Japan

Japan is a nation in the Pacific Ocean. It is located off the east coasts of China, Russia, and Korea, and is seperated from the Asian mainland by the Sea of Japan.

Japan in Southern Victory
Prior to the Great War, Japan became the only non-white country to compete with Europe and North America on equal terms. She emerged victorious in her wars against China and Spain, annexing Korea, Formosa (Taiwan) and the Philippines.

Great War
Japan fought with the Entente during the Great War. The Japanese overran Germany's colonies in the central Pacific and supported Britain against the United States. Previously regarded as a lightweight nation who had beaten only weak opponents, the Japanese Navy's performance in Battle of the Three Navies earned Japan the respect (and fear) of the white man. By the end of 1917, Japan's allies had been beaten by the Central Powers, and Tokyo made peace. Alone of the Entente powers, Japan emerged with no territorial or significant manpower losses.

The Interwar Years
Embolded by the European defeats in the Great War, Japan spent the 1920s expanding her empire. Much influence was gained in China and Manchuria became a Japanese holding, while France and the Netherlands were 'persuaded' (with suitable compensation) to hand over their colonies in Indochina and the East Indies. Britain counted itself lucky that Japan didn't do the same to Malaya and Hong Kong.

Japan's foreign policy in the eastern Pacific proved less successful. Attempts to set off an uprising in US-occupied Canada led to the Pacific War in 1932. While the Japanese successfully bombed Los Angeles in October that year, the US Navy managed to prevent any invasion of the Sandwich Islands. Neither country could fully prosecute the war: America's funding-starved military had to defend a long land border with the CSA, while Japan had the Russians sitting over Manchuria. The war ended inconclusively in 1934 with no territorial changes.

Second Great War
During the Second Great War, Japan was much more active. The Japanese navy was able to capture the island of Midway from the weakened U.S. in 1941 and pushed the Americans back to the Sandwich Islands. The following year their sole carrier in the central Pacific was sunk at the Second Battle of Midway. With little prospect of taking the islands, the Japanese decided in early 1943 to strike against Britain's Asian colonies instead.

Japan in WorldWar
Japan was engaged in World War II when the Race invaded in 1942. When the Race began its war against Japan, Japan recalled a large fleet being sent to attack the American forces at Midway.

The Japanese, who were culturally more similar to the Race than any other Tosevite not-empire, resisted the Race when it attacked the Japanese Home Islands. However, Japanese efforts to build an atomic bomb, a program in which Teerts had been involved as a prisoner of war, were frustrated when Atvar destroyed Tokyo with just such a weapon.

Japan had been part of the Big Five but its failure to develop an atomic weapon and the loss of its imperial territory--the Race drove the Japanese out of mainland China and most of their other territory on the Asian mainland--forced it to accept a diminished diplomatic status under the agreement known as the Peace of Cairo. Nonetheless, Japan retained Taiwan, Hainan, Indochina, the Philippines, Indonesia, New Guinea and most of the central and southwest Pacific islands.

In 1964, Japan built its own atomic bomb. With this weapon in hand it demanded and was granted full diplomatic relations with the Race, the same as were afforded the United States, Germany, and the Soviet Union.

In 2034, it was considered within the realm of possibility for the Japanese to build an interstellar starship, possibly even a FTL starship, within the foreseeable future.

Japan in Day of Infamy
Japan invaded Hawaii on December 7, 1941, and subjected the archipelago to its iron-fisted rule until late 1943. Japan seized the islands to shield its expansion farther west (the manpower and material allocated to this invasion doesn't seem to have slowed the Japanese up elsewhere). However, despite a bloody victory over unprepared but tenacious American defenders, supplying the islands became an ever-greater challenge in the face of distance and US submarine attacks.

Despite the ever-present menace of submarines, the Imperial Japanese Navy defeated America's first counter-attack in June 1942, sinking the carriers Yorktown and Saratoga, and crippling the Hornet. Following their victory the Kingdom of Hawaii was restored to life - as a puppet akin to Manchukuo. But a year later, the much-enlarged US Navy hurled an enormous fleet at the islands. The carriers Akagi and Shokaku were sunk by sheer numbers, costing Japan any hope of contesting US air superiority. The Japanese Army garrison and its Hawaiian allies were steadily overwhelmed by the US Marines and its overwhelming firepower, and the last Japanese holdouts in Honolulu and Pearl Harbor were crushed by late 1943.