WI: Japan went red during Cold War

Unfortunately???

most likely unfortunate in regard to create a plausible time line...

Heh! I guess you haven't looked into Jello Biafra's "Reds!" timelines then. The Communist successor state to the USA there is quite a nice, Utopian place, and what Marx wanted and expected to see was proletarian revolution in a highly developed capitalist nation; he didn't expect it to turn out to be a gulag state in terminal stagnation but the most free and vibrantly progressive society in the world--one that would in fact by the sheer force of example catalyze similar revolution in all the developed nations and then perforce the less developed ones so the whole world is a cooperative Communist federation.

That, at least as much as a merely alternate therefore interesting timeline, is what JB is regretting seems to be unattainable.

It would be from one point of view, the end of history as we've known it hitherto because there would be no more warring states and no more class struggle either; from another point of view, the beginning of human history as a mature species.

Whether it's insanely unattainable by the nature of things, or even repellently evil by its own nature, is a whole other set of topics of debate.
 
Heh! I guess you haven't looked into Jello Biafra's "Reds!" timelines then. The Communist successor state to the USA there is quite a nice, Utopian place, and what Marx wanted and expected to see was proletarian revolution in a highly developed capitalist nation; he didn't expect it to turn out to be a gulag state in terminal stagnation but the most free and vibrantly progressive society in the world--one that would in fact by the sheer force of example catalyze similar revolution in all the developed nations and then perforce the less developed ones so the whole world is a cooperative Communist federation.

That, at least as much as a merely alternate therefore interesting timeline, is what JB is regretting seems to be unattainable.

It would be from one point of view, the end of history as we've known it hitherto because there would be no more warring states and no more class struggle either; from another point of view, the beginning of human history as a mature species.

Whether it's insanely unattainable by the nature of things, or even repellently evil by its own nature, is a whole other set of topics of debate.

seems like an interesting read, with however some implausible hinders.
 
Not at all plausable, and utterly ASB in a late 70s/early 80s timeframe.

This is the biggest question out there. How is Japan going to go Red with a huge US military presence?

Not only that, but the CIA spent quite a bit of time and money to undermine the left in Japan.

Nothing like that was in the cards in the 1970s and even if all Southeast Asia did go Red, there's really no plausible chain of connections that would drive or lure Japan to go down the same road.

This is key, and why the timeframe is ASB. By the late 70s, the Economic Miracle had already occured (there's a reason they call it the "golden sixties"), and the general populace was living well enough that communism wasn't a lure.
 
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