Alternate History interesting locations and time periods for Superman's pod to land

[SpaceOrbis]

I would love to see a superman who lands in the south just as the war kicks off. The kicker would be the people who find him would-be enemies of the institution of slavery. So while he would be a southern man he would be somebody who would blast the union to bits and then reform the CSA to be a far better place for the colored folk.

Another idea would be if he landed in Japan just as the US uses their ships to forcefully reopen the nation to the wider world. Japan becomes a superpower and nobody messes with the land of the rising sun.

 

[bintananth]

Another idea would be if he landed in Japan just as the US uses their ships to forcefully reopen the nation to the wider world. Japan becomes a superpower and nobody messes with the land of the rising sun.

I don't partircularly want to wade into this idea. Two of my ancestors fled Japan in the 1850s and settled in the US. One fought for the Union. The other was his sister.

 

[SpaceOrbis]

I don't particularly want to wade into this idea. Two of my ancestors fled Japan in the 1850s and settled in the US. One fought for the Union. The other was his sister.

I'm not sure what's so bad about Japan in the mid-1800s. Sure the US using gunboat diplomacy isn't necessarily nice of them to do but it's not a terribly bad idea. I mean I know Japan did some messed up stuff in World War 2 but that's like a century down the road. By that time Superman would have removed any need for them to do any of that stuff and if they did try he would just stop them.

 

[S'task]

I'm not sure what's so bad about Japan in the mid-1800s. Sure the US using gunboat diplomacy isn't necessarily nice of them to do but it's not a terribly bad idea. I mean I know Japan did some messed up stuff in World War 2 but that's like a century down the road. By that time Superman would have removed any need for them to do any of that stuff and if they did try he would just stop them.

. . .

The Tokugawa shogunate was a very cruel place in which it was the law that members of the Samurai caste could pretty much kill members of lower castes for any time and for any reason. Persecution of Christianity was exceptionally harsh and involved crusifying them, or hanging them upside-down over cesspools with cuts on their forehead to prevent passing out until they recanted, among other various tortures. Criminal law was no better, with various punishments that in the west would have been considered Cruel and Unusual the norm.

There was a reason the US (and other western nations) insisted that their citizens were not to be prosecuted under local Japanese law in the unequal treaties with Japan... and unlike a lot of the bullshit that went on with the unequal treaties, that was one I completely understand (though it was then often abused... -.-).

 

[bintananth]

I'm not sure what's so bad about Japan in the mid-1800s.

@S'task gets into it better than I can without getting angry. My only two known great-great-great grandparents came from a Japanese Samurai family and they left Japan. They settled in a part of the US where slavery was never legal but being black was illegal per the state constitution.

They were welcomed and they were Catholic.

 

[S'task]

@S'task gets into it better than I can without getting angry. My only two known great-great-great grandparents came from a Japanese Samurai family and they left Japan. They settled in a part of the US where slavery was never legal but being black was illegal per the state constitution.

They were welcomed and they were Catholic.

Well... for certain values of "Catholic".

It sounds like your ancestors were part of the "Kakure Kirishitan" hidden Church in Japan under the Tokugawa. They started out Catholic, but isolation and being cut off from the rest of the Church led to them having a few... unusual... beliefs regarding things.

Something that I feel everyone should read if they get the chance is the historical fiction novel "Silence" by Shusaku Endo, as it portrays the persecution Christians in Japan faced with stark accuracy.

I'm a bit of a Japanophile, and find Japan a fascinating place that I'd love to visit one day... but I also hold no illusions to their past. WW2 and its excesses for not some weird outlier for Japan outside of their level of military power. The crimes they committed then were well foreshadowed by their history, from how they handled conflicts with each other, to the harshness of the persecution of Christians, to how they acted under Hideyoshi when they invaded Korea in the 17th century. The Japanese are an amazing people, but they are not nice ones.

 

[King Arts]

Well... for certain values of "Catholic".

It sounds like your ancestors were part of the "Kakure Kirishitan" hidden Church in Japan under the Tokugawa. They started out Catholic, but isolation and being cut off from the rest of the Church led to them having a few... unusual... beliefs regarding things.

Something that I feel everyone should read if they get the chance is the historical fiction novel "Silence" by Shusaku Endo, as it portrays the persecution Christians in Japan faced with stark accuracy.

I'm a bit of a Japanophile, and find Japan a fascinating place that I'd love to visit one day... but I also hold no illusions to their past. WW2 and its excesses for not some weird outlier for Japan outside of their level of military power. The crimes they committed then were well foreshadowed by their history, from how they handled conflicts with each other, to the harshness of the persecution of Christians, to how they acted under Hideyoshi when they invaded Korea in the 17th century. The Japanese are an amazing people, but they are not nice ones.

To be fair it’s not like the Japs are unique I mean look at the Belgian Congo any people can go medieval if they have the right pressure.

 

[bintananth]

Well... for certain values of "Catholic".

It sounds like your ancestors were part of the "Kakure Kirishitan" hidden Church in Japan under the Tokugawa. They started out Catholic, but isolation and being cut off from the rest of the Church led to them having a few... unusual... beliefs regarding things.

"I have helped more people than I will ever meet in more ways than I will ever know."

If you can't say that with complete honesty when your soul is judged you're going to hell. If you can, the gates to heaven are open and you will be escorted into heaven by angels.