The Sun, The Stars and The Sickle: Alt-WWII and a Tripolar Postwar World

What would you like to see next


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Prince Konoe is going to be much more comfortable with Harry Truman, I daresay. Or Thomas Dewey, for that matter.

I can't imagine that Wallace would have a particularly favourable view of TTL's Imperial Japan either. With so much of the government being peers and wealthy businessmen, a standoffish attitude towards the USSR, and thoroughly Imperialist policies, it's basically everything Wallace would oppose.
 
I can't imagine that Wallace would have a particularly favourable view of TTL's Imperial Japan either. With so much of the government being peers and wealthy businessmen, a standoffish attitude towards the USSR, and thoroughly Imperialist policies, it's basically everything Wallace would oppose.

Sounds like a bunch of people Dewey and his Wall Street buddies would like to have dinner with.
 
I'm personally interested in what kind of nation that Manchuquo will transition into in the post-war years under Emperor Pujie. I'm personally hoping for a modern cosmopolitan nation that's basically East Asia's melting pot. And hopefully with a Qing Emperor in power the Manchurian language isn't fated to eventually go extinct.
 
Graciously done by @cortz#9 , here is a scale drawing of the TTL Chi-He, complete with its main armament of the 50 caliber Type 1 5.7cm Tank Gun:

type-1-chi-he-6pdr-png.551281
 
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I'm personally interested in what kind of nation that Manchuquo will transition into in the post-war years under Emperor Pujie. I'm personally hoping for a modern cosmopolitan nation that's basically East Asia's melting pot. And hopefully with a Qing Emperor in power the Manchurian language isn't fated to eventually go extinct.

It really depends if the leaders actually push for a Pan-Asian society. Otherwise, it could become like Belfast during the troubles.
 
It really depends if the leaders actually push for a Pan-Asian society. Otherwise, it could become like Belfast during the troubles.
I remember people talking about how Pujie was so much more pragmatic than his older brother. It just seems that a pragmatic man like him would use his influence on the government to push Manchuquo/Manchuria in that direction. Plus I don't think that Japan would want their biggest vassal/ally to fall to chaos.
 
I'm thinking Korea is the one more likely to turn into an Asian (Japanese) Ireland.

That would be the bigger concern. Even with a better economy, much better treatment of Koreans and more respect for Korean culture and language, it will be hard for any Empire to hold on to an educated, moneyed, independence-minded colony. Whether it becomes an Imperial Realm/Dominion or fully independent is a question of when rather than if.

I'm personally interested in what kind of nation that Manchuquo will transition into in the post-war years under Emperor Pujie. I'm personally hoping for a modern cosmopolitan nation that's basically East Asia's melting pot. And hopefully with a Qing Emperor in power the Manchurian language isn't fated to eventually go extinct.

Manchukuo is still 85-90% Han Chinese, and the various minorities are noted for their loyalty, which Japan is eagerly fostering. As of now, life in Manchukuo is generally better than that in China, enough to satiate the majority currently, but as (or if) conditions in China improve, the situation may change and the majority will no longer be content with being a colony.
 
That would be the bigger concern. Even with a better economy, much better treatment of Koreans and more respect for Korean culture and language, it will be hard for any Empire to hold on to an educated, moneyed, independence-minded colony. Whether it becomes an Imperial Realm/Dominion or fully independent is a question of when rather than if.


Manchukuo is still 85-90% Han Chinese, and the various minorities are noted for their loyalty, which Japan is eagerly fostering. As of now, life in Manchukuo is generally better than that in China, enough to satiate the majority currently, but as (or if) conditions in China improve, the situation may change and the majority will no longer be content with being a colony.

There are several paths Korea and Manchuria could take under a more moderate Japanese leadership:

1. A Peaceful Divorce, ala Australia.

Like with OTL Australia, TTL Korea and Manchukuo might gradually gain soveriengty over their own affairs, while remaining under a Commonwealth-type relationship.

2. Northern Ireland

The Troubles OTL were essentially a colonial style conflict: the conflict was between an Unionist elite and an oppressed native Catholic population.

