anonymous4401: Eww, why would I want any main island territory? 
Zephyr 3: No, Stukov wouldn't see any irony in attacking Japan preemptively. There's never been a Pearl Harbor in his timeline.
BBBD: Fortunately, I've since corrected these erros.
VILenin: Let's hope
Darks63: Oh yeah? Just watch me
Fiftypence: I agree
Patrick O'Harte: Thank you
------------------------------------------------
The War of 1867: The Japanese-American War
General Grant, finally given his chance to show his quality, used the new Army of the West to its fullest. Wasting little time, he quickly advanced east from his base of supply at Sumpu with 58,000 men, leaving a division behind under his invaluable lieutenant, General Sherman, to protect his flank. On October 25th, Grant encountered the entire Edo defense force, 40,000 men strong, as it was unloading from the nearby rail depot at Kanagawa. Without hesitation, Grant attacked head on. Consisting of raw recruits and poorly armed irregulars unfamiliar with European style warfare, the Japanese were quickly forced into full retreat towards the capital. Flush with victory, Grant followed determinedly, engaging the wearied and disorganized Edo defenders just outside the city. By December 13th, the entire city and the surrounding region had been conquered. Stopping only to reinforce his depleting ranks, Grant marched his disciplined army north in pursuit of the ravaged Japanese forces, now bolstered to 50,000. Despite the near-parity of the two armies, the Japanese were again defeated at Mito, and again at Fukishima. Grant, aggressive and stubbornly determined, refused to provide his enemy with even the slightest respite.
Meanwhile, Sherman found himself almost immediately under attack from the east at the same time as the Battle of Kanagawa, where forces under the direct command of regional daimyo's responded to the Shogunate's calls to defend the islands from the first foreign invasion in centuries. A total 30,000 infantry and irregulars launched an assault on Sherman's defensive line. Outnumbered almost 3 to 1, the Americans fell back to the port degrudgingly. Fighting was fierce, sometimes degenerating into hand-to-hand fighting in which the samurai heritage of the Japanese soldiers surfaced to bloody effect. Unnerved, Sherman requested reinforcements from Grant, but the general was preoccupied with the conquest of Edo. The American forces were now pushed almost into the sea and close to being overwhelmed, when on December 9th, 56,000 reinforcements sailed in to port. General Custer's Army of the South had arrived just in time. With these fresh, eager veterans now outnumbering the worn-down Japanese, the samurai immediately broke and fell into retreat.
Custer immediately marched in pursuit, defeating a reinforced Japanese army at Nagoya, Tmaya, and Nagaoka while Sherman marched inland, seizing Nagano without a fight. Honshu was now split down the middle, with two completely victorious armies pushing back the Japanes military with little lose in life. The Shogunate, with its power over the daimyo crumbling and the Emperor showing signs of retrieving his power, approached Grant with an armistice to discuss terms for peace. Grant immediately agreed and was presented with the Japanese offer: the Bonin Islands, Okinawa, Amami, and surprisingly, the port of Toyama and the surrounding lands. Grant immediately agreed, as he had been instructed by Hamlin to demand merely Bonin, Okinawa, and Amami in the event of a peace treaty. The war finally came to a close on February 28th, 1868. America had once agained emerged victorious from war.
The war, as short as it was, had been a tremendous success for the United States, now planted firmly in the Far East. In conjunction with Hawaii and Alaska, the new territorial acquisitions would prove invaluable in exterting its influence in the Pacific theater. The victory also ensured the continuation of the new doctrine of warfare without provocation, the battlefield testing of countless new weapons, tactics, and the next generation of American generals.
Internationally, the effect was less dramatic. Though its humiliating defeat had hampered plans for industrialization and modernization temporarily, Japan was still a regional power of considerable strength. Britain and China had been locked in warfare for well over two years of stalemate, the Southeast Asian nations were more preoccupied in the growing French hegemony, and the Dutch possessions in the East Indes were unaffected. But while the War of 1867 was not considered significant to the outside world at the time, it had proven to the American people that war without provocation would be a doctrine embraced for many years.
