The Japanese winning WW2 is impossible, so this is an exercise in alternate history. Assuming the axis had won, would japan grant India’s independence or would they install a puppet government with Subash Chandra bose as its head (as he lead the INA so it would only make sense to put him on the throne)?
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As India was a british colony I guess Germany would have most to say. But I never heard of either German nor Japanese strategic interest in India, so some kind of self goverment could be a possibility. On the short term Japan wanted to close the Burma Road and go into India only if that was nessecary to destroy the retreating British army.
That seems really weird that they were going to let India (the crown prince colony of the British Empire) just have self rule. Let me put this in another way, say a country defeated America (1940s one), they would definitely put a puppet government in Philippines as it would be a good way to dominate the pacific ocean.
Why didn’t just carry out to destroy the retreating British Army (big spoilers! The Japanese get absolutely wrecked in 1944 at the battle of imphal and kohima (both cities were called something else at the time) and the general commits sepakku) when they had the chance?
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I’m guessing that the Japanese assumed that logistically they were in worse shape than the British. They took Burma on a shoestring and I think their success surprised even themselves listening to what Indy said.
We work so hard to figure out why we lost Burma and in Singapore. Japan just executed and planned better imho.
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I think Japan had a chance to Winn the war in April 1942, if they used their power to invade east Africa and cut off the supply route to Egypt, of if they cut off the Lend-Lease route from the USA to Vladivostok to make their German alies winn.
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Wouldn’t East Africa be a huge logistical issue for the japs? The problem here is that the allies (i.e the brits) had taken ethopia and somalia and had complete naval dominance in the Red sea. So that route is out. What about the mediterrian? Well… italian naval power was no match for the brits, though they were harassing them. So for the japanese to breakthrough there, they would to allocate a significant portion of their fleet which would turn lessen their impact in the pacific.
Most of all Japan helping in Egypt assumes that the axis shared similar goals and worked together. This is not the case. There is no combined command like the allies between the axis and the withhold information from each other such as Pizza man (mussolini) telling Hitler that he would not attack Greece and then he proceeds to attack Greece which leads to visible WTF moment for Hitler. Same for japan with USA.
And if they invaded the USSR which they will not because they got obliterated at the Battle of Khalkin Gol and the USA could easily bomb japan from Vladivostok or any base near it. And the infrastructure near Vladivostok is bad (I am not sure about this though).
So there is no way Japan could have won in any year.
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