Same Culture in Alternate History?

[JustSarah]

When writing a "alternate future", or a future that deviates from the current future, because of specific changed variables that deviated in world war II, would the culture of the Northern States remain about the same?

I'm sort of shuffling between cyberpunk and bio-punk, and the only remaining constant is that the Japanese partially won World War II and control a large part of our government.

I asked here, cause I did not watch to hijack the writing about a city you never been thread.

[benbenberi]

It might. Or it might not. Depends on the nature of the changes in your timeline, and their impact. You can approach the scenario from either end (i.e. either the end-result you want for your story world, or the pre-defined cause that will eventually lead to a story world) and follow the chain of causation backwards or forwards as you need to make it hang together.

[Roger J Carlson]

Depends on how you deviate the history of WWII. If the Axis powers won the war, the United States probably wouldn't have viewed itself as the world's policeman, which would have affected the culture of both the Northern and Southern States.

[Rachel Udin]

Also the loss in Japan, including the nuclear bombs being dropped, effected much of Asia, the mind set of Japan and the culture fairly deeply.

Before the loss of the War, Japan thought it was a top nation destined by the heavenly powers to overtake Asia. After the loss, the military power focused towards economic power. Also, they lost much of East Asia's territory in the treaty. Japan, in large part has been preaching peace and ecology ever since. (Kyoto treaty, for example) So much of the technological advancement might not have happened. (Especially with MacArthur showing up and making the Japanese take the treaty). Also, railroad system came after the collapse (much of it) and the hatred turned into deep admiration of the US and trying to beat it on the world market.

Manga and anime wouldn't likely be in its current form, since Tezuka and many of the other artists mentioned that it was that lost that made them reevaluate how the art form was done.

Korea would still most likely be under Japanese control.

Parts of China would still have problems and the Rape of Nanking would have been covered up.

The Philippines might still be under Japanese control.

After the loss, also, the US started policing Japan to a great extent, also taking much of the experimentation the Japanese did on soldiers as part of the treaty (using it in the US's own technology *gags*) To the end that many war criminals would go free is still the same in either scenario.

So which parts did happen if it was a "partial" loss?

Ah, the previous is from memory of my Modern Japan class... I'm probably missing a bunch. But just because the majority of people don't travel doesn't mean that people won't know enough history to call you out on errors before or take you up on the challenge that X could happen.

[Sarpedon]

A very likely alternative could have been the failure of the Normandy Landings, which may very well have ended up with the Soviet Union dominating Europe, after a prolonged war. A Soviet Union that included western Europe probably would have been more robust than the one we were afflicted with, as they would have had a bigger arena of internal trade, with isolation being less of a factor.

[Maxx]

Originally Posted by JustSarah

I'm sort of shuffling between cyberpunk and bio-punk, and the only remaining constant is that the Japanese partially won World War II and control a large part of our government.

The Japanese did kinda-sorta partially win WWII: the Big Home Islands weren't invaded and they got to keep the Emperor. Plus they had intact armies all over Asia at the time of their surrender.

Some ways things might have gone differently:

Japan doesn't directly attack the US in 1941, but does seize the Dutch East Indies, Singapore etc. and cuts deals in China with everybody (ie pulls out mostly and avoids war with Russia). Cuts a deal with the US in 1942. This could have ended up involving some multinational (US-Japan-Russia) administrations in Asia. After all, the US did administer Japan for a few years after WWII and similar mixed regimes could have happened all the way from Madagascar to Manchuria.

[JustSarah]

Oh I'm not deviating that much, its more like a hidden history. Like about secret agreements between the US government and Unit 731 specifically. It could be considered an alternate history or conspiracy, depending on the degree of change I guess.

I'm doing sort of a weird, what if there was a secret meeting between MkUltra and Unit 731. Its not something that happened in our history, but its not such a deviation that its really an alternate history per say. A lot of the politics is about protecting the information produced from results of the combination of MKUltra and Unit 731.

[Maxx]

Originally Posted by JustSarah

Oh I'm not deviating that much, its more like a hidden history. Like about secret agreements between the US government and Unit 731 specifically. It could be considered an alternate history or conspiracy, depending on the degree of change I guess.

I'm doing sort of a weird, what if there was a secret meeting between MkUltra and Unit 731. Its not something that happened in our history, but its not such a deviation that its really an alternate history per say. A lot of the politics is about protecting the information produced from results of the combination of MKUltra and Unit 731.

I'd never heard of MKUltra and Unit 731. A quick look at wikipedia was pretty disturbing. The US occupation forces (as you note) did grant secret immunity to Unit 731. so there you are.

What would be very different would be if any of those horrific "medical experiments" had actually generated any useful medical information.