Chapter 2: Empire of Japan (1950-55)

26 June 1950, Port Arthur

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Differently from where the tensions had begun, the first shots of the Second Sino-Japanese war started at the Liaodong Peninsula, as Chinese artillery opened fire at Port Arthur, as the infantry advanced to capture key positions, the Republic of China Army was intent on capturing Port Arthur to both deny the Japanese a strategic position and as a payback for the First Sino-Japanese war

But even with the artillery barrage, the Kwantung Army garrisoned there hold their ground for enough time for the IJAF fighters and bombers coming from Korea to bombard the Chinese artillery positions, putting an end to the seemingly unstoppable barrage, but that wasn't enough to stop the Chinese determination, the Republic of China Air Force scrambled to intercept the Japanese fighters, but instead, the Chinese pilots which lacked in real air combat experience, were completely defeated by the WW2 veteran pilots of the IJAF

Not only that but much of the ROCAF was composed of outdated fighters which only helped increase the gap between the two sides in favor of the Japanese. Even as their position got bombarded by the Japanese bombers, the Chinese army held their positions and continued attacking the Japanese garrison. Then from the horizon to the west objects could be seen rising from the sea, the Republic of China Navy battleships and battlecruisers were arriving, but so did from the east, as objects also appeared rising from the sea further east, the distinctive tall conning tower, as the flag representing the fate of the empire fluttered on the wind, the Imperial Japanese Navy had arrived led by the Battleship Mikasa.

Both fleets formed battle lines, the destroyers sped up to quickly dispose of the opposing screen formation as the cruisers supported them, the battleships closed into their effective firing range, Mikasa and Tosa were the first ones to open fire with their two forward 41cm cannons in triple turrets, at the distance that their guns opened fire, of the 12 shots fired by both ships only 3 found their marks, with 4 more being near misses, but then a massive pillar of flames surged up from the forward-most Chinese battlecruiser, the target of the Japanese salvo, and then a deafening explosion ensued, one of the shells had penetrated the outdated and thin armor protection, exploding in the ship's magazine, causing an explosion that ripped the ship in two

The Chinese morale quickly fell at the sight of one of their capital ships being annihilated at the start of the engagement, at what could only be described as traumatic, they only had a few moments to mourn the loss of their comrades, as a second salvo was fired by the Japanese battleships, this time with Yamato and Shinano also firing their forward guns as well

The battle lasted for hours, with the Japanese emerging victories with relatively light losses, the Chinese screen was ravaged by the infamous type 93 torpedoes of the IJN, but the oxygen fuel used by the torpedoes, also became the Achilles heel of the Japanese screen, as lucky shots from Chinese destroyers and cruisers, ignited the torpedo fuel blowing them and sinking many Japanese destroyers in the process

Just as the IJN had finished defeating their opponents, the IJA and IJAF had also managed to push back the Chinese troops sieging Port Arthur. And further south, near the straits of Taiwan, the Kido Butai had also finished their strike against the Chinese carriers in Shanghai harbor. In a single day, the ROCN, the only other sizable, albeit heavily outdated, Asian navy was effectively disabled

The Republic of China only found success in Korea, as most of the Japanese air force was diverted to relief Port Arthur, this allowed the Chinese to use their advantage in numbers and years of experience during the war against warlords and communists, allowed the ROCA to push the Japanese and Korean forces for kilometers, but when the IJAF appeared after relieving Port Arthur, the Chinese forces quickly scattered to evade the enemy bombing giving the Japanese and Koreans some time to rest

Days started passing, then the days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, and months turned to years, the front had fallen into a stalemate, the Chinese were unable to make sizable gains due to the Naval and Aerial supremacy of the Japanese alongside heavy resistance from the local population, but so did the Japanese as the Chinese army composed of millions of men was too big for them to be capable of breaking through it. Both sides knew that it was a matter of time before the Chinese war effort collapsed onto itself, as from the sea the Japanese blockade impeded any attempt of trading from the sea, while on land, routes through Indochina, Burma, and India were also closed either due to tensions with China or Japanese influence on those nations, while to the north the land routes through the Soviet Union were also closed... And reports of increased Soviet Force presence on the border began to appear

The only good news was the continuous veto of a UN intervention in the war by the USSR, but even those news had ominous signs, as to why would the USSR continuously veto such a decision? The other powers were also divided in their decision, the USA wanted to have both China and Japan as Anti-communist bulwarks in Asia, while the UK and France were either trying to maintain their colonial empires or still recovering from WW2, leaving the two Asian powers to themselves

Then in 1952, after a bad harvest, unrest quickly began to grow within the nation, the Republic of China needing to break the stalemate, made a gamble, if the ROCA could force Japan out of Port Arthur and Korea, China would be able to peace on favorable terms, with the decision made, the Chinese high command drew up plans and prepared for their final assault

