Darkest
Banned
“Throughout the world, everywhere we are all brothers. Why then do the winds and waves rage so turbulently?” – Emperor Meiji
This is a very rough draft for a timeline I've been putting together for the last few days. You can see that a lot of it is missing, especially the implications on Nazi Germany. Please give suggestions and comments.
Some may call this an alternate timeline with multiple points of divergence. I suggest a single POD, somewhere in the world, unnamed and of impact on only day-to-day life, that breeds butterflies that specifically lead to the changes I make in the beginning, without outside change. A lot of this has to do with the early development of German synthetic fuel technologies, so, please bear with me. Also, all italicized sentences are behind-the-scenes information, for those that want to determine plausibility. For those that desire an easy-to-read timeline, do not read the italics.
1932 – An American scientist, an official at the US Bureau of Mines, forms a relationship with Fritz Haber. They send letters every other year. [This is the German scientist responsible for the Haber Process, and a Nobel Peace Prize winner.]
1933 – March: Fritz Haber, through letters from his American friend, learns of the Karrick Process. He forwards this information to Carl Bosch.
[A system of creating synthetic fuel that was twice as efficient as the more widely used Bergius Process. Haber attains the concept and basic technical information behind the technique. Both Haber and his American friend are warned by the government that they should refrain from technological exchange, and Haber did not want to technologically strengthen the Nazis, but at the time the Nazi government was pushing to force him out of the country due to his Jewish ancestry. Because of this, Haber is able to convince his American friend to send information on the Karrick Process that had been gathered at that time, in order to gain leverage with the Nazis. Carl Bosch was a fellow Nobel prize winner who had worked with him many times, and an important director of the company IG Farben, a good choice to help Fritz Haber with his problem. ]
June: Carl Bosch does what he can to help his friend, but in the end his influence does little for him. Fritz leaves for England. He sends the information on the Karrick Process to fellow Nobel Prize Winner, Friedrich Bergius. Bergius assigns a development team under Dr. Bernd Dresner to utilize the information given to them and begin experiments with the process. [Friedrich Bergius was the inventor of the Bergius Process which in OTL was the main process used in Germany for coal liquefaction. Dresner is a fictional character that could have been.]
1934 – April: Dr. Bernd Dresner puts his name on the Dresner Synthesis, which is believed to have been perfected. The team is given more funding and assigned to build a test plant.
June: Newly appointed Japanese ambassador to Germany, Inoue Kôjirô, pushes for a technological exchange.
1936 – January: IG Farben’s test plant on Dresner synthesis has brought important discoveries with the technology, and has proved much of the technology’s efficiency both in terms of thermal energy and building requirements.
1936 – October: In a conference on increasing oil production, Germany includes the Dresner synthesis technology in plans concerning synthetic fuel plants. [This is downplayed somewhat due to it being a relatively new technology.]
November 22: Germany and Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact. [As in OTL.]
1937 – January: As part of a small opening technological exchange between the two empires, Japan attains a deal with IG Farben to build two modern synthetic fuel plants in Hokkaido and Manchuoko. One of the plants will be in fact a large-scale Dresner synthesis plant, as an experiment for IG Farben to learn from. Japan also agrees to send a prototype reconnaissance plane to Germany.
July 7: The undeclared Second Sino-Japanese War begins. [It occurs much the same as OTL.]
December 12: The Panay Incident does not occur. Japanese sailors recognize that the USN Panay gunboat is an American ship. [American opinion does not turn sharply against the Japanese. Before the Panay Incident, a good portion of the American population had been on the Japanese’ side. Moreover, the Japanese do not need to pay the Americans two million dollars in reparations.]
1938 – April to August: IG Farben completes its synthetic fuel plants in the Japanese Empire. The “flawless Western concept and German design” of the two plants provide a great example to the Japanese scientists and engineers within the industry for which they can learn from. The two plants are estimated to provide nearly 100,000 tons of synthetic fuel per year for the Japanese.
