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Table of Contents
Points of Divergence : Japan
Points of divergence concerning alternate historical developments within the modern day territory of Japan.
Japan is an island country in northeast Asia, wellknown for its many contributions to international culture, namely ninjas, samurai, karate, and sushi. Besides Japan's current proficiency for everything technological, AH.commers also adore Japan for its awesome history. After being ruled for centuries by petty kings and warlords, the nation unites, invades all of its neighbors, loses, and isolates from the world only to be reawakened another couple of centuries later, where it almost repeats the process. Because of Japans great and influential history, it is featured in many AHs and is constantly studied by AHistorians.
Prehistory (until roughly 400/300 BC)
A Japan dominated by the Jomon, Eminshi and Ainu cultures
WI the Jomon people resist the Yayoi or contain them in Kyushu ?
Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.
Pre-Korean Invasions (400/300 BC - 1598 AD)
Discussion about Japan being Hindu
A more diverse Korea and Japan
WI: Japan with dynastic cycle (in the vein of China)
WI: Emishi victory in the Thirty-Eight Years' War (beginning in 773 AD)
Cuisine and foods of a Japanese/Korean/Chinese colonized west coast of North America ?
Challenge: Buff up the Ryukyu Kingdom
Plausibility check: Spain colonizes Japan
Challenge: Japan develops a strong gun culture
Miscellaneous feudal era Japan POD ideas
Plausibility check: Taiwan becoming an overseas possession of the Ryukyu Kingdom ?
Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.
Korean Invasions and the Era of Isolation (1592-1854)
WI Japanese try to colonize Formosa in 1594, earlier end to Imjin War
Plausibility check: Could the Japanese conquer China in the 1600s ?
WI: Tokugawa decides some expansion may be desirable
Non-political developments in a Japan without the Tokugawa shogunate
What if Japan did not abandom firearms manufacturing?
Discussion about Japan being converted to Catholicism
More discussion on a potentially Christianised Japan
Plausibility check: No Sakoku Policy and a Catholic Japan
WI the Dutch or Spanish invade Okinawa instead of Taiwan in the 1620s
Discussion on Japan being opened to trade in the 1660s
Challenge: Japan East Indies Company
Discussion on Spain conquering Japan during the colonial era
Discussion about Japan going south instead of attacking Korea
Japan a Great Power of the World by the 1600s ?
Miscellaneous feudal era Japan POD ideas
An earlier 'Meiji Restoration' equivalent ?
Earlier end to Japan's isolation
Challenge: Civil war in 19th century Japan
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From the Meiji era to the Invasion of China (1854/1867-1937)
WI: Japan partitioned by European Powers
Plausibility check: French seizure of the Ryukyuan Islands, Taiwan and Hainan by the 1850s
Challenge: Bring Japan into the American Civil War
Japan purchasing Alaska from Russia
WI Japan opens to Russian trade earlier ?
Challenge: Curb the Japanese Empire (1894 to 1910)
Plausibility check: 1894 - Japan buys the Philippines
WI the Japanese sold Taiwan to France in 1897
Plausibility check: Earliest possible Pacific War between Japan and the US ?
Challenge: Avoid the militarists usurping power (with a POD after 1900)
Japan acquiring Madagascar pre-WWI
Japan defeats Spain and takes its Pacific colonies
Japan being more involved in WWI
Challenge: Prolong the era of "Taisho Democracy" that occured in the OTL 1920s
WI Japanese militarists do not take over ?
Discussion on Japan staying neutral and staying Imperial run to present day
Japan becoming Communist with a POD between 1900 and 1939 ?
Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.
Invasion of China and WWII (1937-1945)
An isolated war between Britain and Japan in the 1940s
WI Japan wins the Battle of Khalkhin Gol ?
Plausibility check: Was the USSR actually capable of conquering Japan at the end of WWII ?
Japan chooses not to attack Pearl Harbour. What do Americans do ?
A Soviet-Japanese War in 1939-1941 ?
Japan rebuilding the Kwantung Army
Yamamoto is placed in charge of the attack on Pearl Harbor
Japanese invasion of Hawaii succeeds, but ends in disaster
WI Japan had radar at its disposal during WWII ?
Plausibility check: Hideyoki Tojo's Alaskan Alternative
Plausibility check: Japan securing the Sakhalin oil fields in 1939 ?
Terms for Japanese surrender in 1942/43 and its long-term consequences
WI Japan surrenders early (e.g. in 1944) ?
Help with a plausible Japanese WWII victory
WI: No atomic bombs dropped on Japan
Operation Downfall 1945: US invasion of Japan
Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.
After WWII (1945-present)
Discussion about Japan keeping Taiwan after WWII
Challenge: Japan keeps the Meiji Constitution after WWII
Discussion about Japan getting carved up into occupation zones after WWII
WI: Post-WWII Communist North Japan and capitalist South Japan (with a POD in late WWII)
Japan becoming an industrial or minor superpower with a POD in or after 1946
No economic bubble for Japan after the 1980s
Challenge : A Japanese response that avoids the Lost Decade
The NHK as the sole national broadcaster of Japan for many years
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Miscellaneous
Discussion on the importance of more original PODs concerning Japan
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ASB / ISOT / Geological
Landlocked Nations, Navies, and Islands ISOT to Waterworld
Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.