My apologies for letting this sit idle for so long. To be honest I had lost my drive to keep this AAR going, due in part to some of the technical problems I have been having with this game, especially with the performance of the AI. I have also been very busy as of late, playing other games (Stellaris FTW!), and trying to find a new job. Now however I feel like trying to get this going again. So without further ado....
Striking Back: Part 11
As the battle of Japan continues to rage, a joint US/ANZAC force masses in the northern Australian port city of Darwin. Their goal: to bring down the pro-SCO regime that governs Indonesia, and remove the last of the SCO's non-continental member states from the war.
Meanwhile in Japan the last holdouts of SCO forces in the country are engaged in Hokkaido. Russian troops who have been sitting on the island, unable to cross into Honshu by a US naval blockade, are now fighting for their lives as the island is stormed by US marines and US Army brigades.
With no hope of escape and vastly outnumbered, the outcome is left with very little doubt. It doesn't take long for Sapporo to be liberated, and for the last Russian troops to surrender in Kushiro. By March the 3rd all of Japan has been liberated from SCO occupation!
In Indonesia, the combined US/ANZAC task force lands in Bali by sea. After reinforcements arrive and a brief rest, they begin the invasion of Java. The Indonesian Army hurls itself at the allied troops, and manages to very skillfully hold its own despite being greatly outnumbered.
After many exhausting days, the landing on Java is accomplished, ANZAC and US troops now roll west, towards Jakarta.
With the ground war on Java now going well, an American division lands in West Timor, with the goal of liberating East Timor from Indonesian occupation. Indonesian commando's and light infantry are battered by the American attack, and it does not take long for their last holdouts in the city of Dili to surrender.
By late April, 2021, the time has come for two of America's allies to return to the world stage. The Philippines and Japan are liberated, sovereignty is restored to both states which now pledge to fight until the bitter end to achieve final victory over the SCO. In the Philippines, most of the prewar government is restored to power, while a different situation unfolds in Japan's new political makeup.
Japan had suffered greatly under the tripartite occupation of the country imposed by the SCO's major powers. Most of the prewar political establishment was destroyed, those that survived now join with members of the Japanese Government in Exile to form the new Japanese provisional government. The new Japanese government is made up of a mix of top leaders from the Japanese resistance, as well as the now returned government in exile, who are able to unite under the leadership of a new Japanese Emperor. While Akihito and much of the Japanese imperial family had been arrested and killed by the brutal North Korean occupational authorities, a few more distant relatives did manage to survive, hiding in the countryside alongside Japanese resistance cells. The most senior of these royal figures, Prince Watanabe, is now crowned Emperor, figurehead of the new Japanese government alongside Jyunichi Yoshiro, the highest political leader of the Japanese resistance. Other portfolio's are filled by resistance and exile figures, the head of the Japanese army being one of the resistance's best operational commanders, while the chief of staff was overall commander of all Japanese exile forces that were fighting under US command. Of particular note is Kei Nagase, a squadron commander in the old JASDF, who continued to fight after Japan's 2014 surrender as part of the US Air Force, leading other Japanese fighter pilots who fought with distinction in many engagements against the air forces of the SCO. Now, Nagase is given command of the entire new Japanese Air Force.
And in a break with the prewar Japanese Military, it is a true Air Force. The days of the old JSDF are gone: replaced by the nucleus of a new Japanese Army, Navy, and Air Force, unbound by the now discarded article 9 and ready to fight with any and all means at disposal to the Japanese Armed Forces. Japanese troops that had been fighting in the US military as separate exile brigades now come under Japanese command, bringing with them their weapons and immense combat expertise. Nagase's fighter pilots return home to Japan along with their planes, donated by the US Air Force to help Japan in development of a new Air Force. Finally, a Japanese escort flotilla, which had been under Australian command since the surrender of 2014, also returns home, forming the back bone of Japan's new navy.
