Name: The Empire of Japan Head of State: Emperor Showa Head of Government: Saitō Makoto Type of Government: Constitutional Monarchy Population: 98,111,000
Japan: 70,000,000
Korea: 22,899,000
Taiwan: 5,212,000 Capital: Tokyo
Domestic
Internal Events:
-TBD
Economic Status:
- Improving
- The effects of the great depression are continually fading, and heavy investment and military spending is stimulating the economy Military
The army's 5-year modernization plan is proceeding as planned
The Japanese navy is continuing to be expanded, with two new fleet carriers being designed and expected to be completed in late 1940
Army:
265,000 (17 active divisions) +1
2,000,000 trained reservists, manpower pool of 7,000,000 (10% of the population of the Home Islands) (DEMOBILIZED)
~1,000 tanks or tankettes (equivalent to 3 armored divisions)
Navy:
10 Battleships: 4 Kongo class (Kongo, Hiei, Kirishima, Haruna); 2 Fuso class (Fuso, Yamashiro); 2 Ise class (Ise, Hyūga); 2 Nagato class (Nagato, Mutsu); +3 1939-41 (Yamato, Musashi, Shinano)
The two newest carriers of the Imperial Japanese Navy, the Hiryu and Soryu, have been completed at Yokosuka Navy Yard. They are the most modern carriers in Japanese service, and likely the most modern in the world.
Over the past few decades, the United States has been no stranger to violence. A civil war tore the nation apart in the first decade of the new century, and in recent years, the fears of such a bloody conflict have returned with a vengeance. When James Huxley, a noted enemy of Societism and, for many in the Societist Workers' Party, little better than the devil, was selected to be President in the closest election in US history, the SWP and a large number of their supporters rebelled in the centers of American industry, demanding the removal of the "usurper" in Washington. The "Red Week," soon to become known as "Red February," would be the first true test of Huxley and his administration.
The US Army, in conjunction with National Guard units and sections of Blackshirt Legionnaires, would take part in this great cull of "Nechayist subversion." Throughout the early weeks of February, the military cordoned off the rebelling cities, setting up checkpoints and ensuring that nobody could get in or out without approval. Civilians were advised to remain in their homes until "the present crisis had passed," and by mid-February, the military began their attack on the rebel strongholds themselves in earnest, first targeting government buildings and important centers of command and control.
National Guardsmen in New York
Of the six cities that rebelled in the aftermath of the disputed election, Chicago was by far the most difficult to quell; the industrial city was, in effect, the capital of the American labor movement, and thus saw by far the most violent uprisings during the Red Week. New York, thanks to its geography and density, also made for a difficult battle, as did Detroit. Initial probes against Societiest enclaves by police and National Guard units were repulsed in most cases, necessitating more drastic solutions. For the first time, tanks were deployed by the US Military against a rebelling population; they went into battle with their cannons unloaded, but they proved to be an effective crowd disperser and worked well as rolling cover for infantry during firefights--of which there were certainly many.
While the majority of the uprisings across the cities were perpetrated by simple angry civilians, opportunists, and fair-weather Societists, the industrial areas themselves were more often than not held by more fanatic Party members, many of whom orfganized themselves into "phalanxes" and "Red Guards." The Minutemen, a leftist militia organization, also took part, supporting the main force of rebels in the defense of the factory and tenement districts.
Mugshot of Roger Stevenson, SWP chairman and former VP-candidate captured in the Battle of Chicago.
A large number of SWP leaders were interned in a number of specialized detention centers, including the infamous Fort Wood.
A major aid for the military during the Red Week was the National Legion of America, who, by newly-inaugurated President Huxley's executive order, were now an officially sanctioned and government-supplied paramilitary force; throughout the riots, they freed up large numbers of National Guard and Army troops by acting as auxiliary patrolmen in pacified areas. While many of the younger members of the Blackshirts lacked professional military discipline, they made up for it with fervor, and the older members--many of them Civil War veterans--were adept at leading the group during their stint as policemen.