[More important over time. Japan had experimented with synthetic fuels since the 1920s, but was unable to realize the necessity of a test-pilot plant stage. In OTL, an attempt to construct synthetic fuel plants throughout the Empire was abandoned because they could not make the transition from small-scale to large-scale. The German example provides the understanding they need.]
1939 – January: Lurgi AG, a German corporation, approves a plan to build a bituminous coal factory near Beijang and a gasification factory in Hokkaido. [In OTL, they had flirted with the idea. With IG Farben’s Japanese deal a success, it convinces enough personalities to receive approval.]
September 1: Poland is invaded. World War 2 in Europe has begun. [It goes largely the same as in OTL. Our focus now is elsewhere.]
1940 - September 19th: Germany and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact, forming the Axis Powers. [As in OTL, six days earlier.]
April 3rd: The Soviet Union and Japan sign the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact. [As in OTL, ten days earlier.]
1940 – January: The United States terminates its commerce treaty with Japan, which will allow it to impose trade embargoes.
September 24th: Vichy France signs the Hanoi Pact, ceding airfields to Japan and agreeing to admission of troops into northern Indochina in Tongking.
1941 – January: The United States bans the shipment of aviation gasoline to Japan, and denies Japan access to the Panama Canal, over the invasion of Indochina.
March 14th: An undeclared war between the French and the natives in French Indochina, thought to be initiated by the revanchist Thai, turns exceedingly violent with the use of artillery in the guerilla warfare in the southern part of the country. Japanese soldiers are used against native rebellion, and mediate the conflict. The French begin giving over many parts of the government and economy to the Japanese, including a monopoly over the Indochinese rice crop and air ports throughout the territory. The Japanese also begin pushing for the French to allow the Thai to reclaim some of their lost territory.
June 22nd: Germany invades the Soviet Union with Operation Barbarossa. [As in OTL, on schedule.]
June 25th: Japan calls for more than 1 million conscripts into the Imperial Army.
July 6th: Japan recalls her merchant ships from the Atlantic.
August 2nd: Japan occupies all of French Indochina at the permission of Vichy France.
September 23rd: During the Battle of Changsha, Japan’s second attempt to take the Chinese city, the city’s defenses is sabotaged by several hundred Japanese troops dressed in plain clothes. Heavy fighting breaks out, but though the Chinese take very heavy casualties, their numbers win them the battle. [In OTL, they failed to sabotage the city’s defenses, leading to their rapid defeat.]
October 20th: The United States freezes all assets in Japan and China, and initiates an oil embargo against the Japanese Empire. Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe begins immediately to seek peace terms with the United States, while the Japanese government spends the next week debating the future course of the Empire.
October 23rd: It is determined that, at the current rates of production, the Japanese Empire will only have enough oil for 24 months and 24 days, nearly half that much if they go to war with the United States.
October 25th: The “Fuel and China” doctrine is adopted by the Japanese government, led by the ultranationalist, pacifist Toho Kai faction. The Emperor, the Prime Minister, and the Navy all agree that facing the United States would be far too dangerous of a move at that time. The doctrine also warns that for the prosperity of the Japanese Empire, they must do two things: ruin the Chinese enemy and claim victory as soon as possible and keep oil flowing. As long as they can attain these two items, they decide to make any concession to the United States.
November 4th: The Japanese partially demobilizes their military out of French Indochina, cutting the number of soldiers by 50%, and limiting naval presence to only a small battle group outside of non-military craft. This is made as a concession towards the United States.
November 10th: Summit begins between Japan and the United States in Honolulu, Hawaii over terms to end the embargo. Prime Minister Konoe discusses leaving the Axis Powers, or at least refusing to exchange technology, in order to resume American oil imports.
