The Coming Conflict of Nations or The Japanese-American War-1909

This is a fictional account of a war between Japan and the U.S. It's a world war, and it has a lot of differences between what really happened and what's in the story. In this case, for example, Japan actually invades the U.S. It's not America that is key to stopping the Japanese, it's Britain.

The Table of Contents shows the non-Japanese portions of the text that I'm not including here. What I will include is the portions that relate to Japan, and I'll note any major differences between the story and reality.

Chapter 2

The situation is not good overall, and then there's some kind of problem between an American sailor and a Japanese attendant at a restaurant. The sailor is found dead the next morning.

There's a riot, and the Japanese soundly defeat the militia sent against them which causes an uproar across the nation. Japan offers to withdraw its immigrants but only under certain conditions. Negotiations fail, and the U.S. declares war against Japan.

The disguised Japanese army in California moves against a number of cities, including Sacramento where they take over the California state government. They bring a fleet to California and land many troops.

The people living along the coast are told to abandon their homes and move east of the Rocky Mountains.

Similar to what really happened: California resented the Japanese immigrants. Separate schools for the Asiatics. Neither the navy nor the army of the U. S. is strong enough to defend the west coast properly. Japan had built up her military forces.

Vaguely similar to what happened: There's a large scale attack on Japanese walking around and many are injured. This is followed by a parade of Japanese men carrying guns. Police were unable to stop the parade. (There were various incidents now and then of physical attacks, but this refers to apparently a rather large number of attacks at one time.)

Different from what happened: The militia is called out to stop the parade, and this results in bloodshed with the militia using bayonets and the Japanese using their guns. Many of the militia are killed by the Japanese.

The Japanese then join into large groups, arm themselves, and head towards San Francisco.

The U.S. is the first to declare war.

The Japanese had sent an army to the U.S. disguised as coolies. (I think the author does this to emphasize the 'sneaky' nature of the Japanese which many people believed in at the time.)

A large Japanese fleet comes to the coast of California. (In reality, only a couple of Japanese subs came over, doing some ineffectual shelling and one launched a plane that was supposed to start forest fires but failed to do that.)

Japan takes over Hawaii, again by having disguised soldiers there. (Although the book refers to fierce fighting that the Japanese encountered, it doesn't way what the large population of Japanese living there did, what side they fought on.)

Canada and England remain neutral at the start of the war.

Chapter 6

The two battle fleets converge on each other. They converge near Panama. The Japanese fleet has some kind of odd weapon that fires explosives under a dark cloud and they destroy the American fleet. Japan demands the U.S. cede the Pacific states and pay Japan money.

An Army of 750,000 U.S. soldiers heads towards the mountain states.

Similar to what really happened: On a much smaller scale there were some Japanese victories over American fleets, and likewise victories of American fleets over Japanese ones. Although the Japanese kept trying to get the American fleet into one great decisive battle (as happens in the story) that event never occurred.

Different from what really happened: The book is a product of its times; it envisions the fleet battle as a confrontation of battleships. There are no aircraft carriers involved at all. There are also no superbattleships like the Yamato. Also missing from the battle are submarines. I can understand why the author had no aircraft carriers involved, but I am a little surprised about the total lack of submarines.

Chapter 8

Japan ships over 750,000 more soldiers. Mexico makes a treaty of friendship with Japan. U.S. forces move to Mexico to attack the Japanese there, while the Japanese army prepares to attack U.S. forces in Montana. The U.S. forces make a stand at Magdalena. The Americans are forces there are defeated.

The Japanese use the same weapon of darkness on land that they used on the sea.

The Japanese attack and seize the Panama Canal.

The British had a non-aggression pact with Japan, but when Japan takes over the Panama Canal England drops the pact. An English scientist discovers a way to neutralize the dark cloud weapon of the Japanese. The British send troops to Canada to link up with the American forces in Montana, and also send some to New Orleans.

Similar to what really happened: There were some Japanese plans to attack the Panama Canal, but they never got very far.

Different from what really happened: Pretty much everything.

Chapter 9

The Japanese bring laborers to the U.S. to raise crops and do other things. India tries to rebel against England but fails, even with Japanese helping them.

Australia, New Zealand and South Africa plan to send troops to the U.S. to help the Americans. The story then goes into where the various armies are setting up.

The British fleet is moving to confront the Japanese fleet. The Japanese are overconfident. The Japanese use their cloud of darkness weapon, but the British put into effect their counter-measures and manage to sink the Japanese torpedo boats.

As the battle turns against the Japanese they use kamikaze tactics by trying to drive their ships into those of the British, but they are sunk before they can do that.

(Submarines are given a one-sentence write-off as being useless in the battle.)

The entire Japanese fleet is wiped out.

The Japanese people are solidly behind the Emperor's decision to continue the war as a land war.

The next part of the story involves the Japanese plans to attack certain places and cities. Their overall plan is to control everything west of the Mississippi River and to control New Orleans (and thus any traffic on the Mississippi River.)

England and the United States make plans to invade Japan. The book uses a lot of pages to describe the set-up of the various armies for both sides before getting into the actual battle.

One part of the battle is a bayonet, close-quarters fight between British and Japanese forces, and the British forces overwhelm the Japanese even though they are out-numbered. The Japanese lose 40,000 and the British 20,000 dead at the early part, and the numbers double as the battle continues. The Japanese lose the battle.

Similar to what really happened: The Japanese want to dictate surrender terms from Washington, D.C. This was an important propaganda thing done in WWII when Yamamoto basically said the same thing. The use of kamikaze tactics. The Japanese people seemed to support the war quite fully.

Different from what really happened: What's very interesting is that in this fantastic battle between two huge ground armies, planes play no role whatsoever. There is no bombing, no strafing, not even any use of planes as devices to help determine enemy movements. Also, the battles in WWII took place on islands and there wasn't any mass amount of land to have such huge battles on, although, if Japan itself had been invaded as was planned, then such giant battles might have come about but, again, planes would have played a major role in any such battles.

Chapter 11

The Japanese abandon Idaho, and concentrate their forces in Washington, Oregon and California. Meanwhile British and American forces proceed with their plans to invade Japan.

Japan wants to sue for peace, but England and the U.S. demand an unconditional surrender of Japan. In the end a peace arrangement is reached that does not involve unconditional surrender. Japan is occupied by Allied forces.

Similar to what really happened: The U.S. demands an unconditional surrender of Japan. Japan is occupied by Allied forces.

Different from what really happened. Japan did not accept the unconditional surrender.

Chapter 12

A confederation of English-speaking countries is established. A lot of the Latin American nations are at war with each other. The Central American nations are confederated. The South American nations are done away with and reorganized to be one country with the former countries being states like in the United States.

England and the U. S. would handle the affairs of the Holy Land.

Much of Africa is given to England. Japan gets a chunk of eastern Siberia.

Similar to what really happened: Not much of anything.

Different from what really happened: Pretty much everything. Germany was defeated and France was restored. Japan was not given land in Siberia.



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