To Make Japan Win

What would it take for Japan to win in WWII.

A larger colonial empire, like that of the french or dutch.

If Japan took Indonesia in the 1800s, could it produce enough oil to supply and fight a prolonged war and an eventual stalemate between the US and Japan.

Or is it completely impossible for a Japanese victory?
 
What would it take for Japan to win in WWII.

A larger colonial empire, like that of the french or dutch.

If Japan took Indonesia in the 1800s, could it produce enough oil to supply and fight a prolonged war and an eventual stalemate between the US and Japan.

Or is it completely impossible for a Japanese victory?
If we're going all the way to the 1880s, making Japan friendlier with the US is a possibility. Or even have Britain be the one to weaken the US in the late 19th/earlier 20th centuries so it just won't be able to win in a big fight.
 
Problem with Japan is that it has very short time to play. They were a latecomer to colonial game, so taking anything would involve war with major power. War that Japan is not able to win before at the very least 1890. Besides, any colonisation before Meiji restoration ain't gonna happen.

POD that has Japan fare any better would probably involve pre-Sengoku period. Perhaps with Japan conquering major parts of China. But there are new problems this opens up, China being stronger country in absolute terms.

To build enough industry to outproduce USA is probably impossible, as Japan in 1870's was basically feudal society just being pushed kicking and screaming into industrial capitalism.

Perhaps there is an option which includes allying with China rather than alienating her. However, I doubt this is posdible as Japanese viewed China as a territory to be exploited and not as a country to work together with.
 
It looks like Japan should have a good position.

The only way the U.S. can reach them is by island hopping, in theory it should allow for great defense.

The problem is other things going on, so they can't concentrate on island defense, submarines, and sinking merchants/troop transports.
 
Japan is the UK of the Axis: fighting the longest of anyone in the coalition, but the most vulnerable by virtue of having the greatest dependence on overseas transport and having to import most of its goods, as well as having the most difficult overall task of the Axis coalition. It, in short, can no more win WWII on its own than the UK could have done that for the Allies, what would be required at a bare minimum is for all three Axis to have the kind of co-ordination the Allies did (that is snarling at each other in private, forced smiles in public, never losing sight of differences, and everyone acknowledging pure alliances of convenience at the time). Or alternately have Japan avert the Nanking Massacre and that might help it dramatically by making a political solution at least feasible.
 
What would it take for Japan to win in WWII.

A larger colonial empire, like that of the french or dutch.

If Japan took Indonesia in the 1800s, could it produce enough oil to supply and fight a prolonged war and an eventual stalemate between the US and Japan.

Or is it completely impossible for a Japanese victory?
if they had the oil already you just lost the reason for the war in the first place
 
if they had the oil already you just lost the reason for the war in the first place

Well the butterflies from that are so huge it is hard to say but if the Japanese Empire is anything at all like OTL then enough is not a word they understand. They seemed to be programmed to overreach no matter what the cost. So eventually they would end up at war with the US just because they couldn't leave the biggest kid on the block alone. :rolleyes:
 
Godzilla helping out would be good. (We've offered 1800s PODs in post 1900, so ASB fits about as well)
 
For Japan to win, it requires them to outlast the will of the American people. To do that, they have to NOT open with Pearl Harbor and not take steps (e.g. the treatment of US POWs) that make the American public inclined towards the 'Japanese only spoken in Hell' position. If they do that, and get really lucky in several battles, a negotiated peace is a possibility. But if the fight is just force on force, with will removed from the equation (which Pearl Harbor effectively did), Japan is SOL, the US of the 1940s is simply far far too powerful to win in a war without mercy against.
 
Well, if Japan fights a very implausible war against the US on the same side of Britain and Soviet Union, maybe... I think it is ASB barring a far back POD, probably a pre-1900 one.
 
What would it take for Japan to win in WWII.

Reliable sources of oil, iron and coal under Japanese control and which aren't hundreds of miles away across long, exposed sea lanes in the face of a determined naval opponent. And waiting until after the war starts to get those sources is waiting too long.
 

Sir

Banned
The easiest way is to Japan get someone who understand American politics into their foreign affairs office. If Japan enters the war right after the fall of France like Italy, Britain has too many problems on too many fronts to stay in the war for long. The USA would apply sanctions on Japan but probably stop short of open war. Britain negotiates a ceasefire to keep whats left of its empire, and Hitler gets unimpeded war the USSR and wins. Maybe after that happens Japan can take slice of Siberia. Japan is way overextended at that point, but could be considered a winner of WWII.
 
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