A Blackshirt Legion on the march in Pittsburgh, near the end of the fighting in that city
By the end of February, the riots and rebellions were largely crushed. The important areas of all six rebellious cities were under government control once more, and while holdouts of the most die-hard Societists remained, the prospect of another civil war seemed to have been extinguished. It came at a cost, however; property destruction was rampant in the cities, with millions worth of property and infrastructure destroyed. The worst occurred in the Lower East Side of New York, wherein a fire swept through the Lower East Side, killing over three hundred people and destroying large portions of the neighborhood. Of the six, New York and Chicago saw the most destruction and, even worse, civilian casualties.
Summary:
Societists in overt rebellion stamped out.
While many fell or were captured during the quell, a number of SWP and radical SLP members have fled into hiding in Canada or gone underground across the US.
Light casualties for Army/NG forces.
Minimal casualties for NLA legionnaires.
Moderate-heavy casualties for Red Guards and insurrectionists depending on the city.
Moderate civilian casualties, again depending on the city.
Many of the Northern cities have seen serious property damage as a result of the fighting.
The previous years' campaigns saw the Republican forces on the advance, taking Wuhan and Changsa along the way to cutting the Qing off from the coast in the southeast. About 90,000 Imperial troop were left behind in a pocket, while the rest of the Imperial forces retreated into the Chinese interior. The troops in the pocket were primarily conscripts, demoralized and undersupplied, though their supply problems would soon be alleviated.
The Empire of Japan had been watching the developments in China with growing concern. While not officially backing any faction since the start of the Chinese Civil War, it was clear that they favored the Qing, seeing them as the most conciliatory towards Japanese interests. Japan had been the organizing force behind the heavy weapons embargo imposed upon the Republic of China the previous year, but that hadn't slowed the Republican offensive as much as had been hoped. So, the Japanese were prepared to take more assertive measures to prop up the Qing.
These included first and foremost supply shipments, some 'sold' on credit to the nearly bankrupt Qing and others essentially given away. These were sent to the port cities both in the southeast pocket and in the far south. (where the Qing still controlled the coast in western Guangdong and Guangxi provinces opposite Hainan) They also provided officers meant to train the Qing forces into something resembling an effective fighting force. This would have a greater impact in the far south, but within the pocket there wasn't much time to train before the Republicans struck.
Closing the Pocket
Qing conscripts surrendering to the Republican New Model Army
The Republicans had tasked their best troops, the New Model Army, to take the southeast pocket. Split into three prongs outside the pocket, they advanced from the north, south and west simultaneously. Prior to the NMA's advance, pro-Republican agents were dispersed to encourage the population and the Imperial conscripts to surrender, and the commanders of the NMA were encouraged to offer lenient surrender terms. As the advance began, it was clear that these measures had some success – most of the conscripts who'd been left in the pocket were peasant laborers and farmers, and had little motivating them to continue the fight. When faced with generous surrender terms the numerically large formations at the borders of the pocket either surrendered right away, or did so after offering only token resistance. Fuzhou and Taizhou were taken with relatively light casualties within the first couple of months as the pocket contracted, before the Japanese could really get organized on the ground there.
The pocket began to retract on all sides. The remaining Qing loyalist forces largely retreated to the center, where the port city of Wenzhou and its surrounding counties became the last holdout of the Imperial forces. Here, the Japanese trainers were able to impose some discipline on the remaining conscripts, who numbered about 20,000 at that point, and the supply of heavy weapons began to weigh in their favor. The NMA suffered heavier casualties as they drew closer to Wenzhou, as the defenses stiffened. The tide was being stemmed, though, not completely stopped. A decisive offensive in early 1938 by the NMA broke the line in two places about 20 miles outside Wenzhou proper, and the pocket began to collapse. The Japanese had to fall back on their last contingency.
Japanese SNLF on a transport, preparing to land in Wenzhou
At the 'invitation' of the Qing Imperial Commander in Wenzhou, Japanese SNLF marines deployed to the city and began setting up roadblocks and checkpoints at all entry points. Carrier-borne aircraft overflew the NMA's positions on the city's approaches. Upon seeing the flag of the Rising Sun, the commander of the NMA ordered a halt to the offensive, to await word from the top on how to proceed. He wasn't about to start a shooting war with Japan.
The Battle of Chongqing
While the Republic had assigned its most professional troops to subdue the coastal pocket, it left the task of bringing the vast interior to heel to 'the Generals' who were essentially a group of warlord commanders who had aligned with the Republicans. Their forces were, like their Qing counterparts, mainly drawn from conscripts and thus of middling quality, though numerous. There was frustratingly little coordination between these men, all of whom were ambitious and viewed the others as political rivals more than anything else, and thus each wanted their share of the glory to cement their role post-war.
