WI: Japan seizes Philippines from Germany

I don’t think anyone cares about those little islands in the middle of the Pacific. But Japan can be forced to withdraw from both Tsingtao and the southern Philippines through economic pressure. That’s assuming they get to the South Philippines before the British, which is no guarantee.
I suppose it is possible that a British force, perhaps the Anzacs or a British Indian army, would meet a Japanese force there. Could it be be gearing up to land there while Japan was still busy in Tsingtao? The course of the conflict is also significant as to what kind of forces the Germans reinforced the place with and where they are in the islands.
 
Germany had a desire for the Philippines. Let's say the US doesn't bother taking the islands during the Spanish-American War and the indebted Spanish sell the place to the Germans. The Germans proceed to spend a decade or so asserting authority over the islands.

Flash-forward to WWI, and Japan grabs the Philippines.

Might this satiate Japanese expansionism? Asserting authority over and modernizing the archipelago would be a time-intensive and costly endeavor.
Depends, Knowing what come next, the Phillipines would still be figthing for germany even in late 1918 as the japanese will have a nightmare time there...just for them to declared or be forced independance from the entete...that is if the entete win at all...
 
And that’s exactly why they wouldn’t be allowed to have the whole Phillipines. They would get the northern part, but Britain will take the south to keep the Japanese away from Malaya. Either that or they give it to the Netherlands and get the rest of Borneo in exchange.

I’m no apologist for the Kaiserreich, but Germany deciding to just massacre the Filipinos is implausible. They would probably be more heavy-handed with the Tagalog nationalists and Moros than America, but it isn’t going to descend into Belgian Congo or Second World War Eastern Front levels of depravity.

Some more cold water.

The Germans sure tried to muscle their way in when the Americans fought at Manila Bay. It should not have come as a surprise and did not to the Americans, that would happen, based on the Samoan Incident and other clashes in the Pacific. The Americans with their hair trigger tempered commander, George Dewey was not too keen about that incompetent von Dederichs, when he stumble bummed his way into Manila Bay and tried "make deals" with the Spaniards and Aguinaldo.

The Japanese, not to be left out, at the time, had an interesting ultranationalist movement, called the Shishi, left over from their Edo Republic period nonsense, when the French tried to interfere in their internal affairs. Anyhow, one of these Shishi fellows, in a classic Japanese example of what the Americans recognized immediately as a filibuster, a chap named Hara Tei, at about the same time that von Dederichs almost got the Germans and Americans into a hot war with his shenanigans in Subic Bay and inside Manila city and with his secret meetings with Aguinaldo's people massing near Bataan, this "volunteer" joined Aguinaldo's Filipino National Army with a company of fellow "volunteers" and was almost immediately on the American "radar" as another big troublemaker. This guy, Hara, was not subtle. Well, maybe a little more subtle than von Dederichs, but the upshot was that he was persona non grataed (to be killed on sight), as soon as the Americans dealt with von Dederichs and took Manila under Aguinaldo's nose.

The idea that the Spanish American War is not going to kybosh the OP, is simply not in the cards. Your initial PoD has to go into place way before 1848 as American and Spanish enmity goes back that far at least over Cuba. Possibly as far back as the Florida conquest. This speculation, therefore, is just not going to happen. Too much 19th century history has to be derailed.

P.S. Google Sulu Sultanate and "the Battle of the Crater" and then get a true picture of American operations in the Philippine Islands. This assumption that the American army was not as harsh as the WW I Germans is utterly fallacious. Or try this;

Here.

I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn, the more you kill and burn the better it will please me. I want all persons killed who are capable of bearing arms in actual hostilities against the United States," General Jacob H. Smith said.

Since it was a popular belief among the Americans serving in the Philippines that native males were born with bolos in their hands, Major Littleton "Tony" Waller asked, "I would like to know the limit of age to respect, sir."

"Ten years", Smith said.

"Persons of ten years and older are those designated as being capable of bearing arms?"

"Yes." Smith confirmed his instructions a second time.

That was the situation on Samar. Might want to take a look at Congressional hearings on the American army's activities in Northern Luzon. One senator is reputed to have commented after visiting the area to see for himself; that it was pacified because there were no men of arms bearing age left alive in the districts...(^^^)
 
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Considering they were genociding the peoples of Namibia for the grave crime of existing and outright enslaving the peoples of German New Guinea? I'd wager they would do similarly to the Filipinos regardless of their religion.

German empire isnt a genociding empire to all their colonies, there were model German colonies like the Japanese colony, Taiwan. Genociding in Namibia or New Guinea didnt result in OTL Germany genociding in all their colonies. German empire isnt Big Evil.

The question really that I asked was how the Germans treat Hispanic cultures since Philippine culture pod 1898 was roughly similar to Latin/South America than Namibia or New Guinea. Thus, treatment would be closer to how Germany would treat Latin/Hispanic countries.
 
Davao attracted a great many Japanese migrants OTL, to the point that the Japanese referred to the city as Little Japan. I can't see the Japanese giving up the bulk of Mindanao.

The British may be able to demand the Sulu Archipelago though. Perhaps Palawan and the Zamboanga Peninsula as well.
 
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