It is possible Korea and Manchuria, if divides between natives and Japanese settlers remain profound, could erupt into sectarian violence around the 1960s.
 
So, I have noticed that you have generally ignored the media that would be developed in this time period; which I think is a bit of a missed opportunity since popular culture & media is a major avenue of helping develop the world and the time period in my personal opinion, and with the different circumstances I imagine it has markedly shaped what media is being created in comparison to OTL WWII.

So, what would be the general trends of the media that has been created ITTL during the second World War, or if it does not spoiler too much, media created well after WWII but is focused on it (such as media produced about the Chinese front of the war ITTL)?
 
So, I have noticed that you have generally ignored the media that would be developed in this time period; which I think is a bit of a missed opportunity since popular culture & media is a major avenue of helping develop the world and the time period in my personal opinion, and with the different circumstances I imagine it has markedly shaped what media is being created in comparison to OTL WWII.

So, what would be the general trends of the media that has been created ITTL during the second World War, or if it does not spoiler too much, media created well after WWII but is focused on it (such as media produced about the Chinese front of the war ITTL)?

Do you mean like how media technologies would take shape, or more about the content of said media?
 
Do you mean like how media technologies would take shape, or more about the content of said media?
More like the content of said media. Such as the film "Tales from Iwo Jima" as an example of OTL media made during the war. I admit this at least partially comes from personal interest in asking about it, as the development of popular media trends fascinates me to no end, but also because I do personally view such stuff, especially in the 20th century, as depressingly underrepresented outside of timelines specifically focused on popular media when I personally view it as very useful in making the world feel more alive and lived in. It also allows one to better understand the culture and fears that a society has as popular media is usually a reflection of the various things that society is, as a whole, grappling with or feeling.

Plus I am wondering (and hoping) that anime & manga as understood IOTL has survived ITTL. :p
 
I mean, I was using Tales from Iwo Jima as an example, not it's ITTL equilavent but a look at films and media made about the war, either during or after it, is something I think for WWII is something that should be brought in more often as it helps provide another perspective alongside the ground level & the political and above perspectives. Since looking at how media sees such things help us know how the cultural paradigm of the people that produce said media is located at.

For instance, a film like Grave of the Fireflies, with it's narrative of how two children were so utterly fucked by the war that they starved to death, won't be produced ITTL Japan. Since it was based on a semi-autographical short story written by the author who did lose his little sister due to malnutrishion (and suffered survivor's guilt since his author avatar also died in the story). Whereas here Japan itself is as generally untouched by the war as the United States was/is by WWII. Sending plenty of soldiers but suffering no attacks or effects on the homefront. Also they are on the winning side of WWII.

The tropes and clichés of Japanese media will be widely different compared to OTL as well I imagine. After all, I doubt there will be nearly as strong a pacifistic movement ITTL Japan without the wreckage and trauma that came from the last decade and a half of Imperial Japan.

Or, as I stated previously, the popular media produced ITTL is something I'm interested in as it helps show how the different cultural mores, trends and perspectives that would exist ITTL, as the different historical and social trends would produce different media.
 
Personally, I think the political and social turmoil in 1930s Japan ITTL will make for a lot of source material for TV series from the 50s onward. Kempeitai and civilian policemen struggling to maintain rule of law and government authority, and keeping unruly officers in check, etc.

And I think I've mentioned this before, but Manchukuo's situation lends itself well as a setting for at least one James Bond film ITTL.
 
More like the content of said media. Such as the film "Tales from Iwo Jima" as an example of OTL media made during the war. I admit this at least partially comes from personal interest in asking about it, as the development of popular media trends fascinates me to no end, but also because I do personally view such stuff, especially in the 20th century, as depressingly underrepresented outside of timelines specifically focused on popular media when I personally view it as very useful in making the world feel more alive and lived in. It also allows one to better understand the culture and fears that a society has as popular media is usually a reflection of the various things that society is, as a whole, grappling with or feeling.