Qing defensive line outside Chongqing
Chongqing was the provisional Qing capital since they had fled to the interior, and was the seat of Emperor Puyi – thus it had the highest concentration of Qing loyalist forces remaining in China. It soon became the immediate focus of the Generals' armies. Their forces had suffered considerable losses the previous year, and while those were largely replaced with additional conscription, it took some months before they were able to set out, which gave the Qing a chance to establish a defensive line. The clashes in and around the city became a grueling affair, with high casualties on both sides. The Qing fought a dogged and determined defense, aided at times by Japanese supplies that began to trickle in. Ultimately, on the council of his advisors (some of whom had military advisors from Japan whispering in their ears), Puyi and his loyalists engineered a retreat southwards, towards Nanning. The Republican generals took Chongqing, which was devastated from the fighting. From there, there was disagreement on how to proceed. One took his forces further west to secure Chengdu and the rest of Sichuan. Others looked to secure the remaining provinces in central China. A few were determined to pursue the Qing southwards and defeat them, once and for all. They were in for a nasty surprise.
The Tide Turns
Japanese reconnaissance aircraft in the skies over Guiyang, Guangxi Province
In the south, the Japanese had managed to train and equip a sizeable force of Qing-loyal troops, which, when added to the forces that Puyi had managed to salvage out of Chongqing, added up to an effective army, comparable in effectiveness to the NMA, but equipped with more modern weapons. With Japanese aircraft deployed for reconnaissance and to spot for artillery, the Imperial forces met the Generals forces in the battles of Anshun and Guiyang, inflicting devastating casualties. The battles turned into a rout, and two of the Republican generals were killed outright, spurring many of their conscripts to disperse. The Qing, with Japanese support had managed to hold the far south, controlling roughly three provinces outright– Guanxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan, along with parts of Guangdong and Hunan. They've got a reasonable grasp of things and are well enough equipped that it will take a serious Republican effort to dislodge them, as long as Japan continues to support them, and as long as they can keep the people's support. These provinces have a history of rebellion - the Taiping had held the region (and much of the rest of Southern China) for roughly 60 years from 1850-1910
Much of the rest of the country, though (which had only nominally been under Imperial control) had slipped away, perhaps for good. In the northwest, the Ma clique warlords expelled the few remaining Imperial officers from Qinghai and Gansu. Other provinces in the interior were secured for the Republic, by the generals who hadn't pursued the Qing south after Chongqing. Further in the northeast…other actions were unfolding..
The Northern Campaign
One of the approaches favored by some in Japan was a northern attack to open a corridor to Manchukuo, in order to supply the remaining Qing forces in the north. With all of the focus to the south and west this was viewed as a good opportunity to establish a stronger presence in Northern China. There were logistical difficulties however – communication with the Qing's main base in Chongqing was sporadic, and it took weeks to transit the rough Chinese interior from all the way in the south – so it took a while before Japanese advisors were in place. Beyond that, once the Republican assault on Chongqing commenced, most remaining lines of communication were severed. Additionally, very few of the modern weapons being delivered to the southern ports made it all the way northward, as most ended up in the hands of the defenders of Chongqing or the armies being raised in the south that ultimately reversed the Republicans. Operating within these constraints, the Japanese advisors and the local Qing commanders managed to scrape together the necessary forces for an offensive. Further, they caught the Republicans flat-footed, driving them southward and opening a narrow corridor to Manchuria.
Qing forces led by Japanese advisors, advancing in Inner Mongolia
Manchu forces were waiting at the border to meet them, and supply shipments soon commenced. However, before the Qing could consolidate and take advantage of this position, they were struck from an unexpected direction
The Red Dragon Rises
Comrade Feng Baolin, commander of the Chinese Societist forces
Following their defeat at Linfen in 1933, the Chinese Societists had retreated to their mountainous redoubts in central China. This beleaguered lot was on the ropes, but the Qing didn't have the resources to finish them off completely, and had needed to keep their focus on the Republicans. The threat had been neutralized, or so they thought.