Zephyr 3: No, Stukov wouldn't see any irony in attacking Japan preemptively. There's never been a Pearl Harbor in his timeline.
BBBD: Fortunately, I've since corrected these erros.
VILenin: Let's hope
Darks63: Oh yeah? Just watch me
Fiftypence: I agree
Patrick O'Harte: Thank you
------------------------------------------------
The War of 1867: The Japanese-American War
General Grant, finally given his chance to show his quality, used the new Army of the West to its fullest. Wasting little time, he quickly advanced east from his base of supply at Sumpu with 58,000 men, leaving a division behind under his invaluable lieutenant, General Sherman, to protect his flank. On October 25th, Grant encountered the entire Edo defense force, 40,000 men strong, as it was unloading from the nearby rail depot at Kanagawa. Without hesitation, Grant attacked head on. Consisting of raw recruits and poorly armed irregulars unfamiliar with European style warfare, the Japanese were quickly forced into full retreat towards the capital. Flush with victory, Grant followed determinedly, engaging the wearied and disorganized Edo defenders just outside the city. By December 13th, the entire city and the surrounding region had been conquered. Stopping only to reinforce his depleting ranks, Grant marched his disciplined army north in pursuit of the ravaged Japanese forces, now bolstered to 50,000. Despite the near-parity of the two armies, the Japanese were again defeated at Mito, and again at Fukishima. Grant, aggressive and stubbornly determined, refused to provide his enemy with even the slightest respite.
Meanwhile, Sherman found himself almost immediately under attack from the east at the same time as the Battle of Kanagawa, where forces under the direct command of regional daimyo's responded to the Shogunate's calls to defend the islands from the first foreign invasion in centuries. A total 30,000 infantry and irregulars launched an assault on Sherman's defensive line. Outnumbered almost 3 to 1, the Americans fell back to the port degrudgingly. Fighting was fierce, sometimes degenerating into hand-to-hand fighting in which the samurai heritage of the Japanese soldiers surfaced to bloody effect. Unnerved, Sherman requested reinforcements from Grant, but the general was preoccupied with the conquest of Edo. The American forces were now pushed almost into the sea and close to being overwhelmed, when on December 9th, 56,000 reinforcements sailed in to port. General Custer's Army of the South had arrived just in time. With these fresh, eager veterans now outnumbering the worn-down Japanese, the samurai immediately broke and fell into retreat.
Custer immediately marched in pursuit, defeating a reinforced Japanese army at Nagoya, Tmaya, and Nagaoka while Sherman marched inland, seizing Nagano without a fight. Honshu was now split down the middle, with two completely victorious armies pushing back the Japanes military with little lose in life. The Shogunate, with its power over the daimyo crumbling and the Emperor showing signs of retrieving his power, approached Grant with an armistice to discuss terms for peace. Grant immediately agreed and was presented with the Japanese offer: the Bonin Islands, Okinawa, Amami, and surprisingly, the port of Toyama and the surrounding lands. Grant immediately agreed, as he had been instructed by Hamlin to demand merely Bonin, Okinawa, and Amami in the event of a peace treaty. The war finally came to a close on February 28th, 1868. America had once agained emerged victorious from war.
The war, as short as it was, had been a tremendous success for the United States, now planted firmly in the Far East. In conjunction with Hawaii and Alaska, the new territorial acquisitions would prove invaluable in exterting its influence in the Pacific theater. The victory also ensured the continuation of the new doctrine of warfare without provocation, the battlefield testing of countless new weapons, tactics, and the next generation of American generals.
Internationally, the effect was less dramatic. Though its humiliating defeat had hampered plans for industrialization and modernization temporarily, Japan was still a regional power of considerable strength. Britain and China had been locked in warfare for well over two years of stalemate, the Southeast Asian nations were more preoccupied in the growing French hegemony, and the Dutch possessions in the East Indes were unaffected. But while the War of 1867 was not considered significant to the outside world at the time, it had proven to the American people that war without provocation would be a doctrine embraced for many years.
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