November 13th: Two realizations are made during an Imperial Conference. First, self-sufficiency of oil and fuel had to be built up as soon as possible, using synthetic fuel technologies. This could not be done, however, with China still such a hostile foe. Nakano Seigo, head of the Toho Kai faction, launches into his initiative to consolidate conquests and begin to debate peace terms with the enemy. The Navy and Army are concerned of the Philippine threat to their southern conquered ports. Before consolidation could begin, more territory would have to be conquered to connect the Army from the North with the southern coastline dominated by the Navy. Though neither wants to work together, the plan allows the Imperial Army to make territorial gains, and the Navy to preserve the Empire. Also, it is decided that the Army might be prevented from launching their offensive if a peace settlement is made too soon with the United States. They order representatives to stall for time.
November 20th: The Imperial Army begins to rapidly expand their numbers.
December 4th: 270,000 Japanese soldiers under 9 divisions move to take Changsha, though they face substantial resistance from Chinese armies.
December 25th: On Christmas Day, the Japanese announce their victory over the Chinese at the Battle of Changsha, though guerilla soldiers remain throughout the nearby mountains. The battle is acclaimed as a major victory for the Japanese throughout the conquered territory and into the Home Islands.
December 28th: Operation Ichigo is being developed to allow the Japanese to consolidate their holdings by taking a continuous railway connection from Central China all the way to Indochina. It is determined that it could take anywhere from five to eight months. The Japanese Empire would have only ten months of before stockpiled fuel began running out.
1942 – January 4th: Government sets into motion a large-scale, nationwide project to build synthetic fuel plants, twenty throughout Japan, Manchuoko, and Korea.
February 10th: Operation Ichigo begins. Its aim is to overwhelm the Chinese with as many men as possible to create a continuous railway connection from Manchuoko to Southeast Asia as soon as possible. 17 divisions, 400,000 men, 11,000 vehicles, and 60,000 horses are planned to participate.
March 2nd: Imperial Japanese Army forces, mainly consisting of the 2nd Tank Division, attacks Luoyang.
March 18th: Luoyang falls to the Japanese.
July 5th: Hengyang is taken by the Japanese after significant casualties, damaging the Imperial Japanese Army far more than they had believed.
July 28th: The Imperial Japanese Army has captured Guilin and Liuzhou, sending the Chinese on the retreat.
August 10th: The Japanese claim control of more than 75% of the Guangxi Province. Operation Ichigo has officially ended, and the imperial government claims a massive victory, though they had paid much for it, and left many pockets of resistance throughout China in their mad dash to the South. The Emperor orders the Japanese on the defensive, to lengthen the amount of time their fuel stockpile will last them.
August 23rd: Mamoru Shigemitsu, Japanese ambassador to the United States, meets with his counterpart Sir Robert Craigie at Singapore for a secret British-Japanese summit.
September 5th: The Craigie-Shigemitsu Pact is signed at Singapore. The Japanese agree to withdraw two-thirds of their current standing military from southern Indochina below Tongking, and a third of the troops in Tongking. In return, the British acknowledge Japan’s freedom to “make peace” with China (accepting any current and further territorial gains from the conflict), and the two powers vow neutrality when dealing with each other. [Though Shigemitsu had pushed for an article to close the Burma Road, he had to make concessions, and the Road remains open. The agreement was signed because the British had a strong desire to focus all of their manpower and military equipment on Europe, and they did not want to worry about Japan any longer. Almost all remaining soldiers and ships in the region are sent west, only a small military force left in Hong Kong, while militias and policing forces are built up to provide security. Burma and Bengal are also demilitarized to provide more men in the west.]
September 25th: Japanese enter intense bargains with the Dutch to lift the oil embargo and send aviation fuel. The Dutch East Indies government remains, however, very stubborn about the issue. The Japanese have only three months left of stockpiles, having been relieved somewhat by new acquisitions in China.
October 5th: The Japanese resume light trading with the British, and they buy nothing but fuel.
