Not as much as the West, but still affected a lot. The worldwide economic crisis also had a severe impact.
Whoops
The Silver Knight, a Lithuania Timeline
- Thread starter Augenis
- Start date
Don't worry, the Brits will restart their industrialization when Lusang performs a Tsushima on them in a war over Aozhou and Oceania (New Guinea and Australia IOTL).
Can I do something on a Unitarian revolution in Korea or Japan? Maybe the Unitarian revolution there has strong nationalist and anti-Chinese undertones?
Rise of the Blue Sun
Rise of the Blue Sun: The Japanese Revolution
The Toyotomi Shogunate which had ruled Japan since the 17th had carried out a program of industrialization and modernization in the 19th century which had made Toyotomi Japan a regional power on the same level as Nan Lusang. However, unlike Nan Lusang, where a (limited) constitutional monarchy was adopted, the Toyotomi Shoguns remained absolute rulers of Japan and ruling only with the assistance of the daimyo and samurai along with an appointed Council of Ministers formed in 1864 in an attempt to create a modern, centralized state and this led to grumbling among Japan's new middle class of merchants and businessmen, who were unhappy that they had no share in the political system of Japan. In addition, many young Japanese had studied in Europe and brought Republican and Unitarian ideas back to Japan with many underground political movements arising during the early 20th century. The Japanese Unitarian Party (or Nihon Yunitarianpātī), led by Professor Maeda Sosa of the University of Osaka, was founded in 1907 in a secret meeting in Professor Maeda's home in Osaka. Initially, the Japanese Unitarian Party was comprised of Professor Maeda, several of his students, and two of his fellow professors who shared his Unitarian ideas. However, the Japanese Unitarian Party gradually grew in size as Professor Maeda's students gradually spread Unitarian thoughts through the students of the University of Osaka and Professor Maeda and his two fellow professors gave secret lectures supporting Unitarianism as the way forward for Japan. However, the Japanese Unitarian Party would have probably not have expanded beyond a few students in universities if not for a chance meeting between Professor Maeda and one of the Japanese underground labor leaders, one Seki Kijuro in 1911. Seki Kijuro and Maeda Sosa quickly developed a close friendship with Seki Kijuro with Seki Kijuro allying his underground trade union with Professor Maeda Sosa's Unitarian movement.
While Toyotomi Japan boomed during the Great War due to it's neutrality, many were unhappy with the situation of economic prosperity not resulting in any political representation for the common people of Japan and so radical political movements arose in Japan. The Toyotomi Shogun, Toyotomi Genichi, saw the rise of radicalism and so started planning the adoption of a constitution which would have given some degree of democracy in Japan with the help of progressive-minded daimyo but unfortunately, before he could get his new constitution drafted and publicly revealed, he died from a sudden heart attack on February 12, 1915 which many suspected was actually a secret assassination by conservative elements of the Japanese nobility with his son being a 10 year old boy and therefore easily controlled by the clique of conservative aristocrats and generals who many believe had secretly poisoned the Republican-minded Shogun. Under General Ichida Kensaku, who was the real power behind the young Shogun and held the title of Minister of the Interior, Japan became a strict police state as General Ichida's regime clamped down on dissent of all stripes, which had the unfortunate effect of radicalizing Japan's intelligentsia and leading to the Japanese Unitarian Party gaining a great amount of influence among the political underground.
General Ichida Kensaku, de facto dictator of Japan from 1915 to 1929.
