Photos from The Man in the High Castle

[DrDerp]

Holy shit, I had no idea this thread existed! Time to breath some life into this baby!

Two officers of the Indian National Army in Mumbai, 1951. Although many of the INA's first recruits joined out of anti-British sentiment, they soon began to have doubts about their Japanese 'liberators' after seeing how many of their people were being forced to work on tea plantations in areas like Bengal. Some of them even joined the burgeoning Indian resistance movement. In time, many Indians began to see the INA as merely being the puppet army of a colonial power even worse than the British.

A resistance fighter in Flagstaff shooting at IJA personnel in a communications outpost, 1962. During the course of the Japanese withdrawal from the Pacific States, many resistance bands did not seek to simply seize territory from the IJA but to kill as many personnel as conceivably possible in order to make sure that evacuating units would already be softened up by the time they were deployed elsewhere in the empire.

William Joyce, the 'British Goebbels' during a conference in Blackpool. Joyce was the voice of the British Union of Facists for years and encouraged members of the nation's gentry to support the party once it took power.

 

[DrDerp]

These pictures are from a MITHC head canon I'm doing.

An SS officer in Madison, Wisconsin, 1948. The heavy German influence in the Midwest was something the Reich was keen on using to its fullest potential. Numerous cultural events celebrating German heritage (or at least the Nazi approved version) were organized by the government of the American Reich. Those who already knew German before the Axis victory found themselves holding high positions in the new order. Beer brewed in Wisconsin became a highly sought after item and Midwestern cuisine was looked at favorably by Germany's most renowned food critics.

Takasago Volunteers near Honolulu, 1944. These soldiers, recruited from Taiwanese aborigines, were instrumental in quelling resistance groups in the Hawaiian mountains. They often struck at night, first killing sentries with knives and garrotes before finishing off the rest with gunfire. Soldiers from Taiwan bolstered Japanese manpower during the invasion of the United States.

A young confederate woman observing what she believes to be escapees from a prison camp, Texas, 1955. During the lifetime of the puppet Confederacy (1947-1964), Texas's proximity to the Neutral Zone and Mexico encouraged numerous escape attempts by dissidents as well as enslaved blacks. Rural Texas had a large presence of Confederate security forces in order to stem the tide as best as possible. However, the Second Underground Railroad still found ways to bypass the massive border fortifications which ironically only served to hasten the Confederacy's demise instead of lengthen its lifespan due to the economic drain the caused.

 

[Gillan1220]

An African rebel with a Russian automatic assault rifle with grenade launcher, 1960s.

 

[DrDerp]

Some more stuff from my head canon.

Matt Smith in his 2018 performance as resistance leader Charles Manson in the film "Charlie Says". Charles Manson was a controversial figure among the American Resistance. Losing his mother to the Japanese invasion of the West Coast and having to fend for himself had somewhat unhinged Charles, who made a 'family' of resistance fighters in the early 1950s. His band grew to include over a thousand members who engaged in activities from the bombing of checkpoints to assassination. On occasion, he would give mind altering substances to captured IJA soldiers and colonists, explaining this as a means of helping them expand their perceptions beyond the strict social hierarchy that ruled their lives. Despite his desire to see the Japanese driven from the Pacific States, Charlie still adhered to some elements of eastern philosophy and was known to frequently sleep with the women under his command. His concept of 'Helter Skelter' proclaimed not only the need for the expulsion of fascist influence from the former United States but the rejection of the social norms that fascist rule demanded.

During the Japanese withdrawal from the Pacific States, Charlie would take to the airwaves at a radio station in Salt Lake City. During his broadcasts, he would encourage young people in the American Reich and Confederate States to break free from the expectations placed upon them. Fellow resistance leader Thomas Smith would later say in an interview with a Canadian reporter "the guy had ideas, sure, but when I talked with him I'd sometimes ask myself if his brain was two planets away from the rest of him."