October 11th: Japan attains a temporary deal with the Dutch East Indies to attain oil for civilian uses on a restricted monthly basis. A committee determines the fuel could keep the Empire functioning for another five months, giving the Japanese the time they need to get new plants built up north. At the news of the deal, the Imperial Japanese Army demands supplies for an offensive to eradicate a pocket of Chinese resistance in southern Henan, and to bolster fortifications along the Manchuoko-Tongking Road.
November 12th: Prime Minister Konoe enters into negotiations with Frederick Delano Roosevelt and Cordell Hull for a settlement at Juneau, Alaska. Many proposals are tossed around.
December 4th: The Treaty of Juneau is signed. The Empire of Japan agrees to not make war with Allied nations for five years after an armistice with Germany is made. Japan will stop all further military action in China and seek an armistice with the Chinese. In return, the United States will supply Japan with 350,000 gallons of aviation fuel, and a monthly supply of fuel for civilian use, mirroring the agreement made with the Dutch. Numbers of naval units throughout the Pacific Ocean are to be fixed between America and Japan for the next ten years, unless the consent of the two nations agrees otherwise.
December 10th: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini join together and declare that the Empire of Japan is no longer a friend of the Axis Powers. German personnel leave immediately.
December 14th: Emperor Showa declares that the drastic initiatives will continue in constructing synthetic fuel plants.
1943 – February to March: Four synthetic fuel plants begin producing fuel, though these first have been rushed through and will be much less efficient than the German plants. One of the Korean plants attempts to make use of Dresner synthesis technologies, but more than anything fails in realizing its ultimate potential.
May to June: Nine synthetic fuel plants are completed. Thanks to a longer period of time spent determining locations for them, these turn out to be very profitable.
August to October: The last seven synthetic fuel plants issued by the 1941 declaration begin producing. Four of them are large Dresner synthetic facilities, and in these the Japanese have gotten them mostly right. The Emperor calls the initiative a success, and promises more advances in the technology, and more fuel. Together, the twenty plants produce approximately 1,060,000 tons of oil, including aviation fuel, providing nearly a fifth of Japan’s fuel consumption.
This is a very rough draft for a timeline I've been putting together for the last few days. You can see that a lot of it is missing, especially the implications on Nazi Germany. Please give suggestions and comments.
Some may call this an alternate timeline with multiple points of divergence. I suggest a single POD, somewhere in the world, unnamed and of impact on only day-to-day life, that breeds butterflies that specifically lead to the changes I make in the beginning, without outside change. A lot of this has to do with the early development of German synthetic fuel technologies, so, please bear with me. Also, all italicized sentences are behind-the-scenes information, for those that want to determine plausibility. For those that desire an easy-to-read timeline, do not read the italics.
1932 – An American scientist, an official at the US Bureau of Mines, forms a relationship with Fritz Haber. They send letters every other year. [This is the German scientist responsible for the Haber Process, and a Nobel Peace Prize winner.]
1933 – March: Fritz Haber, through letters from his American friend, learns of the Karrick Process. He forwards this information to Carl Bosch.
[A system of creating synthetic fuel that was twice as efficient as the more widely used Bergius Process. Haber attains the concept and basic technical information behind the technique. Both Haber and his American friend are warned by the government that they should refrain from technological exchange, and Haber did not want to technologically strengthen the Nazis, but at the time the Nazi government was pushing to force him out of the country due to his Jewish ancestry. Because of this, Haber is able to convince his American friend to send information on the Karrick Process that had been gathered at that time, in order to gain leverage with the Nazis. Carl Bosch was a fellow Nobel prize winner who had worked with him many times, and an important director of the company IG Farben, a good choice to help Fritz Haber with his problem. ]
June: Carl Bosch does what he can to help his friend, but in the end his influence does little for him. Fritz leaves for England. He sends the information on the Karrick Process to fellow Nobel Prize Winner, Friedrich Bergius. Bergius assigns a development team under Dr. Bernd Dresner to utilize the information given to them and begin experiments with the process. [Friedrich Bergius was the inventor of the Bergius Process which in OTL was the main process used in Germany for coal liquefaction. Dresner is a fictional character that could have been.]