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26th June 1952

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On the 26th day of June, the Chinese offensive codenamed Operation Lóng fēngbào began with a massive artillery barrage, the Japanese forces were caught completely by surprise, as the Chinese forces had planted false information en masse to misguide the enemy forces and those efforts proved successful as the two-year-long stalemate was quickly broken by the Chinese advance, at the sight of imminent destruction, rearguard units of the Japanese and Korean forces put a valiant last stand, buying enough time for the remaining forces to fall back. The IJAF also put a fierce fight against the ROCA, but it was unable to stop the Chinese advance, the ROCA rapidly advanced hundreds of kilometers taking Japanese positions one after the other, encircling and destroying countless units on their way. But cracks in the Chinese plan began to appear, their advance was losing speed and force, and then it was finally stopped after a desperate defense from the IJA and remnants of the Korean Army along the Namhan-Han rivers

In Port Arthur a similar situation unfolded, Chinese artillery pummeled Japanese positions with a deafening artillery barrage, the reason why the Kwantung army was still holding on was from the support of the shore bombardment provided by the battleships and dive-bombing from the carriers. As the dive bombers returned to the carriers for refueling and rearming for a third strike, reports came in, a massive airstrike was coming for the carriers

The ROCAF had mustered all of its remaining aircraft to take out the Japanese Navy pride, its carrier force, the Japanese fighter pilots put a formidable defense, but even then gaps were made and enemy bombers managed to make through the gaps and aimed at the carriers, a furious AA barrage was put taking out more enemy bombers from the skies, but even that didn't manage to break the Chinese pilots' determination, they took aim at the red circle on the carrier flight deck, those that survived dropped their bombs

The carriers in a show of seamanship managed to evade most of the bombs, but not all, Soryuu was hit by a bomb right in the middle of her flight deck, the bomb managed to punch through the unarmored deck and into the hangar, and exploded, in a chain reaction the armament and fuel of her air group inside her hangar hit by the explosion also began exploding one after the other, the carrier became a flaming inferno as an explosion disintegrated the flight deck and destroyed most of the ship

Zuikaku and Shoukaku were also unlucky and were hit by bombs, Zuikaku the bomb caused a massive fire to start, but after a desperate and valiant effort by its damage control, the fire was put out, but the carrier was left severely mauled, Shoukaku was hit by three bombs and heavily damaged, of the four carriers present, only Hiryuu remained intact

That battle was almost traumatic for the Imperial Japanese Navy, that battle would cause the IJN to continuously postpone the battleships' decommissioning, both for operation in regions similar to the Yellow sea or carrier escorting, all for the defense of the aircraft carriers

The Japanese high command at hearing that their forces had managed to stop the Chinese advance had little time to rejoice, both due to the heavy damage caused to their carriers and at the current positions and situation of their ground forces. The Japanese high command desperately trying to find a solution to the predicament they found themselves in, came up with a daring plan, that if it failed, it could very well lead to their defeat

The Imperial Japanese forces' plan was to open as many fronts as possible on mainland China, alongside a withdrawal to the last defensive line in Korea, and probing attacks by the Kwantung army in Port Arthur, it would be a costly, risky, and practically suicidal plan, as it would require perfect coordination between the three military branches and time conditions for all operational theaters, but of all plans, that was the only one with the best chance of success and the only one that gave Japan a chance of pushing the Chinese out of Korea once and for all

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30th of July 1952

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The first phase of the Japanese plan had begun, the IJAF launched a massive airstrike against the Chinese forces on the Korean frontline, which made the Chinese believe that the Japanese Army would be launching an offensive, then soon after reports of the Japanese Kwantung army attacking Chinese positions on the Liaodong Peninsula arrived, prompting the diversion of troops there to prevent a possible cutting of the increasingly overextended supply lines. The Chinese reaction only got more desperate when reports of Japanese landings on Shanghai, Ningbo, Fuzhou, Shantou, and the Jiadong peninsula, forcing even more troops to be diverted to the newly opened fronts after the IJAF airstrike stopped, the ROCA noticed that the Japanese and Koreans had retreated, and with the orders given, the Chinese forces advanced. Due to the various attacks made by the IJA on other locations, the Chinese advance was slow, giving time for the Japanese forces to prepare their counterattack, then just two weeks after their retreat, the Japanese-Korean forces once again engaged with the Chinese, this time with the Chinese on the defensive, on the very center of the frontline, the armored divisions of both sides were concentrated for a breakthrough, Type 2 Chi-To Kais, Type 4 Chi-Ris and Type 52 tanks from the IJA armored divisions came down from the Korean hills, meeting head-on the Chinese armor composed mainly of Sherman tanks, Panzers and some Interwar tanks.

