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mdiehl -> (6/21/2002 10:18:24 PM)
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An interesting question, but one that leads to so many different possible "parallel" universes it's hard to decide which among them to discuss.
Without a Japanese occupation of China (unlikely, IMO, because of the heightened ethnic nationalism in Japan during their depression) there's no war. The US, UK and NEI compete economically in China and perhaps, to a certain degree, evolve a kind of cooperation that de-escalates the tension and mutual distrust. No steel embargo. No Oil embargo. No Southern Resource Area expansion. French Indochina stays a corrupt and backward place as do the NEI. Maybe no Viet Nam War for the US. No "North" Korea, hence, no Korean war.
Let's see. The European war ends two years faster. Yamato's first action is a sortie (based from New York) against KM Bismarck, which ends in a decidedly rapid IJN victory. Kido Butai supports operations against the Italians in the Med, but after losing all their AO/ACV conversions and passenger liner CV conversions to German subs, Kido Butai begins operating from the deck of USS Yorktown II (which is named USS Tsushima Straits in this universe).
This is actually a rather amusing exercise. But of course completely trivial.
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