1934 – April: Dr. Bernd Dresner puts his name on the Dresner Synthesis, which is believed to have been perfected. The team is given more funding and assigned to build a test plant.
June: Newly appointed Japanese ambassador to Germany, Inoue Kôjirô, pushes for a technological exchange.
1936 – January: IG Farben’s test plant on Dresner synthesis has brought important discoveries with the technology, and has proved much of the technology’s efficiency both in terms of thermal energy and building requirements.
1936 – October: In a conference on increasing oil production, Germany includes the Dresner synthesis technology in plans concerning synthetic fuel plants. [This is downplayed somewhat due to it being a relatively new technology.]
November 22: Germany and Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact. [As in OTL.]
1937 – January: As part of a small opening technological exchange between the two empires, Japan attains a deal with IG Farben to build two modern synthetic fuel plants in Hokkaido and Manchuoko. One of the plants will be in fact a large-scale Dresner synthesis plant, as an experiment for IG Farben to learn from. Japan also agrees to send a prototype reconnaissance plane to Germany.
July 7: The undeclared Second Sino-Japanese War begins. [It occurs much the same as OTL.]
December 12: The Panay Incident does not occur. Japanese sailors recognize that the USN Panay gunboat is an American ship. [American opinion does not turn sharply against the Japanese. Before the Panay Incident, a good portion of the American population had been on the Japanese’ side. Moreover, the Japanese do not need to pay the Americans two million dollars in reparations.]
1938 – April to August: IG Farben completes its synthetic fuel plants in the Japanese Empire. The “flawless Western concept and German design” of the two plants provide a great example to the Japanese scientists and engineers within the industry for which they can learn from. The two plants are estimated to provide nearly 100,000 tons of synthetic fuel per year for the Japanese.
[More important over time. Japan had experimented with synthetic fuels since the 1920s, but was unable to realize the necessity of a test-pilot plant stage. In OTL, an attempt to construct synthetic fuel plants throughout the Empire was abandoned because they could not make the transition from small-scale to large-scale. The German example provides the understanding they need.]
1939 – January: Lurgi AG, a German corporation, approves a plan to build a bituminous coal factory near Beijang and a gasification factory in Hokkaido. [In OTL, they had flirted with the idea. With IG Farben’s Japanese deal a success, it convinces enough personalities to receive approval.]
September 1: Poland is invaded. World War 2 in Europe has begun. [It goes largely the same as in OTL. Our focus now is elsewhere.]
1940 - September 19th: Germany and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact, forming the Axis Powers. [As in OTL, six days earlier.]
April 3rd: The Soviet Union and Japan sign the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact. [As in OTL, ten days earlier.]
1940 – January: The United States terminates its commerce treaty with Japan, which will allow it to impose trade embargoes.
September 24th: Vichy France signs the Hanoi Pact, ceding airfields to Japan and agreeing to admission of troops into northern Indochina in Tongking.
1941 – January: The United States bans the shipment of aviation gasoline to Japan, and denies Japan access to the Panama Canal, over the invasion of Indochina.
March 14th: An undeclared war between the French and the natives in French Indochina, thought to be initiated by the revanchist Thai, turns exceedingly violent with the use of artillery in the guerilla warfare in the southern part of the country. Japanese soldiers are used against native rebellion, and mediate the conflict. The French begin giving over many parts of the government and economy to the Japanese, including a monopoly over the Indochinese rice crop and air ports throughout the territory. The Japanese also begin pushing for the French to allow the Thai to reclaim some of their lost territory.
June 22nd: Germany invades the Soviet Union with Operation Barbarossa. [As in OTL, on schedule.]
June 25th: Japan calls for more than 1 million conscripts into the Imperial Army.
July 6th: Japan recalls her merchant ships from the Atlantic.
