Japanese could do the same. I would actually send them to theater against the Ottomans - it is closer to Japan, they could land at Suez, and after the war ends they could take some oil home.
 
The Japanese did send troops (token force) to fight for the Whites during the Russian Revolution - they did not do so well, their war aims failed (they wanted the Russian portion of Manchuria at the same time as wanting to establish the Whites against the Reds). As for a war against the Germans on the Western front - look to the Americans, they sent troops a long way, the Japanese could do the same. I would actually send them to theater against the Ottomans - it is closer to Japan, they could land at Suez, and after the war ends they could take some oil home.
Maybe a Japanese colony in Arabia?
 
Did these soldiers have to be on the Western Front? German had a few colonies in Southeast Asia; the Japanese troops could have invaded them. After the ww1 victory which would still be likely given this Japanese involvement, a Japanese colony in northeast New Guinea may help give some petroleum for its use. In this ATL, maybe Japanese during ww2 would have less intensive to go south for oil because they already would already have from New Guinea plus the USA. Would that be enough oil, raw material and scrap steel, scrap iron and metals for Japanese use during ww2 in this ATL?
 
Did these soldiers have to be on the Western Front? German had a few colonies in Southeast Asia; the Japanese troops could have invaded them. After the ww1 victory which would still be likely given this Japanese involvement, a Japanese colony in northeast New Guinea may help give some petroleum for its use. In this ATL, maybe Japanese during ww2 would have less intensive to go south for oil because they already would already have from New Guinea plus the USA. Would that be enough oil, raw material and scrap steel, scrap iron and metals for Japanese use during ww2 in this ATL?
They had already drawn the line in Asia and the Pacific with a Japan getting the poessessoins to the north of the equator, the British and dominions getting them to the south. The Japanese might have logistics issues getting their ships over to New Guinea given the distance they would be going through formerly German islands, and it would just annoy the Australians if thy had to give up lsnd to the north of the territory of one of that dominions' provinces. It was like three layers of colony there.
 

Driftless

Donor
I'm thinking any Japanese Army forces don't leave for Europe or the Middle East until Japan is finished with the German colonies in Asia and the Pacific. Mesopotamia seems like a good place to start with, being a good deal closer to Japan than France. Gallipoli might see older Japanese warships along the French and British. If the Japanese army also goes to Gallipoli.

I may have been here too long. This idea has me imagining the Japanese getting a piece of the Middle East as part of the post-war carving up of the region.

Some oil producing area?
 
Did these soldiers have to be on the Western Front? German had a few colonies in Southeast Asia; the Japanese troops could have invaded them. After the ww1 victory which would still be likely given this Japanese involvement, a Japanese colony in northeast New Guinea may help give some petroleum for its use. In this ATL, maybe Japanese during ww2 would have less intensive to go south for oil because they already would already have from New Guinea plus the USA. Would that be enough oil, raw material and scrap steel, scrap iron and metals for Japanese use during ww2 in this ATL?

As Clandango stated above, anything else in Asia is not possible. The Dominions were uneasy about another power entering areas adjacent to them, and didn't fully trust the Japanese. Two immediate possibilities are East Africa and the Near East. However for maximum effect Japan would want its troops, at least a contingent of some size, to serve in some main theater of the war, France being the most visible. They could, in time, be equipped with British weapons to ease logistics. The distance involved isn't so great as to preclude their involvement either, after all the French used labor units from French Indo China and the British and French used large numbers of contract Chinese as labor, to the tune of about 140,000 men in the British "Chinese Labor Corp's" and the French hired men.
 
Japan did send some naval forces to assist the RN, I believe they were destroyers used in the Med which allowed the RN to move some of their forces to convoy work. The IJA, as I understand it, was light on artillery, especially heavy stuff. This would be an issue on the Western Front, and in 1914 their industrial infrastructure was going to have a hard time cranking out a lot of artillery and the shells to fire them on the scale the Western Front demanded. By 1917 the US industrial effort had accelerated, and even though they had shortages their ability to ramp up production was way more than that of Japan.

Even if Japan sends ground troops to the Western Front, or even against the Ottomans in Iraq, I very much doubt that the rather nasty racism baked in to Versailles would change in any practical way. having shed more blood and treasure in the war compared with OTL, I expect the Japanese resentment over their treatment would be even more than OTL. The feeling of being dumped on and not properly recognized would rankle the Japanese more than OTL, which was one push that led them on their quest for a bigger empire and the slogan "Asia for the Asiatics."
 
Japan did send some naval forces to assist the RN, I believe they were destroyers used in the Med which allowed the RN to move some of their forces to convoy work. The IJA, as I understand it, was light on artillery, especially heavy stuff. This would be an issue on the Western Front, and in 1914 their industrial infrastructure was going to have a hard time cranking out a lot of artillery and the shells to fire them on the scale the Western Front demanded. By 1917 the US industrial effort had accelerated, and even though they had shortages their ability to ramp up production was way more than that of Japan.

Even if Japan sends ground troops to the Western Front, or even against the Ottomans in Iraq, I very much doubt that the rather nasty racism baked in to Versailles would change in any practical way. having shed more blood and treasure in the war compared with OTL, I expect the Japanese resentment over their treatment would be even more than OTL. The feeling of being dumped on and not properly recognized would rankle the Japanese more than OTL, which was one push that led them on their quest for a bigger empire and the slogan "Asia for the Asiatics."


Which is why the British would ultimately have to equip them. While shipping men over vast distances was within Empire and Japanese means, shipping non standard ammunition would have made no sense, either for artillery or for small arms.
Regarding the racism, another factor is that if the Japanese are accepted as equals, and treated accordingly, then other nations/races would wonder why not them? The "Camels Nose" type of thing. Such an attitude could lead to serious unrest elsewhere in the Empire. The great irony of it all, is that having recruited soldiers in their tens of thousands to fight against other Europeans, and having done so successfully, was as much if an eye opening experience for subject nations as acceptance of the Japanese as equals would have been.
 
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