The massive tank battle was brutal for both sides, the Chinese tanks due to their outdated equipment became easy prey to the Japanese tanks, but the paper-thin armor of the Japanese tanks proved incapable of stopping shots from the Chinese Shermans and "newer" versions of the Chinese Panzers, leading many Japanese tanks to become steel coffins for its crew, the outcome of the battle was decided when a lucky shot from a Type 2 Chi-To 7.5 cm Tank Gun Type 5 Model I APHE shell managed to punch through the side armor of a Sherman tank killing the Chinese commander leading the defense alongside his crew

With the loss of their commander, the Chinese troops and tanks began scattering in various directions, some of the surviving elements of the Japanese armor detached to pursue the fleeing enemies, while the rest of the division continued ahead to complete the encirclement

Almost at the same time, up to the north of the Korean Peninsula, SNLF troops supported by a shore bombardment from Mikasa, Tosa, Yamato, and Musashi, alongside airstrikes from Hiryuu, Taiho, Hakuryuu, and Ikoha, landed near Seoul, after fierce fighting against the Chinese garrison defending the city, after just a few days reinforcements from the Japanese armor divisions linked up with the SNLF, thus completing the encirclement of the Chinese western army group

The Chinese eastern army group was in a position to relieve the encircled army group, but the Chinese high command fearing the possibility of the eastern army group also getting encircled, ordered a retreat back to Manchuria, some of the units from the western army group at hearing the command of the high command, surrendered en masse to the Japanese-Korean forces

The rest of 1952 was a slow advance of the Japanese-Korean forces to the Chinese-Korean border pre-war, and consolidation of the Japanese positions after the landings in Mainland China

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1 April 1953

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After the catastrophic defeat on the Korean Peninsula, together with the loss of half of the more than 2 million men strong army in Korea, the civil unrest that had been brewing in the powder keg known as China finally exploded, Xinjiang and Tibet declared independence as guerrilla fighters armed with Soviet and Japanese weapons attacked various Chinese garrisons, while both to the north and south regions Communist guerrillas rose up armed with Soviet weapons

At the same time as the nation was plagued by multiple revolts, the Japanese offensive into Manchuria had also begun, attacking with a perfected combined arms offensive born from the 3 years of war, the Japanese army managed to take hundreds of kilometers and encircle the remaining Manchu army of the ROCA, under a week the entirety of Manchuria was under Japanese control, but due to the speed of the Japanese advance, the logistics were unable to keep up with the army, so the advance was forced to stop just a few kilometers from Beijing

On the next day, shocking news rocked the world, the Soviet Union declared war on China, the Red Army having years of preparation for the invasion stormed the nation with unprecedented speed, the Japanese forces once again caught by surprise were unable to react and forced to hold positions, within a single day T-54s could be seen parading in Beijing streets, as the People's Democratic Republic of China was proclaimed by the surviving members of the CCP and Soviet commanders

With the Soviet intervention in the 2nd Sino-Japanese war, the Soviet delegation was unable to veto the request from Japan for a UN intervention in their war, with the support of the western powers, the intervention was given green light, but it was already too late, by the time UN reinforcements began arriving in Japan and then the frontlines, half of China was already under the specter of Communism

The last nail in the coffin of the remnants of Nationalist China was when in a demonstration of strength, a single soviet strategic bomber flew over the city of Wuhan carrying a terrifying weapon, the bomb bay opened dropping a single bomb, the bomber turned and sped up as if it was trying to flee from the bomb it just dropped, the bomb kept falling and just a few kilometers from the ground it exploded, a bright light that outshone the sun suddenly appeared and disappeared, followed by a shockwave and intense heat, as a mushroom cloud rose to the clear blue sky

That would be the first and last atomic bombing conducted during a war, that the remnants of the Republic of China surrendered to the communists, but the war with Japan was left uncertain, the Communists were more than willing to continue the fight against Japan and reunify all of China under the red banner of socialism, but the Soviet leadership prevented them from doing so, and a tense stalemate was kept for 2 years, both sides feared that a nuclear war would start at any moment, but with the Chinese population tired of the war, and rump state of the new communist government, peace talks began, the Japanese having a slight upper hand in the negotiations were allowed to keep the lands they took from the Nationalists and having the Communists recognize Tibetan and Xijiang independence. And thus on the 14th of February 1955, the 2nd Sino-Japanese war ended, many died, crimes from both sides happened, and millions suffered under the war

Japan, although victorious and in peace, didn't demilitarize, instead, it began to militarize itself further, intent on never more allowing another communist nation to arise in Asia, the Empire of Japan began to assert itself as the anti-communist bulwark of East Asia, and it would do everything it deemed necessary to stop the red tide from taking Asia