WI The USA declares war on the Japanese in WWI

On 2 December, The Washington Post reported on an incident involving Montanan. While headed down the Pacific coast of Mexico with a cargo of dried fruits and canned goods, Montanan was approached by a Japanese warship, which fired a warning shot for Montanan to stop. After doing so, a boarding party with Japanese officers in a launch headed to Montanan. When the American identity of Montanan was established to the satisfaction of the Japanese, they returned to their ship without boarding Montanan. The news report did not identify the type or the name of the Japanese warship, which had been searching for a German vessel thought to be operating in the area

WI This minor incident turned into a major crisis, i.e the Japanese believing the Montanan was the German vessel and sunk on sight?

What would be the outcome?
 
WI This minor incident turned into a major crisis, i.e the Japanese believing the Montanan was the German vessel and sunk on sight?

What would be the outcome?

Its difficult to see how even a sinking would cause more than a bit of a crisis, considering we're talking about two allied nations

What might have produced something was US opposition to Japanese actions in the Far East, including attempts to annex some of the Amur Maritime region.

I can't ever recall full details about anything anymore, but Japan eventually had to back down when the combined might of the Allies' diplomacy was turned against it. One could posit this not happening - maybe the Allies are more involved in Russia themselves and don't want to see the Japanese withdraw, maybe there's still war in Europe (no Michael so perhaps war continung into 1919) and infighting between Allies is seen as less than useful

Post-WW1 may have thus been followed by a US-Japanese war...

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
WI This minor incident turned into a major crisis, i.e the Japanese believing the Montanan was the German vessel and sunk on sight?

What would be the outcome?
US doesn't ask for Janapese help in Siberia, Japan doesn't send troops to Amur.

without this adventurism and subsequent humiliation. there is no Japanese takeover of Manchuria in 1931, no invasion of Chine in 1936.
Today Imperial Japan is the worlds 3rd largest economy.
 
What year?

If this was in 1917, I suspect that it's no more than an ugly incident, with no war declared. But, postwar, it gets messy...

If this is in 1914 or 1915, it could get very ugly. I suspect that there would be large bricks found in the privys of various Entente leaders. In the end, if war looked likely, Britian, France, and Russia would be absolutely insane to do anything other than to try and defuse the situation. If they couldn't defuse it, then the only possible action is to throw Japan off the sled. They simply can't afford for the USA to become hostile.
 
If Japan is an allied nation, then is it immpossible to think the America might join the german side?now that would screw up history.
 
A war won't happen. The sinking of the Lusitania was a deliberate attempt ny the Germans, but the US only complained and didn't declare war till more than two years later. Even then, the trigger was the Zimmerman telegram, not Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare.

If this POD was only an accidental incident, then at most, the US would only complain, but won't do anything drastic.
 

Markus

Banned
WI This minor incident turned into a major crisis, i.e the Japanese believing the Montanan was the German vessel and sunk on sight?

The warship would still do exactly the same unless the Montanan tries to run or opens fire. Which she won´t do. Given the IJN´s high level of training we can even exclude trigger happy gunners with a very high probability.
 
I doubt this would have led to any major or minor conflict. If this was after the US declared on Germany, then Japan was an ally and it would simply be an accident. If this was pre-DoW on Germany, then it could have stopped the US from joining or being as interested as joining.
 
If their is a war it will not be a fun one for America. True we can make a bunch of soldiers, and stuff but Japan doesn't have to worry about planes, submarines, or A-bombs. Just bolt actions rifles, warships, and machine guns will have to fight off Japanese holdings. We may have a good battle at sea with America seeing what Japan can really do.

But mostly this whole thing depends on if America is willing to accept an apology from a "Yellow" nation that fire don a ship without provocation.
 
According to Wikipedia the incident happened in 1914, so it's still early enough in the war for the US to be more or less undecided.

As others have said, barring massive diplomatic blunders/temporary insanity on the part of the Entente the Japanese will apoligize and pay reparations and no war will be declared. However, I expect that popular opinion would be more anti-Entente than OTL, so the US might hold to strict neutrality, which in and of itself is a major change.
 
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