The excitement generated by the Ottoman revolution might have been confined to a bunch of university students and intellectuals if not for the Indian Revolution of 1917 as it showed that Unitarianism could be applied in an agrarian, relatively unindustrialized country like Toyotomi Japan. On the morning of February 2, 1919, Professor Maeda Sosa was found dead on a street in Osaka with two bullets in his chest. Officially, he had been murdered in an attempt to mug him but many believed that he had been assassinated by the "Thought Police" (Shiko Keisatsu), the secret police force of the Japanese military regime. After Maeda Sosa's death, one of his students, Nagai Takashi, became head of the Japanese Unitarian Party and would transform it into a mass movement. Nagai Takashi's form of Unitarianism, which was known as Nagaism after himself, argued that only a grassroots mass movement of workers and peasants can bring about the rise of a Unitarian society and that the main role of the leadership of a Unitarian movement was to coordinate the mass movement. Nagaism also had nationalist undertones in that it argued that Unitarianism can only succeed with a powerful and united nation holding up the banner of Unitarianism. Nagai Takashi was also anti-Chinese in his rhetoric as he argued that a Unitarian Japan's destiny was to supplant the Shun Dynasty as the master of East Asia under the banner of Unitarianism. Under Nagai Takashi's instructions, the Japanese Unitarian Party started building up a large grassroots base among both peasants and factory workers via Seki Kijuro's network of underground trade unions. However, a faction among the Japanese Unitarians led by Ose Tadasu called for peaceful agitation and propaganda as a means to gain power and broke off from Nagai Takashi's faction
Nagai Takashi, Chairman of the Japanese Unitarian Party
General Ichida Kensaku's regime was able to maintain some level of popularity among the middle class during the Era of Good Feelings as his regime adopted free trade policies which enabled prosperity for the rising middle class of Japan. Unfortunately for Ichida Kensaku, the French Flu put a stop to the prosperity of Japan along with many other countries in the world. While Japan had relatively little loss of life during the French Flu ("only" 70,000 died with 90% of the deaths being in major port cities like Osaka), the French Flu resulted in the collapse of the Japanese economy and turned the Japanese middle class against the regime as General Ichida's regime was unable to do anything regarding the collapse of the Japanese economy.
Despite popular misconceptions, there were actually two Japanese Revolutions in 1929, the January Revolution, which overthrew General Ichida's regime and installed a short-lived democratic government and the September Revolution, which resulted in the rise of Unitarian Japan. The January Revolution was sparked by the arrest of Abe Masutaro, a respected elder statesman and prominent ally/advisor of Toyotomi Genichi, on the basis that he "plotted to overthrow the government" on January 12. Unrest sparked by the arrest of Abe Masutaro quickly spread all over Japan and even into the military with the army refusing to shoot protestors in Kyoto on January 18. On January 20, 1929, Toyotomi Haruhito, the 23-year old Shogun of Japan, summoned General Ichida to his palace and told him that he, along with the rest of the Council of Ministers, should resign their posts to avoid a bloodbath. General Ichida, who was 76 and in ill health, reluctantly resigned his post. The next day, Toyotomi Haruhito appointed the reform-minded daimyo Okubo Eisuke to General Ichida's old post as Minister of the Interior and formally dissolved the Shogunate a few hours later. Okubo Eisuke opened a dialogue with the Republicans demonstrating in the streets of Japan's major cities and on January 26, the January Revolution was over as Okubo Eisuke formally appointed his Council of Ministers, which was comprised mainly of Japanese Republicans and resigned, naming Inazuma Yuji as Chief Minister of Japan.
Inazuma Yuji, head of the Provisional Japanese Administration
Inazuma Yuji immediately established the Provisional Japanese Administration to replace the Shogunate's form of government and replace it with a Republican government. Inazuma Yuji's interim government was comprised mainly of Republicans along with a few moderate Unitarians aligned with Ose Tadasu's faction. Inazuma Yuji's provisional government had very ambitious plans to establish a democracy in Japan with a series of "Provisional Basic Laws" being implemented as a basis for a new Japanese constitution with a constitutional monarchy being proposed by many. Unfortunately, all this talk about how to implement a democratic government in Japan led to the Provisional Administration neglecting how to discuss methods of trying to fix the economic situation and while the Economy Minister, Arashi Tetsuo, who was from Ose's moderate Unitarian faction, planned a wide-ranging plan to revitalize the Japanese Economy, the grassroots Unitarian labor movement that Nagai Takashi had established was launching a series of strikes and demonstrations. Under (relatively) normal circumstances, Arashi Tetsuo's plan to revitalize the Japanese economy would have worked, unfortunately, the Japanese Unitarians were increasingly revolutionary under Nagai Takashi's command and he had two highly competent subordinates: Yokoi Saemon and Nomi Koto. Yokoi Saemon had become head of the "National Union of Workers" (Zenkoku rodo-sha kumiai) after Seki Kijuro died in 1925 and was a brilliant organizer of the National Union of Workers. Nomi Koto was a former officer in the Japanese Army and helped organize the "Blue Guards", a group of paramilitary workers and peasants who would be the spearhead of the Japanese Revolution and in addition, was able to reach out to several nationalistic officers in the Japanese Arm as well.