Plus I am wondering (and hoping) that anime & manga as understood IOTL has survived ITTL. :p

Letters from Iwo Jima TTL would be from the perspective of a frightfully bored IJN reservist guarding a naval air station and his interactions with the natives of Io-To.

The foundations for manga are in place; the oldest prewar publications have flourished more without the military takeover of the Japanese government and education systems. There will be extra exposure to Western media; on those long Vancouver-Yokohama runs, some comic books and the like will probably make their way back from Canada to Japan.

As for films, Operation Tiger has made for at least two, Arctic Tiger (Replacing Tora Tora Tora and starring Christopher Lee) and Murmansk (Pearl Harbor).
 
On the subject of onna bugeisha, one particularly amazing one was Tomoe Gozen:

print-tomoe-gozen-holding-sword.jpg


She was known for being both beautiful and ferocious. She could ride an unbroken horse, and was adept with a bow, nakinata and even the katana, which was almost exclusively wielded by men. She not only rode into battle, she led men into battle, and at least one adversary fled and commited suicide rather than admit defeat at the hands of a woman.

Looked her up, and yeah, this great lady would undoubtedly receive support from the powers-that-be in high society. She was of the Minamoto Clan by marriage and feudal allegiance, and during the civil wars of the 11th and 12th Centuries, fought for the authority of the legitimate Imperial Court (unlike the Taira, which sought to seize control of the Court). To be sure, the Minamoto wrestled governing authority from the Imperial Court afterwards, but at least they did it with legal sanction, and even then they outwardly acknowledged the formal supremacy of the Yamato and the Fujiwara.

The Fujiwara Princes (including Prince Konoe, the head of the most senior branch of the Fujiwara Clan) would have no problems with her, or for that matter, the Imperial Family.
 
Letters from Iwo Jima TTL would be from the perspective of a frightfully bored IJN reservist guarding a naval air station and his interactions with the natives of Io-To.

The foundations for manga are in place; the oldest prewar publications have flourished more without the military takeover of the Japanese government and education systems. There will be extra exposure to Western media; on those long Vancouver-Yokohama runs, some comic books and the like will probably make their way back from Canada to Japan.

As for films, Operation Tiger has made for at least two, Arctic Tiger (Replacing Tora Tora Tora and starring Christopher Lee) and Murmansk (Pearl Harbor).
Letters from Iwo Jima is probably TTL's equivalent of Dad's Army.
 
I mean, I was using Tales from Iwo Jima as an example, not it's ITTL equilavent but a look at films and media made about the war, either during or after it, is something I think for WWII is something that should be brought in more often as it helps provide another perspective alongside the ground level & the political and above perspectives. Since looking at how media sees such things help us know how the cultural paradigm of the people that produce said media is located at.

For instance, a film like Grave of the Fireflies, with it's narrative of how two children were so utterly fucked by the war that they starved to death, won't be produced ITTL Japan. Since it was based on a semi-autographical short story written by the author who did lose his little sister due to malnutrishion (and suffered survivor's guilt since his author avatar also died in the story). Whereas here Japan itself is as generally untouched by the war as the United States was/is by WWII. Sending plenty of soldiers but suffering no attacks or effects on the homefront. Also they are on the winning side of WWII.

The tropes and clichés of Japanese media will be widely different compared to OTL as well I imagine. After all, I doubt there will be nearly as strong a pacifistic movement ITTL Japan without the wreckage and trauma that came from the last decade and a half of Imperial Japan.

Or, as I stated previously, the popular media produced ITTL is something I'm interested in as it helps show how the different cultural mores, trends and perspectives that would exist ITTL, as the different historical and social trends would produce different media.

Considering Japan TTL has retained its status as a Great Power, and didn't become a hypernationalist hellhole, most media TTL is likely going to very, very patriotic, conservative, and pro-militarist.

A lot of OTL Japanese media (Godzilla, Barefoot Gen, and the works of Hayao Miyazaki) has pacifist and antiwar themes, as a reflection of how the Japanese public grew hostile to war.

TTL Japanese media, however, will be a lot more celebratory of Japan's history of battle and struggle since Japanese nationalism didn't become a disaster.
 
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