Hey everyone!
Every once in a while I realize that I carry with me a lot of assumptions about history. One of these assumptions is that Japan was screwed over by the Tokugawa shogunate, and that if only Oda Nobunaga had been able to unite and rule Japan, the country would have remained more open to Western influences and technology, and that this would mean a geopolitically stronger Japan. So whenever I play around with the 16th century and want Japanese colonization of New Zealand or something like that, I just have Oda Nobunaga live longer.
Is this a dumb assumption on my part? Would a Japan united and ruled by Oda Nobunaga really become a Westernized great power earlier than in OTL? Or is it just a flawed way for me to justify my Weeaboo fantasies?