On September 16, 1929, the September Revolution began when elements of the Blue Guards, along with military units wooed over to the Unitarians, launched a series of massive uprisings in major Japanese cities like Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Sendai, and Hiroshima. According to some accounts, the words "Tora! Tora! Tora!" were the signal through which the September Revolution was launched. After ferocious street-to-street fighting, the Provisional Japanese Authority was forced to abandon Kyoto on September 20. The next day, Nagai Takashi read out the proclamation of the "Union of Japan" (Nihon no Rengo) from the steps of the Kyoto Imperial Palace and proclaimed the formal abolition of the Japanese monarchy. Of course, the Provisional Japanese Authority, which had fled to Kyushu with most of the Japanese Navy and most of the Imperial Family (including Emperor Kanzaburo), didn't recognize this proclamation. By the end of 1929, the Japanese Unitarians had control over most of Southern and Central Honshu with loyalists to the Provisional Japanese Authority controlling Kyushu, Shikoku, Hokkaido, and Northern Honshu. 1930 saw the Japanese Unitarians, under the command of General Okamura Bakin, who had offered his services to the Unitarians in exchange for his life and family being spared, launch large-scale offensives against loyalists to the Provisional Japanese Authority, driving them out of Northern Honshu and Hokkaido. In addition, the Japanese Unitarians started getting aid from Unitarian India and Turkey in both weapons and "volunteers". While the PJA enjoyed diplomatic support from most countries of the world, said countries had economic problems and were reluctant to provide aid to the Provisional Japanese Authority. By late 1930, loyalist forces were surrendering to the Unitarians in droves with Shikoku's invasion being a largely bloodless affair. The last stronghold of the Provisional Japanese Authority was Kyushu with the Provisional Japanese Authority only surrendering on May 13, 1931 after a three-month battle. With the exception of the Ryukyu Islands (a Chinese-backed nationalist uprising had secured the independence of the Ryukyu islands), Japan was now united under the Union of Japan, which was the third major nation to fall under the blue banner. The Union of Japan would forge an alliance with it's Unitarian "comrades" in India and Turkey and embark on a campaign of force-draft modernization to turn Japan into a major power ready to export the Unitarian Revolution in Asia and bring down the Chinese goliath. Chairman Nagai Takashi, in keeping with Unitarian procedures, had adopted state atheism but with a unique twist in that a "cult of personality" grew around Chairman Nagai in which he was seen as a quasi-divine figure much like the Japanese Emperor prior to the Revolution. Chairman Nagai Takashi dreamt of a strong Japan under the Unitarian banner and he appeared to be getting his dream soon.
The Toyotomi Shogunate which had ruled Japan since the 17th had carried out a program of industrialization and modernization in the 19th century which had made Toyotomi Japan a regional power on the same level as Nan Lusang. However, unlike Nan Lusang, where a (limited) constitutional monarchy was adopted, the Toyotomi Shoguns remained absolute rulers of Japan and ruling only with the assistance of the daimyo and samurai along with an appointed Council of Ministers formed in 1864 in an attempt to create a modern, centralized state and this led to grumbling among Japan's new middle class of merchants and businessmen, who were unhappy that they had no share in the political system of Japan. In addition, many young Japanese had studied in Europe and brought Republican and Unitarian ideas back to Japan with many underground political movements arising during the early 20th century. The Japanese Unitarian Party (or Nihon Yunitarianpātī), led by Professor Maeda Sosa of the University of Osaka, was founded in 1907 in a secret meeting in Professor Maeda's home in Osaka. Initially, the Japanese Unitarian Party was comprised of Professor Maeda, several of his students, and two of his fellow professors who shared his Unitarian ideas. However, the Japanese Unitarian Party gradually grew in size as Professor Maeda's students gradually spread Unitarian thoughts through the students of the University of Osaka and Professor Maeda and his two fellow professors gave secret lectures supporting Unitarianism as the way forward for Japan. However, the Japanese Unitarian Party would have probably not have expanded beyond a few students in universities if not for a chance meeting between Professor Maeda and one of the Japanese underground labor leaders, one Seki Kijuro in 1911. Seki Kijuro and Maeda Sosa quickly developed a close friendship with Seki Kijuro with Seki Kijuro allying his underground trade union with Professor Maeda Sosa's Unitarian movement.