August 2nd: Japan occupies all of French Indochina at the permission of Vichy France.
September 23rd: During the Battle of Changsha, Japan’s second attempt to take the Chinese city, the city’s defenses is sabotaged by several hundred Japanese troops dressed in plain clothes. Heavy fighting breaks out, but though the Chinese take very heavy casualties, their numbers win them the battle. [In OTL, they failed to sabotage the city’s defenses, leading to their rapid defeat.]
October 20th: The United States freezes all assets in Japan and China, and initiates an oil embargo against the Japanese Empire. Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe begins immediately to seek peace terms with the United States, while the Japanese government spends the next week debating the future course of the Empire.
October 23rd: It is determined that, at the current rates of production, the Japanese Empire will only have enough oil for 24 months and 24 days, nearly half that much if they go to war with the United States.
October 25th: The “Fuel and China” doctrine is adopted by the Japanese government, led by the ultranationalist, pacifist Toho Kai faction. The Emperor, the Prime Minister, and the Navy all agree that facing the United States would be far too dangerous of a move at that time. The doctrine also warns that for the prosperity of the Japanese Empire, they must do two things: ruin the Chinese enemy and claim victory as soon as possible and keep oil flowing. As long as they can attain these two items, they decide to make any concession to the United States.
November 4th: The Japanese partially demobilizes their military out of French Indochina, cutting the number of soldiers by 50%, and limiting naval presence to only a small battle group outside of non-military craft. This is made as a concession towards the United States.
November 10th: Summit begins between Japan and the United States in Honolulu, Hawaii over terms to end the embargo. Prime Minister Konoe discusses leaving the Axis Powers, or at least refusing to exchange technology, in order to resume American oil imports.
November 13th: Two realizations are made during an Imperial Conference. First, self-sufficiency of oil and fuel had to be built up as soon as possible, using synthetic fuel technologies. This could not be done, however, with China still such a hostile foe. Nakano Seigo, head of the Toho Kai faction, launches into his initiative to consolidate conquests and begin to debate peace terms with the enemy. The Navy and Army are concerned of the Philippine threat to their southern conquered ports. Before consolidation could begin, more territory would have to be conquered to connect the Army from the North with the southern coastline dominated by the Navy. Though neither wants to work together, the plan allows the Imperial Army to make territorial gains, and the Navy to preserve the Empire. Also, it is decided that the Army might be prevented from launching their offensive if a peace settlement is made too soon with the United States. They order representatives to stall for time.
November 20th: The Imperial Army begins to rapidly expand their numbers.
December 4th: 270,000 Japanese soldiers under 9 divisions move to take Changsha, though they face substantial resistance from Chinese armies.
December 25th: On Christmas Day, the Japanese announce their victory over the Chinese at the Battle of Changsha, though guerilla soldiers remain throughout the nearby mountains. The battle is acclaimed as a major victory for the Japanese throughout the conquered territory and into the Home Islands.
December 28th: Operation Ichigo is being developed to allow the Japanese to consolidate their holdings by taking a continuous railway connection from Central China all the way to Indochina. It is determined that it could take anywhere from five to eight months. The Japanese Empire would have only ten months of before stockpiled fuel began running out.
1942 – January 4th: Government sets into motion a large-scale, nationwide project to build synthetic fuel plants, twenty throughout Japan, Manchuoko, and Korea.
February 10th: Operation Ichigo begins. Its aim is to overwhelm the Chinese with as many men as possible to create a continuous railway connection from Manchuoko to Southeast Asia as soon as possible. 17 divisions, 400,000 men, 11,000 vehicles, and 60,000 horses are planned to participate.
March 2nd: Imperial Japanese Army forces, mainly consisting of the 2nd Tank Division, attacks Luoyang.
March 18th: Luoyang falls to the Japanese.
July 5th: Hengyang is taken by the Japanese after significant casualties, damaging the Imperial Japanese Army far more than they had believed.
