Does anyone know of any alt-history fiction where the Pacific Theater of World War II did not end the way it really did but with the United States still more or less victorious (not wondering about Axis-victorious stuff like Man in the High Castle)? The reason I ask is that I had a dream last night where such an alternate ending was fact of life.
It seems like any time someone discusses how the Allies Vs. Japan phase of the war could have gone, there are only two alternatives: the way it really did happen, or a horrendous Plan B involving an invasion of the Japanese Home Islands at an estimated cost of hundreds of thousands of American troops' lives, not too mention massive Japanese military and civilian casualties as well. Either one or the other. Which sounds worse? I think this is a way to make Americans feel better about the enormity that was the atomic bombing of civilian populations in Japan. That was awful, yeah, but Plan B was a hell of a lot worse they say. But was there ever any serious consideration of a Plan C: don't drop atomic bombs and don't invade Japan itself, but instead roll them back to the Home Islands and contain them there for a while. This had largely been achieved by the summer of 1945. That was a thing that showed up in my dream. In that dream's real history, that's what happened. The United States military planners decided that pressing toward final victory and Japan's unconditional surrender was not worth the cost. Instead they threw a naval and air cordon around Japan, interdicting any further efforts at military aggression and conducting air strikes aimed at further eroding the Japanese regime's war-making ability (which was already basically gone anyway by the point in real history where my dream-history diverges). Eventually, a negotiated armistice and treaty with the United States was reached similar to the one with Germany that ended the First World War in 1918 and there was no occupation of Japan nor was the Japanese political and military elite entirely removed from power.
So I wonder if anyone knows of any speculative fiction where a scenario like this played out and what course this alternate Japan took. I have to think that modern Japan would be a very, very different thing now if it had gone this way because what it is now is very much the result of the way the war ended. I'm not, by the way, advocating for it or suggesting that I think it would have necessarily been a good or better thing if history had gone this way. I just find it an interesting avenue for speculation because it is so very different than real history.
In the dream itself, the topic was not discussed much and the dream was not even primarily about this. But I brought it up to a dream character as an example of how one does not always have to either win or lose, and that acceptable outcomes can sometimes happen by taking a third way. While I was trying to make this point to someone in a dream, I am considering right now in my waking world that this is a point that I might benefit from taking to heart myself. I think that I sometimes think too often in victory vs. defeat terms, and that it is actually more often the case that neither needs to be the final outcome. Also, when I am unhappy with a circumstance it is probably good to remind myself of something that I have observed so many times that it seems to be a truism: the System will eat itself.
It seems like any time someone discusses how the Allies Vs. Japan phase of the war could have gone, there are only two alternatives: the way it really did happen, or a horrendous Plan B involving an invasion of the Japanese Home Islands at an estimated cost of hundreds of thousands of American troops' lives, not too mention massive Japanese military and civilian casualties as well. Either one or the other. Which sounds worse? I think this is a way to make Americans feel better about the enormity that was the atomic bombing of civilian populations in Japan. That was awful, yeah, but Plan B was a hell of a lot worse they say. But was there ever any serious consideration of a Plan C: don't drop atomic bombs and don't invade Japan itself, but instead roll them back to the Home Islands and contain them there for a while. This had largely been achieved by the summer of 1945. That was a thing that showed up in my dream. In that dream's real history, that's what happened. The United States military planners decided that pressing toward final victory and Japan's unconditional surrender was not worth the cost. Instead they threw a naval and air cordon around Japan, interdicting any further efforts at military aggression and conducting air strikes aimed at further eroding the Japanese regime's war-making ability (which was already basically gone anyway by the point in real history where my dream-history diverges). Eventually, a negotiated armistice and treaty with the United States was reached similar to the one with Germany that ended the First World War in 1918 and there was no occupation of Japan nor was the Japanese political and military elite entirely removed from power.
So I wonder if anyone knows of any speculative fiction where a scenario like this played out and what course this alternate Japan took. I have to think that modern Japan would be a very, very different thing now if it had gone this way because what it is now is very much the result of the way the war ended. I'm not, by the way, advocating for it or suggesting that I think it would have necessarily been a good or better thing if history had gone this way. I just find it an interesting avenue for speculation because it is so very different than real history.
In the dream itself, the topic was not discussed much and the dream was not even primarily about this. But I brought it up to a dream character as an example of how one does not always have to either win or lose, and that acceptable outcomes can sometimes happen by taking a third way. While I was trying to make this point to someone in a dream, I am considering right now in my waking world that this is a point that I might benefit from taking to heart myself. I think that I sometimes think too often in victory vs. defeat terms, and that it is actually more often the case that neither needs to be the final outcome. Also, when I am unhappy with a circumstance it is probably good to remind myself of something that I have observed so many times that it seems to be a truism: the System will eat itself.
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