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Japan - The Brightest Hour

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Table of Contents

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Part VI
Part VII
Part VIII

 
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Part I

On the 7th of July 1936, an incident, later called the Marco polo bridge incident took place in northern China. Forces from the Empire of Japan clashed with Chinese troops over something that later would be forgotten, what would be remembered was the conflict it started that would determine the faith of two great powers in Asia. The Marco Polo bridge incident would be the catalyst that would start the Second Sino – Japanese war.

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Japanese troops during the initial fighting after the Marco Polo Bridge Incident.

In the north, Japan with the support of their Manchurian puppet invaded and encircled 22 Chinese divisions in Beijing. Heavy fighting in the mountainsides lasted for a month and the Japanese invasion was halted, with severe casualties on both sides. In the autumn Japan tried to land in Guangzhou, a important industrial and seaside city in southern China. The naval invasion was supported by the entire Imperial Japanese Navy (the IJN) but the 12 divisions was repulsed by at least 25 quickly mobilized Chinese militia and infantry divisions. The Japanese losses was calculated to be 20.000.


As the northern front was breached by newly arrived marine divisions and heavy bombardment by several hundred Japanese aircraft later in the autumn, the Empire strike back again with a new naval invasion in Shanghai. It was a success and with the help of quick marines and engineers the landing force could create a front line that encircled a quarter of a million Chinese troops in north-east China.

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Marines embarked on landing vessels outside Shanghai and an IJN ship supporting the landings

At the start of the war the Japanese army consisted of roughly 45 infantry divisions and 5 cavalry divisions, supported by 30 Machukuoan militia divisions . The Chinese on the other hand could deploy over 130 divisions, although with lesser training and outdated equipment. The morale was low in the Chinese ranks and the doctrine favored by their commanders was simply the one of mass charges and the utmost sacrifices. In the Imperial Japanese Army (the IJA) sacrifice was not unheard of either. Retreat was not an option, being captured was not an option. Being captured would disgrace the Empire, the family, the whole home village and even the Japanese race itself. Honor was the primary code of the IJA and the IJN and honor was often found to be a deadly goal. Even so, the average soldier understood that their lives was not worth much, if their sacrifice could raise and preserve the honor of the Empire, so be it.

As the war went on, it was clear that the inferior Chinese troops was no match for the highly trained and equipped Japanese counterparts. The Chinese leadership, under General Chiang Kai-shek decided that attrition warfare was their best move to gain an upper hand in the conflict, as the Chinese had massive manpower reserves at their disposals in eastern China in contrast to the Japanese that had limited reserves on their home islands.

The silent Chinese countryside was ravaged by both sides. After the 1 year anniversary of the war, the Japanese held little more than a quarter of the Chinese lands. During the entire year of 1938 and the first half of 1939 the Chinese troops retreated to the east, it was a slow retreat and the army left hundreds of bodies in their tracks. The IJA suffered heavy casualties as their enemy had reinforced their numerous divisions with more modern equipment. In July 1939 a little more than half of China was occupied. The price that had been payed was roughly 350.000 Japanese lives, although they had sold their lives at a high price and taken 1.500.000 Chinese soldiers with them the reserves was drained. In August, Emperor Hirohito ordered a partial mobilization, which crippled the industry as many able bodied men was conscripted to military service. The Japanese leadership estimated that the Chinese could muster up to 15 million more men than them. Something had to be done.

As war once again engulfed Europe with the German and Soviet aggressions against Poland, Japan, on the same day as Germany, now a trusted semi – ally, against the western allies, launched the Imperial Offensive. Huge holes would b carved through the Chinese front lines, medical treatment of casualties was scrapped, the troops would march and fight, nothing else.

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IJA infantry charging the front

As the offensive went on, the determination of the IJA proved to overwhelm the Chinese opposition as Chengquing, the Chinese capital in the west fell in late 1940. Pocket after pocket of Chinese resistance was cleared, 80 divisions perished in a matter of days, millions of Chinese troops was captured and detained, or killed. The communist warlords in the north was captured and disposed of. Chiang Kai-shek had to flee even further west, he knew the war was lost. In a coup he was killed and the Chinese officials left sued for peace with the Japanese Empire, a peace that would cripple the Chinese nation for generations. Natural resources would be sent to Japan, everything they wanted. The restored Chinese army would be controlled by Japanese officers and their foreign policy would be firmly controlled from Tokyo.