Resistance leader Thomas Smith during his time in the Hitler Youth, 1960. Thomas was a firm believer in the Reich's principles until the rape of his sister Jennifer by Sean Monkford, a young rising star in the British Union of Fascists who was visiting New York at the time. His sister's trauma and the manner in which her assault was brushed under the rug caused Thomas to rapidly turn against the American Reich. He aided resistance fighters in a number of operations, from the assassination of Monkford to the bombing of the New York Metropolitan Opera House where Helmut Goebbels was attending a performance. He left the American Reich after two years of these activities and was in the Pacific States when the Japanese were forced to effect a hasty withdrawal.

Wreckage from the 1963 Nagoya earthquake and tsunami. While the immediate effects of the disaster devastated the city, what happened soon later set into motion the chain reaction that led to the fall of not just the Japanese Empire but the Fascist bloc as well. A laboratory belonging to Unit 731 where a waterborne pathogen was being developed for possible use in China was breached and the pathogen entered the floodwaters that moved further inland, contaminating the water table of towns close to Tokyo and infected the residents.

The Japanese government was caught off guard by the sudden pandemic and despite the efforts to keep the news under wraps, reports reached Japan's client states which prompted a massive increase of insurgent activity. Slave workers in China allied themselves with sympathetic soldiers of the puppet army and engaged in a revolution. The administration in Indonesia collapse and cut off Japan's oil supply in the South Pacific with the support of Australia and New Zealand. These upheavals encouraged resistance fighters in the Pacific States to cut off Japanese access to Alaskan oil while attacking every target of opportunity. These upheavals led to Japan's empire falling piece by piece.

 

[DrDerp]

New recruits to the INA training in Hyderabad, 1948. Like the collaborator militaries in the rest of Japan's client states, its recruits had a wide array of motives for joining up. Many were the sons of farmers or shopkeepers hoping to earn extra money but a significant number of them were prison inmates hoping to reduce their sentences. It did not take long for Indians of all religious and ethnic groups to see them as nothing more than a billy club for the Japanese to use against those who sought true independence for India. Its officers were known for being heavily involved in corruption and frequently extorted the locals in the areas where they were stationed.

The welcome sign to Camp Crystal Lake, a summer camp in New Jersey that catered to members of the Hitler Youth during the period of Nazi rule in the former US. It became the sight of an intense Sipo investigation in 1957 when a pair of counselors at the camp were found murdered in a cabin. It continued to function following the collapse of the American Reich and is still open to this day.

A resistance member near the Confederate-Neutral Zone border, 1963. The collapse of the Pacific States and subsequent annexation of the Neutral Zone by the reborn United States was soon followed by resistance members in the CSA detonating explosives in multiple areas to damage or outright collapse Confederate border defenses. The operation's success was announced with the now historic code phrase 'fallen has Jericho'.

 

[Gillan1220]

U.S. landing craft mechanized carries troops of Company I, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division up the Mindanao river for the assault on Fort Pikit, April 30, 1945. Alternate John Smith fought in the Battle of Mindanao and was said to have taken part in the liberation of Davao City.

 

[DrDerp]

More stuff from my head canon.

A Heer general during the German landings in Maryland, 1945. The American Resistance inflicted heavy losses on German forces on the East Coast, causing many German commanders to face enormous amounts of stress before their final victory in 1947. Fifteen generals were killed in bombings across the region, with the Germans responding with large reprisals against civilians. Firing squads executed hostages taken for just such an occasion and whole towns were razed.

Members of the BDM in Berlin greeting Japanese Prince Masahito at the Volkshalle, 1956. Prince Masahito, despite the tensions between Tokyo and Berlin, was given a warm welcome during his visit to the Reich where he was shown advancements in chemical research by German scientists. He was somewhat flustered to find that even with the Reich's strict standards, many young women found him attractive and there were a fair number of love letters in his morning mail while in Berlin. The woman at the center of the photo, Sina Eisen, came the closest to actually sleeping with him when she acted as a representative of Berlin's BDM cells. He was able to dissuade her by explaining the scandal that might erupt should she become pregnant. "I told her, as best I could, that I was already to be married. I could not be found to have been so indiscreet and that the effects on her own life would be drastic as well. I was flattered that she thought of me the way she did but we could do no such thing."