While Toyotomi Japan boomed during the Great War due to it's neutrality, many were unhappy with the situation of economic prosperity not resulting in any political representation for the common people of Japan and so radical political movements arose in Japan. The Toyotomi Shogun, Toyotomi Genichi, saw the rise of radicalism and so started planning the adoption of a constitution which would have given some degree of democracy in Japan with the help of progressive-minded daimyo but unfortunately, before he could get his new constitution drafted and publicly revealed, he died from a sudden heart attack on February 12, 1915 which many suspected was actually a secret assassination by conservative elements of the Japanese nobility with his son being a 10 year old boy and therefore easily controlled by the clique of conservative aristocrats and generals who many believe had secretly poisoned the Republican-minded Shogun. Under General Ichida Kensaku, who was the real power behind the young Shogun and held the title of Minister of the Interior, Japan became a strict police state as General Ichida's regime clamped down on dissent of all stripes, which had the unfortunate effect of radicalizing Japan's intelligentsia and leading to the Japanese Unitarian Party gaining a great amount of influence among the political underground.
General Ichida Kensaku, de facto dictator of Japan from 1915 to 1929.
The excitement generated by the Ottoman revolution might have been confined to a bunch of university students and intellectuals if not for the Indian Revolution of 1917 as it showed that Unitarianism could be applied in an agrarian, relatively unindustrialized country like Toyotomi Japan. On the morning of February 2, 1919, Professor Maeda Sosa was found dead on a street in Osaka with two bullets in his chest. Officially, he had been murdered in an attempt to mug him but many believed that he had been assassinated by the "Thought Police" (Shiko Keisatsu), the secret police force of the Japanese military regime. After Maeda Sosa's death, one of his students, Nagai Takashi, became head of the Japanese Unitarian Party and would transform it into a mass movement. Nagai Takashi's form of Unitarianism, which was known as Nagaism after himself, argued that only a grassroots mass movement of workers and peasants can bring about the rise of a Unitarian society and that the main role of the leadership of a Unitarian movement was to coordinate the mass movement. Nagaism also had nationalist undertones in that it argued that Unitarianism can only succeed with a powerful and united nation holding up the banner of Unitarianism. Nagai Takashi was also anti-Chinese in his rhetoric as he argued that a Unitarian Japan's destiny was to supplant the Shun Dynasty as the master of East Asia under the banner of Unitarianism. Under Nagai Takashi's instructions, the Japanese Unitarian Party started building up a large grassroots base among both peasants and factory workers via Seki Kijuro's network of underground trade unions. However, a faction among the Japanese Unitarians led by Ose Tadasu called for peaceful agitation and propaganda as a means to gain power and broke off from Nagai Takashi's faction
Nagai Takashi, Chairman of the Japanese Unitarian Party
General Ichida Kensaku's regime was able to maintain some level of popularity among the middle class during the Era of Good Feelings as his regime adopted free trade policies which enabled prosperity for the rising middle class of Japan. Unfortunately for Ichida Kensaku, the French Flu put a stop to the prosperity of Japan along with many other countries in the world. While Japan had relatively little loss of life during the French Flu ("only" 70,000 died with 90% of the deaths being in major port cities like Osaka), the French Flu resulted in the collapse of the Japanese economy and turned the Japanese middle class against the regime as General Ichida's regime was unable to do anything regarding the collapse of the Japanese economy.