The war was won, the Japanese had won, at a great cost. Of the 1 million men conscripted during the partial mobilization, 90% had died, but it was a honorable death. The Empire was greater than ever and the honor was still intact. One month after the victory, Japan mobilized again, this time 5.5 million men. The Emperor had new goals in sight, goals that would create a Empire that the world had yet to see. The year was 1941.

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Japanese victory parade

In Europe, the Germans had first cut Poland in half, and shared the eastern bit with the Soviet Union. Later, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands was occupied in a month as the German armored spearheads swept away all resistance in the Ardennes, Paris soon fell. In the vacuum of the French surrender, Japan captured French Indochina, and seized power in Siam, thus widening their empire and quietly wishing for a German victory.

After the fall of France, Italy joined sides with Germany, soon followed by every state in eastern Europe. Italy felt confident with the German victories and attacked the British forces in Egypt, only to be swept away from the African continent by the superior British. Mussolini, the ruler of Italy abandoned the idea of an African empire and turned the eye on Spain. Spain, ruled by the republicans, just victorious in a civil war managed to hold back the Italian invasion attempt, but was no match for the German tanks and paratroopers that swept down from the Pyrenees and soon occupied Madrid.

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German paratroopers preparing for their drop over Spain

As the Japanese war in china became more and more brutal, the USA, defender of democracy, the arsenal of democracy, as they called themselves demanded a Japanese retreat and an end to the war. Japan refused, seeing an end to the war with a favorable outcome. The US responded by an embargo that crippled the Japanese war machine. As the war ended, embargoed resources was no longer a problem with a friendly government in China, sending whatever the Japanese want directly to the steel mills without charge. But the US offense would not be forgotten.

As the Japanese final push towards victory in China came to and end, Germany surprised the world when they began the largest invasion in history, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Japanese diplomats in Berlin, that closely watched the German preparations, reported back to Tokyo that Hitler was very confident, and that he was sure that the war would be over before the winter, as the Soviet army and it's tactics was outdated.

He proved to be right.

In September, just before the snow began to fall in the vast soviet empire, the German army occupied Moscow, Leningrad, Archangels, Stalingrad and Baku, triggering a coup in the Soviet cabinet, more and more disappointed by their leader, Stalin. Stalin was sent to Siberia, his faith is unknown. Peace was made with Germany and someone called Lenin took over as the Soviet leader, someone very much alike the dead Vladimir Lenin, an imposer, using the fame of the revolutionary leader as a mean to gain control over the civil war that raged in the eastern part of the nation.

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Germany celebrates their victory over the Soviet Union with a parade in Berlin

Germany soon established marionette regimes in western Russia, in the same manners as the Japanese did in China. The United Kingdom and it's allies now stood alone against the German war machine, now having no distractions from invading their home islands. Troops from all around their colonial empire was withdrawn back home, leaving many overseas possessions unprotected, something that the Japanese leaders would not be late to take advantage of.

------
 
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Part II

Part II Imperial Council. March 1942.

Emperor Hirohito joined the key figures of the Japanese government in a meeting at his palace in Tokyo.

We will go over the state of the country in this meeting, it's industrial capacity, economy, military and strategy for the coming war. That's why I have gathered you all here.

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The government.

Let's start with the industry and our current projects. Hirohito said.

Fujiwara Ginjiro, the armaments minister stood up. Your majesty.
Since the war in China and our mobilization our IC is down a few percent, although our manpower reserves are great. We estimate that 5.5 million men are ready to reinforce coming casualties, a large number. Our financial state is comforting. The Chinese is the biggest reason of this, before and during the war our resource depots were at at constant risk of being depleted, since the fools in the west won't trade with us we had problems keeping up with he production schedule. Now, with the vast Chinese mainland under our control, our depots are over the limit full and we are actually loosing resources since we can't store more. Here is a picture over our financial state.

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As you can see we have shut down our investments in supply production in order to maximize the IC we can put into upgrading our troops equipment. As our stockpile goes down we will of course start producing more supplies.

Currently our factories and shipyards are focusing on our navy, 5 carriers, 18 destroyer divisions and the Yamato. Although these ships wont be ready for deployment until 1944 they will most likely be needed as we probably will have some casualties in the years to come, even if I believe they will be small. The only infantry divisions we are building are garrisons as we will need them to guard our coming new possessions. That's all your majesty.

