The Three-Day War, also known as the US-Japanese War, The Marianas War, or The August War, was fought between Japan, Philippines and the United States. When a new Filipino government failed to negotiate the Japanese withdrawl of the island, they began secret preparations for a military takeover of the Japanese bases on Luzon and Mindanao. With the Filipino president getting finally decided to launch an assault in August but Japanese Intelligence services discovered the attempted assault and the Japanese gave a 48 hour demarche to the Philippines to stand down. Against the suggestions of his advisors at this time the US President John Kennedy decided to guarantee the Filipino actions. Japan decided to test the US resolve and launched a preemptive strike against the Philippines. At the war's end, Japan occupied the Philippines and by the end of the year a more “Japanese friendly” government was in place but both the US and Japan suffered thousands of casualties. The results of the war affect the geopolitics of the region to this day.

The Global War represented for Japan a military and a political defeat. Heavy diplomatic pressure from both the United States, the British Empire and the Central Powers forced Japan to withdraw its military from their remaining conquest of the early years of the war and forced them to accept the lost of certain territories and to reduce their military. After the Global War, Japan agreed to the prohibition of the development of atomic weapons but continued their research in secret, achieving a functional weapon by 1948. While the rest of the nations suspected Japan to have atomic weapons, conclusive proof was not available and by that time Japan was strong enough to make any attempt to enforce the Treaty of San Francisco a very dangerous action to the victors of the Global War.

Philippines' decision to ally themselves with the Japanese during the Global War cost them in the diplomatic front. The nation was a political pariah during the 1940's and early 1950's but by the end of that decade the relationships between them and the European nations began to improve but still the nation was deeply tied to Japan.

The aftermath of the Global War saw the region return to an uneasy balance without any real resolution of the region's difficulties. A military Junta rose to power in Japan still believing themselves to only being in a ceasefire against their former enemies, China considered their gains in the just ended war as too modest for the considerable losses in property and lives they suffered, Philippines began to shaft under the Japanese guidance while the European colonies continue to stagnate. By the 1960's the area was a cauldron ready to explode.

What is now considered the initial spark of the war was the election of Manuel Azaña as President of the Philippines on March 1967. This was followed by failed negotiations to force the Japanese to close their bases in Luzon and Mindanao ahead of schedule. With negotiations failing, Azaña ordered his General Staff to prepare a plan for a military takeover of the Japanese installations on the Philippines. Aid from the United States was sought but at the beginning the Filipino pleas for assistance were politely ignored by the United States government.

The announced of a Japanese military exercise near the island of Luzon for the month of November coupled with an attempted assassination attempt against the life of President Azaña on August 3 1967 panicked the Filipino President, who ordered his General Staff to go ahead with their plan for the capture of the Japanese bases on their island.

Japanese Intelligence got hold of the Filipino plan and gave President Azaña a 48 hour demarche to surrender and allow Japanese troops to disarm his army. The Filipinos tried frantically to assure the US aid and finally on August 8 US President Kennedy against the advise of his Cabinet decided to ensure the Philippines' independence. Three days later he announced that US forces were going to be send to the area “to ensure the safety of the Filipino people.” In response to that announcement a part of the Japanese naval units going to Luzon detached themselves from that force to try to intercept the US force. The War was at hand.

The United States Pacific Fleet consisted at the time of fourteen carriers, three battleships and six AA battlecruisers. Also the 2nd Marine Division was based in San Diego but a Marine Expeditionary Force composed of a Marine Regiment, artillery and armor support was always available for rapid deployment. The Naval Task Force that left Pearl Harbor and other bases on the West Coast on August 13 1967 was composed of eleven carriers, three battleships, the six AA battlecruisers and the 23 MEF.

Philippines'army had a total strength of 55,000 but close to half the forces were of inferior quality or in antipartisan operations in Mindanao at the beginning of August.

The Japanese forces were ten Imperial Army Divisions and eight Special Naval Landing Force divisions. While the ten Army divisions main concern was to garrison the Home Islands, Korea, Karafuto and Taiwan the SNLF was the striking force of the Japanese Empire. The Combined Fleet forces that left Japan for Philippines on August 12 1967 were composed by two super carriers, two battleships, eight carriers and the striking force of the SNLF composed of an embarked division. At the same time another SNLF division was flown by aircraft to the bases in Luzon and Mindanao to reinforce the garrisons on the bases. The force that detached themselves from the Combined Fleet task force to intercept the US Task Force on August 13 1967 was composed of the two supercarrier and six additional ones, the rest of the Japanese Task Force continued their advance in the direction of Luzon.

August 17 1967

The two fleets are nearing each other north of the Marianas Islands when Japanese aircraft and helicopters launch a pre-emptive attack on the Filipino military. Air strikes are immediately launched by the US fleet versus the Japanese, and the most intense naval battle in history begins. Japanese antisubmarine aircrafts turn the battle underwater against the Americans, but superior American missile technology allows the US surface fleet to survive much better than the IJN. By midnight, three Japanese carriers have been sunk, and their two supercarriers are cripples, while the US has lost two carriers and has had another four crippled. The Japanese offensive in the Philippines takes the Filipino military completely off-guard, and aviation units begin seizing key points throughout the country. Japanese long-range bombers attack American bomber bases in Hawaii and Alaska, and US bombers attack Japanese bases in the Kuriles and the Home Islands.

August 18 1967

As the battle hangs in the balance in the Marianas, yet appears to be going better for the USN, a IJN submarine commander orders the use of two nuclear torpedos to be used against a USN carrier, which is destroyed. By noon, the USN is retaliating with nuclear torpedoes, depth charges, and missiles launched against the IJN. The Japanese responds in kind. By midnight, nearly thirty atomic devices have been expended, and the IJN is left with no carriers, while only two US carriers still survive, in a crippled state. The Japanese heavy bomber force has been virtually annihilated, while the USAF long-range bombers are severely weakened. The Japanese Army continues to do well in the Philippines.

August 19 1967

Still under orders from the military junta, one of the two surviving Japanese SSBs that have managed to evade all American submarines and get into firing range launch a “shot across the bows” of that destroys Anderson Air Force Base in Guam with a 1MT bomb that decimated the island. President Kennedy orders a retaliatory strike and a missile destroyed the Imperial Air Base based in Kadena, Okinawa.

Minutes after the US response to the attack to Guam, the Emperor's aide Captain Matsumoto Kaneda informs him of the actions of the Junta that had resulted in the effective destruction of the island of Okinawa. Emperor Hirohito, unaware of the orders to destroy US bases in American soil, gaves a letter to Captain Kaneda that allows him to convince high ranking Naval and army commanders to rise against the Junta. Thirty five minutes after the US response heliborne SNLF troops secured the TV stations in Tokyo and arrested the Junta in a bunker in the outskirts of Tokyo. Emperor Hirohito appeared in national Television for the first time and announced the crimes commited by the Junta and their arrest. He denies any knowledge of their actions and presents video of their executions. Also he stated he desired a ceasefire and asked the Russian government to serve as intermediary in the negotiations.