WI Japan discovers the Daqing oilfield

We all know that Japan needed oil for its war machine. The American embargo was one reason they attacked South East Asia. All that time they were sitting on a large oilfield in Manchuria which was more than big enough and useable with drilling technology of the day. Due to sheer bad luck they didn't find it in all that time between 1931 and 1945. In the end the Chinese found it in 1959.

Suppose that the Daqing oilfield had been found somewhere between 1935 and 1938 and then three years to get operations going. What happens then?
 
Then Japan never attacks the Allies; no pacific war. USA probably gets into WW2 by the end of 1942, although no USA in the war for that year might be really painful for the Soviets and for the UK.

Figure that the Soviet Union is a bit worse for the wear, and that nuclear weapons are finished in 1946, months after the war in Europe comes to a close, probably on a similar scope to OTL.

Japan will probably force some kind of order in China, but it'll be similar to South Vietnam--a neverending quagmire.
 
I wonder what happens to Korea. Is there any chance of them getting independence in this scenario?

Not for at least two generations. Let Japan make the transition back towards a democracy and get tired of being an Empire, and Korea may be let go in the 1990s or so.
 
Not for at least two generations. Let Japan make the transition back towards a democracy and get tired of being an Empire, and Korea may be let go in the 1990s or so.

Or perhaps after those two or three generations Japanese policies and population allow for the full integration of Korea and Formosa into the Empire proper. Korea was seen by many as just part of Japan ... as was Formosa as just backwater regions formally owned in the past by China and simply another area or two coveted by the Japanese and Europeans. I don't think either place held a real identity in the eyes of the world. Also, Wiki states (grain of salt) that there was large emigration to Korea by the Japanese and this would probably continue in full. 1945 figures have nearly 1 Million there. That's only going to increase the regions likelihood of remaining part of Japan. I suppose independence is possible, but just as likely is those parts being seen and administrated as crucial and parts of Japan. Much like France regarded Algeria as part of France not just a colony. Maybe Korea goes the way of Algeria and revolt ... but I tend to think slow integration just as or more likely.
 
Japan could possibly join Germany in it's war against the Soviet Union. They made no secret of the fact they wanted Siberia and Japan jumpin on it's back during the height of Barbarossa would be a disaster for the Soviets.

Argue all you want about Japan's ability to wage a sustained war against the Soviets, but the reinforcements that saved Moscow did come from the Far East.

After Japan gets it's slice of Siberia from a peace settlement(the Russians almost have to after Moscow falls..), the real question is how do the Allies fare in a single front war against Germany and do they eventually do something about Japan? For that matter would they still get greedy and eventually Go South anyways?
 
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