Finally, on the morning of June 20th, 1943, the Emperor gave the order for offensive operations against the Australasian Confederation (and by extension, what remained of the Syndicalist Internationale) to begin. While Daihon'ei was collectively confident about the prospective performance of the well-trained, modern, battle-hardened Imperial Japanese Army, the British Republican Navy remained a perpetual concern. To this end, the famed Grand Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was placed in command of the
Rengō Kantai (Combined fleet) and, alongside several supporting fleets and naval bomber wings, deployed to the Coral Sea in hopes of ambushing the RN, as well as to prepare for an amphibious assault on Papua New Guinea.
Surprisingly to all, the island was relatively poorly defended, with only one brigade assigned to defend Port Moresby. While this was a pleasant surprise to High Command, His Majesty ordered vigilance: The Internationale would surely attempt to retake their portion of the island at some point and preparations were required.
After six months of sporadic naval battles, the first imperial troops finally made land at the port of Darwin. Overcoming the Australasian army in a fearsome amphibious battle, once the battle had ended and the red forces were forced out of the city, the Imperial Japanese Army were greeted by the civilian population with raucous cheers and celebrations. But this was no time to get complacent: Nearly the entire transport fleet was placed on the duty of transporting hundreds of thousands of men to the beachhead.
While the IJA fought bravely and competently against the Australasian Red Army, the poor infrastructure and attrition from the desert made the advance slow. However, by the beginning of May 1944, the lines had finally solidified somewhat, with the northwestern portion of Australia under imperial control.
During the summer months, the situation became increasingly dire for the reds: Daihon'ei pressing forward with a new offensive into the interior, the British reds poured tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Republican Army troops into their remaining ports, in a vain hope of halting the imperial advance. But by November, it became clear to the planners in London that the situation was not salvageable:
While the vast majority (some albeit grudgingly), welcomed the empire as liberators from the red yoke, there were a few troublemakers, no doubt activated as a sort of stay-behind unit by the Australasian government:
While the partisans were dealt with in fairly short order, this raised a new concern for the planners in High Command: If the Internationale had more of these stay-behind units, the vast distances of Australia could make putting down a large-scale revolt a real threat to the campaign. In order to prevent this, the Emperor ordered Australasia finished off as quickly as possible, the Combined Fleet and supporting units redeployed to New Zealand to prepare for yet another amphibious assault.
Finally, on January 2nd, 1945, the last of the Australasian Red Army troops threw down their arms and surrendered to imperial forces. The last remaining British forces on New Zealand, isolated, poorly supplied, and completely surrounded were destroyed shortly afterwards.
Likewise, the British, having lost hundreds of thousands of men and having some of the RN's finest vessels at the bottom of the Pacific, grudgingly agreed to come to the peace table: In liberated Sydney, Foreign Minister Konoe delivered the list of demands to the British ambassador: The Internationale was to have no further involvement in Asia and the British were ordered to dismantle the remainder of their fleets in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, lest they be sent to Davy Jones' Locker by the IJN.
With no other way of continuing an Asian campaign and no hope for a re-installation of the red government, the British saw no other option than to bite the bullet and accept the humiliating peace terms.
At this news, countless celebrations broke out throughout the Home Islands and imperial bases abroad.
Finally, the time came to decide what to do with Australasia: A plan was floated semi-seriously among some of the hardliners, mainly Kōdōha members, of integrating the continent directly into the empire: Prince Yasuhiko Asaka, having already been a convert to Catholicism and married to an Australian woman, was to be appointed as the governor-general under this plan. However, His Majesty, realizing the inevitable problems with the civilian population, axed the plan, instead calling John Curtin out of his exile in Delhi to rule under Japanese supervision. New Zealand was to be separated, if for no other reason than to have another member of the Co-Prosperity Sphere and leave a rouge Australia with nowhere to run:
As for the fate of Syndicalist leader Lance Sharkey and his red cadre, His Majesty simply ordered them turned over to an angry mob in Canberra, stating that the local police were to look the other way.