raharris1973
Well-known member
What if American occupied Japan & Okinawa (with its over 430,000 American troops), American-occupied South Korea, American-occupied Micronesian islands and atolls, and the liberated Philippines from Feb.1, 1946, and their surrounding waters out to 200 km, were all ISOT back 3 years to Feb. 1, 1943?
To the surprised 1943 American public in the US and in Britain and the North African theater, and surprised downtime Japanese forces in Sakhalin, the Kuriles, northern Korea, occupied Manchuria, China, and Southeast Asia, various Pacific islands, and IJN units at sea, and remainder of the downtime world, the surprising news begins to filter through that Japan has surrendered to the Americans, its Emperor has submitted to American occupation, ordered Japanese armed forces to lay down their arms, and said he is not divine. MacArthur is the ruler on the ground in Japan, to the astonishment of 1943 MacArthur and the rest of the US military establishment.
How does the 1943 world react to this situation? And how do the downtime lands and the deployed out-of-time forces fit in to the 1943 world?
There will be shock and disbelief to get past, but I imagine MacArthur's priority will be establishing a line of food supplies for his forces and for Japan in general, and American commanders throughout the Pacific would be seeking to reestablish communications and supply flows. 1946 American-occupied central and western Pacific territorities hosting American commanders and forces would have to coordinate with 1943 Washington and Honolulu and Sydney to reestablish safe sea routes, and secure the surrender of or destroy at-large IJN fleet units. The Allies would have to radio out recordings of the imperial surrender message to downtime Japanese forces Asia and Pacific wide to secure those forces capitulation and obedience to MacArthur's commands. This would have to be backed up likely by air-dropping film reels or landing mixed Japanese-Allied teams where the Japanese members consist of the classmates, superior officers or uptime versions of the downtime commanders they are trying to persuade to surrender.
The American forces in the Pacific and the Japanese population will know that atomic bombs were used in the defeat of Japan, so that knowledge will not be contained and will spread to downtime people. But without CONUS, the laboratories, and the scientists, nobody, uptime or downtime, has an an atomic bomb on hand or the recipe to make another one.
So the atomic bomb is not around as an automic war ender, or 'easy button' for the United States against Hitler and Mussolini. Knowledge that it *would be possible* to make and deliver two atomic bombs by two methods in 30 months, along with whatever fragmentary details that people may remember can spur both the Manhattan Project and adversary programs. But with the Americans knowing that the Germans now know it can be done, the Americans cannot follow the temptation of just waiting for it to be ready, even if they try to accelerate that program to maximum speed.
So how will the rest of the war be fought, with the Pacific turning into mainly a relatively lower intensity round-up of fugitives, occupation, and humanitarian situation, while Allied combat power can be concentrated against Europe for most of 1943 and all of 1944?
With the Pacific War winding down, is there enough assault shipping and supply shipping and troops to go around for everybody, from Churchill to Marshall, to get their wish? A lavishly supplied Overlord and a wide-ranging Mediterranean and Balkan campaign?
To the surprised 1943 American public in the US and in Britain and the North African theater, and surprised downtime Japanese forces in Sakhalin, the Kuriles, northern Korea, occupied Manchuria, China, and Southeast Asia, various Pacific islands, and IJN units at sea, and remainder of the downtime world, the surprising news begins to filter through that Japan has surrendered to the Americans, its Emperor has submitted to American occupation, ordered Japanese armed forces to lay down their arms, and said he is not divine. MacArthur is the ruler on the ground in Japan, to the astonishment of 1943 MacArthur and the rest of the US military establishment.
How does the 1943 world react to this situation? And how do the downtime lands and the deployed out-of-time forces fit in to the 1943 world?
There will be shock and disbelief to get past, but I imagine MacArthur's priority will be establishing a line of food supplies for his forces and for Japan in general, and American commanders throughout the Pacific would be seeking to reestablish communications and supply flows. 1946 American-occupied central and western Pacific territorities hosting American commanders and forces would have to coordinate with 1943 Washington and Honolulu and Sydney to reestablish safe sea routes, and secure the surrender of or destroy at-large IJN fleet units. The Allies would have to radio out recordings of the imperial surrender message to downtime Japanese forces Asia and Pacific wide to secure those forces capitulation and obedience to MacArthur's commands. This would have to be backed up likely by air-dropping film reels or landing mixed Japanese-Allied teams where the Japanese members consist of the classmates, superior officers or uptime versions of the downtime commanders they are trying to persuade to surrender.
The American forces in the Pacific and the Japanese population will know that atomic bombs were used in the defeat of Japan, so that knowledge will not be contained and will spread to downtime people. But without CONUS, the laboratories, and the scientists, nobody, uptime or downtime, has an an atomic bomb on hand or the recipe to make another one.
So the atomic bomb is not around as an automic war ender, or 'easy button' for the United States against Hitler and Mussolini. Knowledge that it *would be possible* to make and deliver two atomic bombs by two methods in 30 months, along with whatever fragmentary details that people may remember can spur both the Manhattan Project and adversary programs. But with the Americans knowing that the Germans now know it can be done, the Americans cannot follow the temptation of just waiting for it to be ready, even if they try to accelerate that program to maximum speed.
So how will the rest of the war be fought, with the Pacific turning into mainly a relatively lower intensity round-up of fugitives, occupation, and humanitarian situation, while Allied combat power can be concentrated against Europe for most of 1943 and all of 1944?
With the Pacific War winding down, is there enough assault shipping and supply shipping and troops to go around for everybody, from Churchill to Marshall, to get their wish? A lavishly supplied Overlord and a wide-ranging Mediterranean and Balkan campaign?