Good, Hirohito said, now I give the word to Kanichiro Tashiro, chief of staff and head of our three army branches.

Yes your majesty, Tashiro said and stood up as Ginjiro sat down. Here is statistics of our three branches.

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The army is in a good shape, we should not need to train any new divisions any time soon, even if we are a little tempted to start and build a division of tanks after seeing the Germans successes with them, but I am afraid that the landscape of Asia isn't the best for such machines, but maybe for future campaigns. Our puppets in Asia and their armies are under our direct command, their soldiers are numerous but of poor quality, we won't be using them much except for garrisons at strategic ports and for sucking up enemy bullets at the harsher fronts.

The navy is quite large, we will sustain losses, but our wise commanders have orders to move forward with caution and to take no unnecessary risk in the upcoming campaign.

The air force is almost dishonorable small, with the focus of our efforts put into the IJA and IJN we have only built two bomber divisions is the last years. But since we used them excessively during the Chinese war we are sure the men flying these machines are amongst the most experienced in the world. Unless we meet heavy resistance in the air we wont build any more airplanes until 1944.

That's all. Or does your majesty want me to explain the upcoming offensives too, our strategies.

Please.

Very well.

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Our forces are on their way to the targets as we speak. The allied powers wont know what hits them.

The bulk of our navy, 9 carriers, under Grand Admiral Yamamoto and Grand Admiral Nagano, will strike upon the American naval base on Hawaii. As the bombs drops over their navy, 6 marine divisions will land on the beaches and inside the harbor and take control of the bases there. The first plan was just to bomb the naval base to bits, but as the Americans have an huge industrial base it would only take a few months for them to rebuild and then deploy their navy against us. If we can garrison the islands we will force them to operate from their mainland ports. As we occupies their other pacific islands we will take away their ability to go on the offensive against us, as long as we hold pearl harbor.

In the east indies we will land on several islands belonging to the British and Dutch, according to our intelligence, resistance will be minimal, with the allied troops most likely on their way to Africa and Europe to try to prevent the Germans to invade the English islands and moving down the Caucasus toward the Suez channel.
On the Philippines our spies tell us that 1, maybe 2, American divisions are garrisoned. We believe that we will manage to defeat them within days as our surprise attack will take them off guard and with most men on leave. On the Malacca peninsula Siamese and some of our divisions will march towards Singapore from the north, possibly that we land troops further south if have some ships to spare as the assault is carried out. To support our naval activities in the area we rely on battleships and battle cruisers until the carriers are done with the Pearl harbor operation. In the first weeks of the war, the Australian navy will most likely be our number one opponent, but with our more numerous and more modern ships we are sure of victory.

At the Burmese front we have 20 divisions deployed in the south in Thailand, ready to attack the British. In the northern front, we have Chinese and Manchurian divisions of inferior quality, any advance they make is a bonus, their main use is to lock the British divisions there in combat while our divisions in the south encircle them. Depending on how fast our offensive in Burma can destroy the British divisions we might continue our advance into India. Honk Kong will captured by 6 of our divisions attacking the island from China.

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Japanese carriers on the way to their deployment zones

When the east indies are under our control we will start to occupy every minor island in the pacific and in the meantime begin our invasion of Australia and New Zealand as the allied naval bases and airfields there could pose a big threat to us later in the war, should they not sue for peace. We don't expect very large losses, a maximum of 100.000 men, probably less as our surprise attack will catch many of their divisions off guard. That would be all.

What about our intelligence network? Hirohito said.

Okamura Yasuji, stood up. We know the allies are weak after their losses in Europe. But we can't tell for certain their number of divisions, ships and aircraft. My spies on America tells me about a huge hole in their budget, a hidden project. All he could find out was who the project leader was, Robert Oppenheimer.

Is it something we should worry about? Hirohito responded.

I'm sure my man in America will find out more as the time goes, but it can't be anything that could jeopardize our war effort. Probably some new ship or aircraft design not ready for years. But as we heard earlier, we have new and more modern ships in production that can take on anything the allies might throw at us.

Good. Well, gentlemen, meeting dismissed. The emperor said and walked out of the room

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Part III

Pearl Harbor.