Despite popular misconceptions, there were actually two Japanese Revolutions in 1929, the January Revolution, which overthrew General Ichida's regime and installed a short-lived democratic government and the September Revolution, which resulted in the rise of Unitarian Japan. The January Revolution was sparked by the arrest of Abe Masutaro, a respected elder statesman and prominent ally/advisor of Toyotomi Genichi, on the basis that he "plotted to overthrow the government" on January 12. Unrest sparked by the arrest of Abe Masutaro quickly spread all over Japan and even into the military with the army refusing to shoot protestors in Kyoto on January 18. On January 20, 1929, Toyotomi Haruhito, the 23-year old Shogun of Japan, summoned General Ichida to his palace and told him that he, along with the rest of the Council of Ministers, should resign their posts to avoid a bloodbath. General Ichida, who was 76 and in ill health, reluctantly resigned his post. The next day, Toyotomi Haruhito appointed the reform-minded daimyo Okubo Eisuke to General Ichida's old post as Minister of the Interior and formally dissolved the Shogunate a few hours later. Okubo Eisuke opened a dialogue with the Republicans demonstrating in the streets of Japan's major cities and on January 26, the January Revolution was over as Okubo Eisuke formally appointed his Council of Ministers, which was comprised mainly of Japanese Republicans and resigned, naming Inazuma Yuji as Chief Minister of Japan.
Inazuma Yuji, head of the Provisional Japanese Administration
Inazuma Yuji immediately established the Provisional Japanese Administration to replace the Shogunate's form of government and replace it with a Republican government. Inazuma Yuji's interim government was comprised mainly of Republicans along with a few moderate Unitarians aligned with Ose Tadasu's faction. Inazuma Yuji's provisional government had very ambitious plans to establish a democracy in Japan with a series of "Provisional Basic Laws" being implemented as a basis for a new Japanese constitution with a constitutional monarchy being proposed by many. Unfortunately, all this talk about how to implement a democratic government in Japan led to the Provisional Administration neglecting how to discuss methods of trying to fix the economic situation and while the Economy Minister, Arashi Tetsuo, who was from Ose's moderate Unitarian faction, planned a wide-ranging plan to revitalize the Japanese Economy, the grassroots Unitarian labor movement that Nagai Takashi had established was launching a series of strikes and demonstrations. Under (relatively) normal circumstances, Arashi Tetsuo's plan to revitalize the Japanese economy would have worked, unfortunately, the Japanese Unitarians were increasingly revolutionary under Nagai Takashi's command and he had two highly competent subordinates: Yokoi Saemon and Nomi Koto. Yokoi Saemon had become head of the "National Union of Workers" (Zenkoku rodo-sha kumiai) after Seki Kijuro died in 1925 and was a brilliant organizer of the National Union of Workers. Nomi Koto was a former officer in the Japanese Army and helped organize the "Blue Guards", a group of paramilitary workers and peasants who would be the spearhead of the Japanese Revolution and in addition, was able to reach out to several nationalistic officers in the Japanese Arm as well.