Though greatly weakened, the Societists were not completely down and out yet, and had spent the past five years slowly rebuilding – with little in the way of industry, they had to scrape and scrounge for weapons and supplies, and train without bullets, Colonel Feng Baolin, or "Comrade Feng" as he was commonly known, inspired a fierce loyalty among his followers, a cult of personality among the Red Chinese second only to Nechayev himself. The Societists had friendly network of villagers and corrupt officials in Qing territory, and had caught word of the organizing of the northern offensive.
Sensing an opportunity, Feng gathered his forces and struck northwards, hitting the Qing from behind and completely unprepared. The Reds managed to take a sizeable chunk of Inner Mongolia and seized several of the supply caches the Japanese had funneled into Inner Mongolia from Manchukuo. Even more importantly, they established a land connection with the Societern via Mongolia, and Feng's agents quickly slipped across the border northwards into Mongolia, en route to the UESR with pleas for support.
Summary
- Republicans close the pocket on the southeast coast, Japanese troops occupy Wenzhou.
- Republican forces take Chongqing and drive the Qing south. Sichuan taken by the Republicans.
- Qing consolidate in Southern China with Japanese support and inflict a defeat on the Republican 'generals', halting further offensives.
- Northwestern Ma clique warlords throw off the Qing in Qinghai and Gansu, Central provinces taken by the Republicans.
- Qing in the northeast interior open a temporary corridor to Manchukuo to receive supplies, but this route is closed by an unexpected attack from the Societists, who sieze swathes of territory in Inner Mongolia and establish a tenuous land connection to Societist Mongolia.
- The arms embargo on the Republic of China is starting to take its toll -While the NMA is still somewhat well equipped, they can't replace lost/damaged equipment easily, and will have trouble equipping new units with anything heavier than small arms unless they can end the embargo.
In that case, let's completely cease trading with the Crimea and starve them out - we will tighten the boycott our part of the border, if you make sure the Hetmanate also cracks down hard on smugglers. We don't expect you to fight a war, but the French need to be driven out of their imperialistic outpost.
We don't want to do anything too overt, but we will certainly cut down on trade going to Crimea. We're stopping short of blockades and actual sanctions though. Those are needlessly provocative.
To: Empire of Japan @bigseb31213
From: The Republic of China
Our troops report that Japanese troops have intervened in the fighting in the Eastern pocket, may we ask your intentions?
To: Prussia-Poland @KnightofTempest
From: Republic of China
Secret.
This embargo placed against us is truly an unnecessary burden, we are the most prosperous of the successor states of Imperial China, if this embargo continues and if Japan escalates our war effort could collapse and our economy suffer. Surely you would not desire further economic instability.
To: Empire of Japan @bigseb31213
From: The Republic of China
Our troops report that Japanese troops have intervened in the fighting in the Eastern pocket, may we ask your intentions?
To: Prussia-Poland @KnightofTempest
From: Republic of China
Secret.
This embargo placed against us is truly an unnecessary burden, we are the most prosperous of the successor states of Imperial China, if this embargo continues and if Japan escalates our war effort could collapse and our economy suffer. Surely you would not desire further economic instability.
We do not wish to antagonize the French at present. Such a thing will ultimately lead to a General European War, which we hope to avoid. Besides which, we have limited ability to ship goods to east asia in the first place. This will be cut down to zero ability with a potential Japanese Blockade.
In Spring of 1938, the first Semana de Arte Revolucionária (week of revolutionary art) was held in several major brazilian cities. International artists who were sympathetic to the societist state had been invited to present their work alongside brazilian artists. Dozens of exhibitions, readings and performances in a multitude of styles showcased the artistic freedom of the new brazilian society. Though not strictly required, nearly all works on exhibition revolved about national or international political issues: the female art collective Mulheres Livres made the role of women in the new society the main topic of their poems, plays and sculptures, criticising the discrepancy of equality promised to women in the constitution and laws of the Popular Republic and the de-facto discrimination faced by women everyday. The most radical works from the collective was probably Ana Galvão's sculpture "morte machismo", a number plicers used for castrating farm animals, painted red and black.
Less controversial and meant more for an international public was the final concert in Rio de Janeiro, which featured works from Brazilian, Eurasian, French and American composers. While some pieces celebrated the triumph of societism or celebrated Nechayev, others mourned the dead of the Red February in the USA or heralded Comrade Feng as the liberator of the Chinese people.