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On March the 13th 1942 the IJN closed into range of the American pacific base. As the carriers launched their bombers and fighters and the first reports came back, it more and more looked like a decisive Japanese victory. 6 American battleships was sunk in the harbor. As the bombers came back to refuel, 6 marine divisions loaded on their landing crafts charged onto the island, the fighting proved to be heavy as 3 divisions defended the island. Although understrength and with old equipment, these American just wouldn't give up this part of their nation. Eventually they surrendered.

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As the IJN began to ship in supplies to make the harbor their forward supply station in the pacific, the marines began to land on the other Hawaiian islands, it turned out to be bloody.

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The main Hawaiian island, Hawaii, was defended by 5 American divisions, of which 2 were better trained marines, as the surprise in the attack was gone casualties went up. The Japanese marines with support of cruisers and bombers now stationed at the captured airfields at Pearl harbor were moved down in the hundreds as they landed on the beaches. However, morale was high, even tough more than half the invasion force was lost the defending American defenders surrendered after 2 weeks of fighting, this must prove the Japanese superiority over the western allies!
As the islands were under Japanese control, convoys began to ship in garrisons and naval bombers, the west most part of the empire now began to transform into a fortress.

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Bombing of Hawaii

In Indonesia the landing went forward quickly and with little to none casualties. Outdated dutch and Australian destroyers and cruisers was sunk without further notice as the IJA landed on undefended beaches. Within a week both the Dutch and Philippine governments surrendered. During the invasion of Guam, the carrier force commanded by Grand Admiral Nagano intercepted an American wolfpack of submarines, 6 squadrons. Everyone was sunk but several of the ships in his fleet was hit and lightly damaged, including a carrier. He turned the fleet around to Kyoto for repairs, because of the light enemy fleet activities he believed that his fleet could be spared for a week or two.

As the Dutch and Philippine governments surrendered it made several divisions available for further attacks, ahead of schedule. The navy began to sail towards Australia, so far almost our only enemy with offensive capabilities, our landings at New Guinea had been swinging back and forth as Australian divisions seemed to be shipped there. The landing at Darwin proved to be another Pearl harbor. As the marines were being pushed away from the beaches with horrendous casualties 6 divisions diverted from Siam began their assault on Katherine, a port east of Darwin, resistance was light and they Australians soon surrendered. As they had reorganized in the city they began to move toward Darwin and tried to encircle them from the back. The Darwin garrison soon understood was what about to happen and tried to retreat only to be cut of just before they could escape, estimated enemy prisoners was 70.000, a large part of the Australian army.

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Resistance in Burma was fairly weak, the Japanese divisions advanced forward and took more and more ground each day, but the speed was slow as the jungle severely tampered the movement, but no problem on this front.

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Fighting in Burma

In the last days of July the Japanese commanders looked on their maps and saw something grand. All of southeast Asia now was under their control. With a bridgehead in Australia it was only a matter of time until the Australians surrendered and after that New Zealand would be an easy match.

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From March until July the allied naval activity had been minimal, with only screening vessels trying to escape towards Africa or America from their pacific bases. But on July the third a heavy cruiser fleet, supporting the landings on New Guinea was surprised by several of the still operational American battleships, with no chance to retreat in the first hours of the engagement several ships were lost, only 2 of the heavy cruisers and 1 destroyer squadron managed to escape.

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Overall, during the roughly 4 months of warfare the Japanese empire had succeeded in their efforts. With heavy casualties at Hawaii and Darwin and a few ships lost, they had occupied enormous amounts of territory and resources which could support the industries back home forever.

The allies had lost 15 divisions or more, either captured in Australia or surrendered on several of the pacific islands. But men they had huge amounts of, with no ships they could not even reach the pacific theater. Japanese naval commanders had sunk 5 battleships, 26 transports, 4 heavy cruisers, 12 light cruisers 39 destroyers, 9 submarine squadrons and over 100 convoy ships.

With our now official allies in Europe, currently spearheading towards the middle east and western India, our position looks strong.

The sun had surely risen on the Asian sky.

----
 
For one second,i think this AAR will start in enemy at gates scenario :O
 
Part IV

The Australian fighting spirit was broken when they lost 7 divisions at Darwin. Japanese marines with carrier support assaulted and occupied Perth, Brisbane, and Canberra and seized the Australian government as they tried to flee the country. The war was soon over.

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After reorganizing, the assault on New Zealand began. It was over even before it started, with no navy worth the name and just 2 divisions in the entire country, they soon sued for peace and they too were subdued.

