Page 54 - All About History - Issue 29-15

What if…
JAPAN HAD NOT STRUCK PEARL HARBOR?

Troops of Chinese 179th Brigade “For Japan, Pearl Harbor
departing Taiyuan, Shanxi Province,
China for the front lines in 1937
was really the sideshow –
they were trying to get rid

of the US fleet of ships”

ally because there was nothing strategically useful about
them. However, French Indochina and Dutch Indonesia were
definitely going to be invaded. For Japan, Pearl Harbor was
really the sideshow – they were trying to get rid of the US fleet
of ships and attempting to stop supplies to the British. It was
not about taking Hawaii. Their interest was in expanding to
Southeast Asia and removing the Western powers.
Let’s try another hypothetical situation – Japan decides
not to attack the Philippines but withdraws from China.
Might the USA have come to terms with loosening their
Japanese soldiers crossing the trade embargo? And might Japan have retained its
border from China into the British empire in Southeast Asia?
colony of Hong Kong in 1941
I think this is very unlikely. The Philippines is in the middle
of the South China Sea and it was able to block Japanese
supply routes so it really had to fall. But let’s imagine a
situation where Japan is just battling against the European
colonial powers – it wants them out of there and Tokyo wants
to run things. The British were not strong at the time and
they did not fight a strong war in Burma. In the end they
were only able to battle the Japanese because of help from
the Americans. The French, certainly, would not have been
able to fight back until 1945, so Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos
would have remained Japanese. In Indonesia, the Japanese
invasion was transformative because it broke down Dutch
power. It also increased Indonesian confidence and the
movement for independence, which would have happened
but they would have been fighting the Japanese. In the end,
if this had transpired – and we take out the Philippines and
Pearl Harbor – you have another very different history. The

O Pearl Harbor is struck
How woulditbedifferent? A surprise attack on the naval
base in Hawaii, an attempt
to cripple the US Navy and
halt supplies, gives the White
O Japan creates the puppet House full public support to
stateofManchukuo enter World War II – in Asia and
After the 1931 invasion of Manchuria, and Europe. 7 December 1941
believing that all of Asia should be unified
under the rule of Emperor Hirohito,
Japan creates a new state, Manchukuo,
Realtimeline locatedininner(Chinese)Mongolia. Realtimeline
15 September 1932

1895
O Japan Invades Alternativetimeline
Taiwan O TheoutbreakoftheSino-JapaneseWar
Believe it or not but Although tensions between the two countries had
the road to Pearl been high after the invasion of Manchuria and
Harbor begins creation of Manchukuo, it is the increasing number O TheoutbreakoftheSino-JapaneseWar
here. The East of Japanese soldiers deployed to the mainland that Japan’s most challenging battlefront
Asian island is finally breaks Chinese patience. When a Japanese since its annexation of Taiwan and Korea
invaded by the private fails to return to his post, his squad demand many decades prior begins. However, the
Japanese, whose to enter the walled town of Wanping. When the army–despiteitsreputationforbrutality
empire begins. Chinese refuse, the Japanese respond with force. –attemptstowinoverheartsandminds.
29 May – What may have been a simple disagreement was the Nanjing is treated especially carefully.
21 October 1895 spark that lit a brutal eight-year war. 7 July 1937 7July1937
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