July 28th: The Imperial Japanese Army has captured Guilin and Liuzhou, sending the Chinese on the retreat.
August 10th: The Japanese claim control of more than 75% of the Guangxi Province. Operation Ichigo has officially ended, and the imperial government claims a massive victory, though they had paid much for it, and left many pockets of resistance throughout China in their mad dash to the South. The Emperor orders the Japanese on the defensive, to lengthen the amount of time their fuel stockpile will last them.
August 23rd: Mamoru Shigemitsu, Japanese ambassador to the United States, meets with his counterpart Sir Robert Craigie at Singapore for a secret British-Japanese summit.
September 5th: The Craigie-Shigemitsu Pact is signed at Singapore. The Japanese agree to withdraw two-thirds of their current standing military from southern Indochina below Tongking, and a third of the troops in Tongking. In return, the British acknowledge Japan’s freedom to “make peace” with China (accepting any current and further territorial gains from the conflict), and the two powers vow neutrality when dealing with each other. [Though Shigemitsu had pushed for an article to close the Burma Road, he had to make concessions, and the Road remains open. The agreement was signed because the British had a strong desire to focus all of their manpower and military equipment on Europe, and they did not want to worry about Japan any longer. Almost all remaining soldiers and ships in the region are sent west, only a small military force left in Hong Kong, while militias and policing forces are built up to provide security. Burma and Bengal are also demilitarized to provide more men in the west.]
September 25th: Japanese enter intense bargains with the Dutch to lift the oil embargo and send aviation fuel. The Dutch East Indies government remains, however, very stubborn about the issue. The Japanese have only three months left of stockpiles, having been relieved somewhat by new acquisitions in China.
October 5th: The Japanese resume light trading with the British, and they buy nothing but fuel.
October 11th: Japan attains a temporary deal with the Dutch East Indies to attain oil for civilian uses on a restricted monthly basis. A committee determines the fuel could keep the Empire functioning for another five months, giving the Japanese the time they need to get new plants built up north. At the news of the deal, the Imperial Japanese Army demands supplies for an offensive to eradicate a pocket of Chinese resistance in southern Henan, and to bolster fortifications along the Manchuoko-Tongking Road.
November 12th: Prime Minister Konoe enters into negotiations with Frederick Delano Roosevelt and Cordell Hull for a settlement at Juneau, Alaska. Many proposals are tossed around.
December 4th: The Treaty of Juneau is signed. The Empire of Japan agrees to not make war with Allied nations for five years after an armistice with Germany is made. Japan will stop all further military action in China and seek an armistice with the Chinese. In return, the United States will supply Japan with 350,000 gallons of aviation fuel, and a monthly supply of fuel for civilian use, mirroring the agreement made with the Dutch. Numbers of naval units throughout the Pacific Ocean are to be fixed between America and Japan for the next ten years, unless the consent of the two nations agrees otherwise.
December 10th: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini join together and declare that the Empire of Japan is no longer a friend of the Axis Powers. German personnel leave immediately.
December 14th: Emperor Showa declares that the drastic initiatives will continue in constructing synthetic fuel plants.
1943 – February to March: Four synthetic fuel plants begin producing fuel, though these first have been rushed through and will be much less efficient than the German plants. One of the Korean plants attempts to make use of Dresner synthesis technologies, but more than anything fails in realizing its ultimate potential.
May to June: Nine synthetic fuel plants are completed. Thanks to a longer period of time spent determining locations for them, these turn out to be very profitable.
August to October: The last seven synthetic fuel plants issued by the 1941 declaration begin producing. Four of them are large Dresner synthetic facilities, and in these the Japanese have gotten them mostly right. The Emperor calls the initiative a success, and promises more advances in the technology, and more fuel. Together, the twenty plants produce approximately 1,060,000 tons of oil, including aviation fuel, providing nearly a fifth of Japan’s fuel consumption.