Japanese colonial militia train in 'Amaru', c.1959. Japan's highly militarised culture meant its settlers throughout the Co-Prosperity Sphere could often hold their own against native resistance until help arrived from the Home Islands.
I'm not sure how martial arts training would save you from being ambushed in an alley, if a partisan cut off your heating in the winter, or if you are horribly outnumbered.
The Japanese are outnumbered in the colonies and in their own Empire.
I did a quick demographic a while ago. It was for earlier decades but I think the conclusions are still valid. It is below.
Colonization is a lot more difficult then people are assuming. It require heavy government investment and resources as well as people willing to move there. The amount of people to make a noticable demographic dent is also significant.
I'll use Japanese Cenus data from 1940 as that is the closest comparative.
The Japanese main island had a population in 1940 was 73,114,308. Not all were Japanese but about 99%.
Lets look at the major "colonies".
Korea: 24,327,326 with about 3% Japanese (This is from having a hold from 1910)
Taiwan: 5,746,959 with about 6% Japanese
Manchuria (Less accurate as there wasn't a census there): About 36,933,000 with about 3% Japanese (and there was a heavily promoted colonisation effort).
Lets add just Vietnan (not the whole of Indochina, just Vietnam).
Estimate from 1950 gives 28,264,000.
Japan now is a proper European colonial Emipre, ruling over a larger group then their own. Given the consentrated efforts in the past areas and the negligible effects I doubt Indochina will become Japanese soon short of genocide. The people there won't be too happy either, as Japan's military employed chemical warfare and probably left the countryside with burned children wondering in agony. The Phan Thị Kim Phúc picture is all the people of Indochina will see of the Japanese. If the Indias will see Canada's actions as treacherous then Japan's will be seen worse by the Indochinese. Japan would ahve to get people to live in an already densly populated area in which what they will no doubt call terrorists threaten their children's lives. People are people and not tools that blindly follow the grand designs of their government unless forced to.
Japan still has a major oil and resource problems, even worse now that the prodution capacity of the US was destroyed. Oil to fuel their navy and army is still hard to come by and will leave them with issues as it did historically.
I also doubt this Japan will liberalise willingly. Remember this Japan is basically the same of the historical axis nation that coninually and willfully commited warcrimes.
I think the Japanese are buying to much into their own martial propaganda.
Also by requiring colonists to be dedicated to the militia they are discouraging people from moving, because people are lazy. Why move from the homeland to go to a place you have to make sure your constantly in shape and worried about local resistance?
Those that go will be higher quality (especially compared to Goering's folks) but the Japanese colonial population is still incredibly small.
Of course there are "other methods" of making the Japanese a majority, but that would destroy the economic output of said colony.
In German leftist circles he is remembered as an important figure, responsible for rehabilitating the image of socialists in the Reich, while critics hold that his four-year chancellorship, though important for symbolic reasons, had few policy accomplishments.
Although Schumacher had a short reign I think he did quite a lot given that he had his only good arm tied behind his back.
A lot of his Chancellorship he had to deal with an uncooperative Kaiser over the divorce issue in a minority government.
He got economic and political reform pass and helped put momentum behind international organizations to encourage peace.Also managed to support the Danubian pact despite German imperialist objections.
His Polish response was regrettable but it doesn't seem like the Germans would accept anything else.
Overall he's better then Hassel.
Otto Grotewohl, wins the SPD party ballot to succeed him, and is appointed 14th Chancellor of Germany. Grotewohl is regarded as ideologically flexible but politically skilled.
I have a feeling that he'll last awhile. Not as a positive influence though. He'll do whatever to win reelection I expect. And the only votes to care about are those in Germany proper.
He learned from the Schumacher years that the SDP economic policy is popular but that in foreign policy the German voters still care about Imperialism. He'll probably change hte policies into bribes at home and make the rest of the Empire miserable because they can't vote. His capitulation to the military interests is a sign of this.
Of course if the situation in Mittelafika blows up he'll have to deal with that.
April 6th - In Amérosul, Che Guevara, returned from his exploratory expedition in Mittelafrika, reports to the Central Committee that the continent is ripe for anti-capitalist agitation, but the native people show a prohibitive lack of consciousness and education. In response, the External Committee of the Politburo endorse a plan to deploy African-descended Amérosulian agents to Mittelafrika to agitate and organize. Per the Politburo docket on the matter, this unit becomes known as Cadre Onze, and establishes its operations in north-west Cameroon, harassing and terrorizing local Mittelafrikan settler communities.
I guess the Machete Rebels are now the Machine gun rebels. If they are getting more organized I wonder if they'll declare an organization soon (Pan-African Liberation Council?)
Mittelafrika has control of the infrastructure, for now, but these rebels will have majority support in the population because of Goering's idiocy.
Also that's close to Entente controlled Spanish Equatorial Guinea. I wonder if there's a chance of an international incident to occurs (rebels go over the boarder and Germans invade the territory and refuse to leave for security reasons).
June 18th - In a television interview, former German chancellor Ulrich von Hassell says Germany must intervene in Austria to protect ‘co-Germans’. The comments earn an angry rebuke from the Austrian government, which promises ‘terrible vengeance’ if a German intervention is attempted.
Please stick your neck out Hassel. Hopefully when the clear image of what happened in Austria the axe falls on your neck.