King Mahendra and Queen Ratna of Nepal during their visit to Tokyo, 1957. Mahendra was much more of a hardliner than his father and had a dim view of political parties in Nepal. His suspension of the legislature in favor of more direct rule by the monarchy did much to help his image with Japanese leaders, many of whom supported Nepal's addition to the Greater East Asia Co Prosperity Sphere.

 

[Gillan1220]

An alternate world photograph taken by a German spy (in American uniform) showing a new Japanese tank called a Type 61 in service in 1962. To the spy's surprise, Japan of this alternate world became an ally of the United States following Axis defeat in 1945. The spy noted that Japan had a post-war constitution that forbade war, abolished the imperial military, and reduced the emperor to a symbolic figurehead. He also noted that the imperial military was reformed into the "Japan Self Defense Forces" in 1954.

 

[DrDerp]

More stuff from my head canon.

A colonist woman in Portland, Japanese Pacific Sates, 1959. Although Japanese colonists made up the upper crust of society in the Pacific States, they found themselves 'frozen out' of social interactions with native born inhabitants of the JPS. Settlers who went into restaurants visited by locals were treated with thinly veiled disgust by patrons and staff, with the guests sometimes even leaving whenever colonists came inside. The children of Japanese settlers who attempted to socialize with local kids of various ethnicities received only silence in response or were even driven off by force.

 

[DrDerp]

More head canon stuff.

Fulgencio Batista speaking with Confederate and Heer generals about Cuban insurgents, 1957. Although Cuba became the playground of North American and European fascists, Batista's abusive rule caused him to be hated by the vast majority of Cubans. Large sugar plantations were run by slave labor and much of Havana was nothing more than a giant slum where hotel workers were made to live. His secret police were known to suddenly defend on a town or village and start executing people at random. These activities only bolstered the resolve of those who wished to see him removed from power. The guerrilla leader Fidel Castro grew to be such a menace that Confederate soldiers were sent to Cuba in order to aid in counter-insurgency operations when Batista's own forces were found to be insufficient. Batista himself only narrowly escaped death when a resistance fighter in Havana detonated an IED in a casino catering to high ranking fascists. He was caught trying to flee to Spain in 1964 and killed after a drumhead trial.

Young women from Calcutta at a recruiting station for the newly expanded Rani of Jhansi division, 1945. In the early year of the Azad Hind period, Subhas Chandra Bose had some deal of legitimate popularity among the Indian people given as to how he was able to put an end to the sectarian violence plaguing the country ever since the Raj fell. Minister of Women's Affairs Dr. Lakshmi Sahgal worked closely with the Azad Hind's own press experts as well as Japanese advisors to create a massive media campaign targeting Indian women of many religious groups. This got many to take part in organizations which provided job training as well as support for pregnant woman and child care. The successes caused the regime to have a great amount of support from women during its early years and making them receptive to its propaganda at least for a little while.

 

[Gillan1220]

A prototype interceptor fighter jet of the Luftwaffe. No designation has been given to this interceptor as of the moment.

 

[Gillan1220]

Heer soldiers unwinding in a beer hall in Bavaria.

 

[Gillan1220]

A typical cafe scene in Paris, Vichy France. German and Vichy French military officers are seen relaxing in the cafe next to ordinary French people.

 

[DrDerp]

Something from my head canon.

Part of the Hall of Remembrance at the New York City Holocaust Museum. Constructed on the twentieth anniversary of the fall of Nazi rule in North America (1984), it serves to memorialize those American jews killed over the course of twenty years at the hands of the Reich and its collaborator regime. President Paul Ryan spoke the following words at its thirtieth anniversary.

" We will not be able to move on by simply writing off what was done as an unfortunate tragedy, shrugging and saying we've put it behind us. We fell prey to the siren song of an ideology that allowed us to abdicate personal responsibility in horrific things in exchange for absolute obedience. Nor can we simply paint ourselves as victims who had no choice in what was done. Americans betrayed Americans simply because they were Jewish. They turned in neighbors, friends, complete strangers, and they did so willingly, knowing full well what was in store for them. We turned our backs on everything America was supposed to stand for and embraced an idea unrivaled in its absolute disregard for human life. Our nation must look at itself in the mirror and refuse to shy away at the blood that covered its hands during those dark years. That goes not just for the Jews, but for the blacks, the infirm, the LGBT community, and all those who were seen as only worthy of either death or enslavement by the Nazi ideology. We cannot forget what we had done during those dark years and we dare not forget!"