Yokoi Saemon, head of the National Union of Workers
On September 16, 1929, the September Revolution began when elements of the Blue Guards, along with military units wooed over to the Unitarians, launched a series of massive uprisings in major Japanese cities like Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, Sendai, and Hiroshima. According to some accounts, the words "Tora! Tora! Tora!" were the signal through which the September Revolution was launched. After ferocious street-to-street fighting, the Provisional Japanese Authority was forced to abandon Kyoto on September 20. The next day, Nagai Takashi read out the proclamation of the "Union of Japan" (Nihon no Rengo) from the steps of the Kyoto Imperial Palace and proclaimed the formal abolition of the Japanese monarchy. Of course, the Provisional Japanese Authority, which had fled to Kyushu with most of the Japanese Navy and most of the Imperial Family (including Emperor Kanzaburo), didn't recognize this proclamation. By the end of 1929, the Japanese Unitarians had control over most of Southern and Central Honshu with loyalists to the Provisional Japanese Authority controlling Kyushu, Shikoku, Hokkaido, and Northern Honshu. 1930 saw the Japanese Unitarians, under the command of General Okamura Bakin, who had offered his services to the Unitarians in exchange for his life and family being spared, launch large-scale offensives against loyalists to the Provisional Japanese Authority, driving them out of Northern Honshu and Hokkaido. In addition, the Japanese Unitarians started getting aid from Unitarian India and Turkey in both weapons and "volunteers". While the PJA enjoyed diplomatic support from most countries of the world, said countries had economic problems and were reluctant to provide aid to the Provisional Japanese Authority. By late 1930, loyalist forces were surrendering to the Unitarians in droves with Shikoku's invasion being a largely bloodless affair. The last stronghold of the Provisional Japanese Authority was Kyushu with the Provisional Japanese Authority only surrendering on May 13, 1931 after a three-month battle. With the exception of the Ryukyu Islands (a Chinese-backed nationalist uprising had secured the independence of the Ryukyu islands), Japan was now united under the Union of Japan, which was the third major nation to fall under the blue banner. The Union of Japan would forge an alliance with it's Unitarian "comrades" in India and Turkey and embark on a campaign of force-draft modernization to turn Japan into a major power ready to export the Unitarian Revolution in Asia and bring down the Chinese goliath. Chairman Nagai Takashi, in keeping with Unitarian procedures, had adopted state atheism but with a unique twist in that a "cult of personality" grew around Chairman Nagai in which he was seen as a quasi-divine figure much like the Japanese Emperor prior to the Revolution. Chairman Nagai Takashi dreamt of a strong Japan under the Unitarian banner and he appeared to be getting his dream soon.
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Great chapter! Canonized!
So, the Union of Japan is the third major player in the Unitarian alliance (I should make an official name for it, I suppose...). Nagaism sounds like a Japanese version of Nijasurism - though that should be expected, in my opinion.
So, any questions regarding Unitarian Japan and how it originated? I'd be glad to answer any queries you might have.
Um, maybe I missed in the story proper.
But surely the Emperor's are still around as divine beings prior to the revolution even if fully divorced from policy making or did the Shoguns somehow get away with ditching them?
But surely the Emperor's are still around as divine beings prior to the revolution even if fully divorced from policy making or did the Shoguns somehow get away with ditching them?
The bit regarding the proclaimation of the Japanese Union states that the former was the case. In fact, the cult around Chairman Nagai is meant to replace the cult around the Emperor as a social glue binding Japanese society.
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Um, well I only asked because outright removing the Emperor would require a short story all too itself to explain why the people accepting the removal of a divine being/why enemies to the Shogunate allowed the removal if it took place more recently without using it to get peasant support.
Like, even OTL in the Boshin War the Shogunal forces never called for the removal of the divine figure even when they knew he was actively working against them and everyone knew he was doing this.
Personally I only say because I feel it would be amusing and be amusing to have a Unitarian Japanese Republic that has some kind of Religious Concordat with the "Emperor".
Well, the Japanese Unitarian regime's cult around Chairman Nagai claims that he is descended from the Southern Court (which will certainly not be used to justify a Kim-esque pseudo-monarchial system
).
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That doesn't really answer the question surrounding the apparent deposition of the Yamato Emperors.
Maybe you can reveal the official name for the Unitarian alliance in Chapter 81?
I don't think it's completely implausible for them to be deposed. Tsarist Russia fell when the Tsar was highly revered.
Don't forget the cult of personality the Japanese Unitarians are building around Chairman Nagai to replace the cult around the Emperor as well.
Well look, the Emperor is literally a divine being descended from the Chief Goddess.
The Russian Tsar was merely ordained by God, he himself was not divine.
Remember, even in OTL 1945 many Japanese still considered the Emperor a living god.
It isn't completely implausible, but would require very very unique circumstances and I felt those deserved mention.
At this point, I'll just PM Augenis/Whiteshore asking if I can do a short story on how it came to be and how such calamitous times came about to allow such a deposition.
Speaking of China, I'll be doing a guest update on Shun China soon.
It honestly does strike me as Orientalism to say that, uniquely amongst monarchies, the House of Yamato can never, EVER be deposed.
Agreed, and Unitarian Japan declaring the Japanese monarchy to be abolished is my way of avoiding the cliche of "undeposable Japanese monarchy".