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As Japanese divisions began to seize the smaller, less vital islands in the pacific Grand Admiral Yamamoto surprised the American battleship fleet as they engaged and destroyed 3 of the Japanese transport flotillas outside Wake Island. As the carriers could engage the battleship from a long range the Americans could do nothing but retreat, and as they did, Yamamoto followed, destroying the entire fleet in a few weeks.

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Later, forces from the south was sent to the north, to start seizing the Alaskan islands. They were however defended well and only Attu Island could be captured, Dutch Harbor even had a tank division as garrison.

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The Burman front proved to be as simple as the other ones, the British were numerous but they had no chance against the battle hardened Japanese troops and the numerous Chinese. They were encircled and destroyed in the Jungle, very few survived.

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Divisions ready to land in southern India was already on their way by boat, as the Japanese divisions in Burma reorganized and began their march west.

The road to India was open.
 
Part V

The Japanese naval mission to India arrived to the coast of Nellore without any incidents, landings took place and the city was captured. As intelligence officers reported that Ceylon was undefended they embarked once more and seized the island of the Indian coast, could anything stop the Japanese Empire now?

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The numerous divisions in Burma began to spread out and push inward the subcontinent without much resistance. As the vanguard reached the outskirts of Delhi a Allied division fortified the city and tried to resist the Japanese onslaught. They failed and where overrun and captured.

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Happy Infantrymen enters Delhi

In the west, German divisions are slowly entering India.

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The Soviet Union, begins to disturb the peace in Manchuria, demanding the oil rich province of Toyohara.

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After the Indian invasion is complete, maybe the Russians needs to learn a lesson?


German Progress

The German campaign is far from stalled even if they seem to have been slowed down in the middle east. They will soon enter India and it's up to the IJA to grab as much important industrial complexes before them.

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In North and West Africa the advance seems to go fast. With the Portuguese colonial possessions in the alliance giving the Germans ports on the continent, Africa seems to be lost for the Allies, the jungles in the south might slow them down, maybe the Japanese divisions with jungle warfare experience could grab the south first?

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Stukas over western Africa
 
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Part VI

The Japanese troops soon reached Karachi in India, the last bastion of the British defenders. The urban settings made the battle last for 2 weeks until the defenders surrendered. In the shattered parliament building, the British governor and Indian viceroy officially surrendered India to the Japanese Empire! Victory is ours! A huge celebration and victory parade was held in the same day.

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In the meantime the American activity in the pacific began to rise. Two fleets had been sent toward Japan to raid convoys and wreak havoc upon the transport fleets with Japanese garrisons onboard, several was sunk. The Imperial council had expected this and only Chinese militia divisions was lost in the sea, easy to replace. A cold hard truth, the ships were the more serious losses.

Grand Admiral Nagano, one of the most senior and experienced Admirals in the IJN was ordered to hunt down and destroy the two American fleets of which one had aircraft carriers and the other one most of the remaining American battleships.

The carrier fleet was soon discovered as it engaged one of the numerous supporting fleets in the IJA, destroying 3 Japanese heavy cruiser a a couple of destroyers.

Nagano, with his more modern crafts engaged the Americans. As they withdrew from battle, he followed. They were outgunned and for each engagement they lost several ships until the battle of Cape Ca Mau where every last ships was destroyed.

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Next, the battleship fleet was engaged, just as in the previous engagements, the Japanese carriers and planes proved their importance. And they proved something else, the glory days of the battleships was over and the era of the aircraft carriers was here.

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Japan now had to consolidate their forces and prepare for further campaigns. With no more fronts on land and only possible beach heads to guard the Japanese leadership now had some decisions to make.




Meanwhile in Europe.

belfastinvasion.jpg
 
On the 7th of July 1936, an incident, later called the Marco polo BRIDE incident took place in northern China. Forces from the Empire of Japan clashed with Chinese troops over something that later would be forgotten, what would be remembered was the conflict it started that would determine the faith of two great powers in Asia. The Marco Polo BRIDE incident would be the catalyst that would start the Second Sino – Japanese war.
------
wat
 
" Peace was made with Germany and someone called Lenin took over as the Soviet leader, someone very much alike the dead Vladimir Lenin, an imposer, using the fame of the revolutionary leader as a mean to gain control over the civil war that raged in the eastern part of the nation. "

Best part ever... Lenin is eternal