Hi, and welcome to my brand new shiny aar!
Anonymous4401, as our valiant Libraarian would probably like to know:
Japan! (as always)
Doomsday 1.2
1936 Campaign
Hard / Normal
(Currently played, saved and screenied up to mid-1945.)
Having got the hard facts out of the way, and yet being a little late (and on a schoolnight too!) I'm going to post a little about my point of departure and the direction planned for the aar, and leave the hard part until tomorrow night, when I can wrestle with picture hosts an HTML for hours if necessary.
The title of this aar is also the title of a book. A book written by the noted Japanese radical Kita Ikki. Written in Shanghai in 1919, a turbulent year for the world in general and for asia in particular, this text was his blueprint for the fundamental reform first of the Japanese state and society, and then the existing order in asia as a whole.
The blueprint owed much to the example of the Chinese revolution, which the author had experienced first hand and which was arguably an ongoing project at the time of publishing. It spoke broadly of a coup d'etat, which would sweep away the conservative cliques currently monopolising power in Japan, institute sweeping reform on behalf of the workers and peasants, and prepare for the inevitable war against imperialism in asia. Other people's imperialism, that is...
In our time line (popularly abbreviated OTL, a convention I'll be using here), Kita Ikki was personally involved in the abortive 26th February coup of 1936, for which involvement he was subsequently executed along with several other ringleaders in 1937. But what if the coup had succeeded? More to the point, what if Japan, like Germany, had given rise to a leader lucky enough to actually push through such a radical programme, and to have it succeed?
This is my alternate history, and it centres on the rise of the National Socialist party of Japan, a fictional political organisation which is built up around the Kodo-Ha (Imperial Way) faction and a few other groups to remain a surprise OTL, this faction lost out to the opposing Tosei-Ha (Control) faction in the aftermath of the failed coup, beginning the shift in Japanese nationalism away from radical theories and towards a more strictly Fascist / militarist structure under the control of the army, and more specifically senior officers like Tojo Hideki.
In a world where the junior officers and revolutionaries at the other end of the nationalist spectrum managed to seize control of the Japanese government there is enormous scope for a completely different approach to national policy as a whole during the most crucial and decisive period of the 1930's and 1940's, and (hopefully!) something a little more succesful and coherent than that demonstrated by Japan in our history. More populist, less army-dominated. More Pan-Asian, less Japanist. More grass-roots, less old boy network. I hope to explore a world where the book from which I take the title can be seen as the Japanese 'Mein Kampf'.
Before going any further, there is one significant edit I've made to the scenario which should be explicitly pointed out, as I don't believe it's screenshotted This is the character of Senjuro Hayashi, the Head of Government put in place by a succesful Coup in February '36. OTL, this man served in the Russo-Japanese War, successively held military posts including chief of the Army War College, commander of the Imperial Guard Division, commander of the Japanese forces stationed in Korea, and in 1932, he became an army general. He served as war minister in the Saito and Okada cabinets.
You might be forgiven for thinking that he would be an 'Old General' in the game. However according to the minister files, he was in fact a 'Smiling Oilman'. I decided to change this, for realism purposes, and when it came to it... Germany gets a silent workhorse, why can't we? This was the trigger for the concept of a government arising in Japan more comparable with that of Germany. It also gives me an IC bonus, and hence I'm making it perfectly clear now After all, it's hard to argue that Japan could have been more industrially powerful, or more advanced, but the competence and decisiveness, not to mention policy making skill of the Japanese governent could most definitely have been better than it was.
Phew. OK, I look forward to hearing from anyone who's interested... Regardless, I'll be looking to speed through updating 1936 tomorrow night, Deus Vult!
Anonymous4401, as our valiant Libraarian would probably like to know:
Japan! (as always)
Doomsday 1.2
1936 Campaign
Hard / Normal
(Currently played, saved and screenied up to mid-1945.)
Having got the hard facts out of the way, and yet being a little late (and on a schoolnight too!) I'm going to post a little about my point of departure and the direction planned for the aar, and leave the hard part until tomorrow night, when I can wrestle with picture hosts an HTML for hours if necessary.
The title of this aar is also the title of a book. A book written by the noted Japanese radical Kita Ikki. Written in Shanghai in 1919, a turbulent year for the world in general and for asia in particular, this text was his blueprint for the fundamental reform first of the Japanese state and society, and then the existing order in asia as a whole.
The blueprint owed much to the example of the Chinese revolution, which the author had experienced first hand and which was arguably an ongoing project at the time of publishing. It spoke broadly of a coup d'etat, which would sweep away the conservative cliques currently monopolising power in Japan, institute sweeping reform on behalf of the workers and peasants, and prepare for the inevitable war against imperialism in asia. Other people's imperialism, that is...
In our time line (popularly abbreviated OTL, a convention I'll be using here), Kita Ikki was personally involved in the abortive 26th February coup of 1936, for which involvement he was subsequently executed along with several other ringleaders in 1937. But what if the coup had succeeded? More to the point, what if Japan, like Germany, had given rise to a leader lucky enough to actually push through such a radical programme, and to have it succeed?
This is my alternate history, and it centres on the rise of the National Socialist party of Japan, a fictional political organisation which is built up around the Kodo-Ha (Imperial Way) faction and a few other groups to remain a surprise OTL, this faction lost out to the opposing Tosei-Ha (Control) faction in the aftermath of the failed coup, beginning the shift in Japanese nationalism away from radical theories and towards a more strictly Fascist / militarist structure under the control of the army, and more specifically senior officers like Tojo Hideki.
In a world where the junior officers and revolutionaries at the other end of the nationalist spectrum managed to seize control of the Japanese government there is enormous scope for a completely different approach to national policy as a whole during the most crucial and decisive period of the 1930's and 1940's, and (hopefully!) something a little more succesful and coherent than that demonstrated by Japan in our history. More populist, less army-dominated. More Pan-Asian, less Japanist. More grass-roots, less old boy network. I hope to explore a world where the book from which I take the title can be seen as the Japanese 'Mein Kampf'.
Before going any further, there is one significant edit I've made to the scenario which should be explicitly pointed out, as I don't believe it's screenshotted This is the character of Senjuro Hayashi, the Head of Government put in place by a succesful Coup in February '36. OTL, this man served in the Russo-Japanese War, successively held military posts including chief of the Army War College, commander of the Imperial Guard Division, commander of the Japanese forces stationed in Korea, and in 1932, he became an army general. He served as war minister in the Saito and Okada cabinets.
You might be forgiven for thinking that he would be an 'Old General' in the game. However according to the minister files, he was in fact a 'Smiling Oilman'. I decided to change this, for realism purposes, and when it came to it... Germany gets a silent workhorse, why can't we? This was the trigger for the concept of a government arising in Japan more comparable with that of Germany. It also gives me an IC bonus, and hence I'm making it perfectly clear now After all, it's hard to argue that Japan could have been more industrially powerful, or more advanced, but the competence and decisiveness, not to mention policy making skill of the Japanese governent could most definitely have been better than it was.
Phew. OK, I look forward to hearing from anyone who's interested... Regardless, I'll be looking to speed through updating 1936 tomorrow night, Deus Vult!