I guess that's too hopeful. Though the subject in Mitteleuopa will be reminded that Germany doesn't care about them, only Germans.
June 30th - Dönitz meets with Goering at his palatial estate outside Dar es Salaam, the first high-level meeting between the German and Mittelafrikan governments since Goering’s decision to appoint himself viceroy. Goering succeeds in convincing Dönitz of the Syndicalist threat in the East, and succeeds. Dönitz returns to Berlin promising more troops.
You know I'm wondering what's stopping the German troops from just rushing Goering's palace and putting a sack over his head and dragging him back to Germany. I mean he asked for them to ddeal with the problems in Africa, and he's one of them.
Although if Goering does manage to avoid all the financial issues and Japanese entanglements I wonder what happens when he dies of old age. Technically Germany appoints his successor.
August 3rd - In Germany, after intense cabinet debate over the so-called Dönitz Report on Mittelafrika, Grotewohl agrees to double the German troop deployment in Mittelafrika to ten thousand, far fewer than the 25,000 Goering demands. Mindful that regular troops may soon be needed to stabilize the Austrian border, most of those deployed to Africa are territorial forces.
Would you clarify what the territorial forces are? Because if that they are forces from German satellites they would be another point of contention. It would make sense since those people can't vote but still that is not good for the long term.
July 11th - Elizabeth, Princess Imperial, gives birth to her second child, a son, at her husband’s family estate in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. The infant prince is named John Edward Arthur George Windsor-Kennedy, and replaces his sister, Princess Mary, as third in line to the Imperial throne.
Isn't John considered a cursed name by the royal family?
I think he'll end up like the other little Prince John's and die young. Go to keep those superstitions alive.
This is not enough to reassure German markets, however, which plummet on the idea of another long and costly reconstruction process.
These people clearly aren't thinking strait. Think of those government contracts!
November 4th - Imperial Intelligence insert Malcolm Little, a Nebraska-born, Michigan-raised promising African-American agitator, into Alabama. Since 1953, Imperial Intelligence has been operating Operation Moses, an attempt at identifying and cultivating African Americans as a third column against the AUS.
I think if things settle in favour of the Empire they will find out like the US that the partisans you support might split from you after all is said and done.
December 1st - In Jerusalem, 12 countries sign an international agreement setting aside Antarctica as a wildlife reserve and banning military activities on the continent. The Antarctic Treaty of 1959 is the first arms-control treaty implemented since the Weltkrieg.
Boo! You took the boring option. I wanted to see Australian and Amerosulian proxy fighting amoungst the penguins.
I bet Australasia will ignore it anyway.
By the way, what happened to Adenauer, Erhard, Brandt, and the other OTL West German leaders? I imagine they would remain in similar positions as real life.
Adenauer leads the Centre Party. Not sure about the others.
Russia and Kerensky attempt to flex their diplomatic muscles in Europe. Can Russia's influence be a good thing?
I wonder if democratic Russia helping promote democracy will cause of revival of Pan-Slavism (I now Hungary and Romania aren't slavic) with a democratic bent in Germany's subjects in the east. Sort of an ironic echo with them wanting Russia to protect them from Germany instead of it being the other way around.
The 60s are coming, years of peace, love, drugs, and highly likely a space race will start soon.
Not likely on all counts.
Except maybe the Drugs.
No nuclear bombs -> no reason for superpowers to fund hideously expensive development of intercontinental missiles with their puny little payloads -> no spaceflight for the time being.
Also including the previously discussed geographic and economic issues it isn't happening.
Even if there are nukes it might not happen. The antagonism between Germany and Canada isn't that great and short range missles from France are good enough. Also Germany's military establishment won't pay for it.
I can only wish for an Archduchy of Austria within the German Empire with Otto as Archduke aswell as King of Hungary.
I really don't think the Hungarians would want their head of state to be technically a subject of the German Kaiser. Not after fighting a defensive war against German speakers seeking to subjugate them and seeing what happened to the Polish subjects of Germany.
I don't think Otto's opinion on the matter holds much weight. If he wants to go back to Austria he can leave while Hungary to reconstructs Hungary and Croatia.
Uniting two so different countries, whose armies only months ago killed each other with terror bombings and poison gas? Well maybe if Otto has a death wish. We haven't had a political assassination in a long time have we? Millions of his subjects will want to kill him and everything he stands for. And imagine for a second how incredibly advantageous Otto's death would be for the regional hegemon.
Yeah I imagine most of the Danubian pact is wary of Germany. They gave help but I think most know that a large portion of Germany wouldn't shed tears in the Ultranationalists got their way.
Sure Grotewohl is against it but the DKP might be in favour and there is no guarantee that the SPD will win the next election. Especially with the HUGE Vietnam that is waiting to happen in Afrika.
Not sure the DKP can win on that. Grotewohl I think will "triangulate" and use leftist economics to keep his base happy while using traditional Imperialist foreign policy to keep that portion of the electorate content.
Maybe if Goering's dealings blow up.
Speaking of which, the Austrians are definitely not going to like the Germans right now. At least, the Austrians that opposed Brunner's regime that are likely leading the post-war government. The Germans will be seen as opportunists that did nothing to stop Brunner's ascension nor the war, and even the pan-Germanists should be disillusioned.
I think most of Europe won't have a high opinion of Germany after this. They basically let this happen and made clear they have little concern for non-Germans.
Germany only cared because non-Germans were advancing on Germans.