 

[DrDerp]

More head canon stuff.

Lillian Esperanza, one of the first inhabitants of the JPS to be subjected to the Kempeitai's Sen'nō or 'brainwashing' process, 1953. Intrigued by both Soviet and German methods of re-education, the Japanese created their own process which entailed physical deprivation, intense propaganda exposure, verbal persuasion, and meditation. The Japanese used the process on suspected dissidents within Japan proper as well as subversive elements within their client states such as the Reorganized Republic of China, Second Republic of the Philippines and the Japanese Pacific States. Lillian was put through Sen'nō after being arrested for suspicion of painting anti-Japanese slogans in Sacramento in 1952, being in Kempeitai custody for months before being considered 'reformed'. She was fanatically loyal to Tokyo until the fall of the JPS and she spent years undoing her re-education with the help of psychologists. Her memoir 'A Prison In The Shape Of Me' recounted her initial imprisonment and the years she was utterly devoted to her overlords. "I was blind to Japan's atrocities during those years." she wrote. "I was like a kid who'd do anything to please a parent. Being called a faithful subject of the empire meant the world to me and the thought of having the approval of the authorities made me feel like the sun was shining on me."

 

[DrDerp]

Chicago resistance leader Owen Witkowski at the time of the collapse of the American Reich. Owen felt nothing but hatred toward Nazisim on the basis of his mistreatment for having Polish ancestry. Initially being called 'Mutt' by members of the Hitler Youth at school, he came to see the name as something to be proud of as he got older. His first kill was at the age of sixteen, a party block warden in his area who he disemboweled in a vacant lot. In the years to come, he would form his own resistance group that was the terror of Chicago's West Side. SS, Gestapo and local party leaders were all targets of Owen's group. During the final months of the American Reich, they even grew bold enough to firebomb the mansion of the Gauleiter of the Great Lakes region, destroying what was left of it with explosives after fire swept through it.

A 1962 photograph of Basil Trenton, an opponent of the puppet Confederacy who operated in New Orleans. From the early 1950s up until the fall of the Confederacy, Basil used his connections as an art dealer to get close to Confederate officials and feed information to resistance fighters who intended to assassinate them. He was also involved in the Second Underground Railroad which transported black slaves either to Mexico or the Neutral Zone. Basil began to seriously consider taking part in resistance to the collaborator regime in Richmond as soon as the CSA formed but went all in after units of the Dixie Legion paramilitary razed a number of black neighborhoods in the city to the ground as part of a 'population correction' that resulted in nearly 20% of the city's black residents being killed.

 

[DrDerp]

More pics from my head canon.

A Jewish resistance fighter near Manchester, 1960. Britain's Jewish population would not recover to pre-war levels until the 1990s, with many dissidents imprisoned by the BUF converting to Judaism after the regime fell. The British Union of Fascists responded to resistance activities with the deployment of paramilitaries who often inflicted large numbers of civilian casualties in the course of their duties. This fighter gave birth to three children after Britain was freed.

General Iwaichi Fujiwara during a rally in Osaka to raise money for the construction for the Celestial Palace, Japan's answer to the Volkshalle in Berlin. Fujiwara believed that Japan needed a structure that represented the will that drove Japan to achieve dominance over nearly half the world. The Imperial Rule Assistance Association worked with the IJA to gather funds for the structure, which would be the dominant feature of Tokyo's skyline.

 

[Gillan1220]

A British resistance fighter trains with a Welrod Mk1 pistol. This pistol has been used by partisans when conducting assassinations against German officers or British fascist collaborators.

 

[Gillan1220]

A normal day in Japanese-occupied Singapore.

 

[Gillan1220]

Mexico City in the 1960s. One of the few Western capitals not yet touched by Nazi influences.