[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/nKxIrWr.png[/img]
[h1][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPfmBCWTrao]The Greater Japanese Empire[/url][/h1][/center]

[b]Origin:[/b] A successful game of Hearts of Iron III. Here's [url=http://i.imgur.com/Ibi7vCD.png]the world[/url] by November 11, 1944.

[b]Faction Type:[/b] 

[b]Leader:[/b] Major General Hyakutake Karukichi; may change

[b]Population:[/b] 30,000; 500,000+ potentially
[b]Faction Rank:[/b] Great Axis Power
[b]Color:[/b] [color=red]Red[/color]
[b]Assigned GM:[/b] ???
[b]Starting Area:[/b] ???

[b]Faction Introduction:[/b]

The date is November 11, 1944, and it is the end of an era. All of Asia and Oceania is dominated by the Empire of Japan, and Hitler has gutted the Soviet Union and achieved his dreams of Lebensraum. The Royal Navy is no more - but mere wrecks and burned-out hulks on the bottoms of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans. America sits idly by, having done nothing since the start of the greatest war known to mankind, for its people had become simply too sympathetic to the Axis cause, frustrating Roosevelt's bellicose foreign policy.

Japan now sits as the second greatest power in the world, following behind Germany, although its people believe their country to be the best. Since the coronation of His Divine Majesty, the Emperor Showa, what was once an island nation with two unremarkable colonies has expanded into a truly global empire with unprecedented influence. Its armies have fought from the mountains of China, to the jungles of Java, and to the deserts of Australia and Arabia, time and time again humiliating the Allied ground forces. Similarly basking in glory is the Imperial Japanese Navy, which, under the guidance of the wise Admiral Yamamoto, has single-handedly destroyed the once-feared Royal Navy.

Britain has exhibited only the finest incompetence during the entirety of the Second World War, and Imperial General Headquarters believes that the landings on their mainland, scheduled to begin next month, will be nothing but a resounding success if the trend continues. Incidentally, Japan's introduction to interdimensional highways and parallel universes came at the hands of the British, who'd kept a research facility dedicated to such fields in Egypt since the interbellum period. With Italy's Regia Marina patrolling the Mediterranean, the Imperial Japanese Navy in the Indian Ocean, relocating the facility became impossible, and so its personnel continued to work there until the soldiers of the Rising Sun came knocking on their doors. Indeed, while the working wormhole was fascinating, the whole affair reinforced the emerging stereotype of British airheadedness, although perhaps undeservedly so. Germany and Japan were mastering atomic and jet engineering, and what does Britain pursue? Other worlds!

[b]Faction Features:[/b]

Imperial General Headquarters is currently on an exploratory stance regarding the so-called "other world," but will seek to claim and consolidate territory once the Second World War ends in two months and they bring more troops and scientific personnel through the wormhole in Egypt. Japanese forces in the alternate reality have the potential to grow to up to half a million in strength.

The Imperial Japanese Army has evolved greatly in the short span of five years. The conquest of China encouraged such an industry boom that weapons research and development were supercharged. The standard small arms of the Japanese soldier of the day is the Type 2 Rifle, whose semi-automatic mechanism would have been deemed too wasteful in the more frugal pre-1940's era. Other areas of thinking have also changed: despite the rumors and exaggerated tales, it is now very rare of Japanese soldiers to perform a bayonet charge, as Imperial officers no longer believe in an overabundance of fighting spirit to compensate for a materiel shortage that is no longer there.

The Japanese soldier will not surrender. Morale is exorbitantly high as the average serviceman believes that the Gods themselves are giving him all of these glorious victories.

Accompanying the expeditionary force to the alternate reality will be scientists of various backgrounds.

[b]Military:[/b]

The IJA of 1944 has all the features of a well-lead and well-equipped armed force in that period. Currently assigned to the alternate reality is the 2nd "Yu" Infantry Division, lead by Mj. Gen. Hyakutake. The unit is among the oldest IJA formations (and this is evident in its rather obsolescent square formation) and has been fighting since the Second Sino-Japanese War under the same leader. Both the enlisted and the officers are veterans of years of modern warfare.

[b]Total Size:[/b] 30,000
[b]Infantry:[/b] 30,000
[b]Artillery:[/b] 750
[b]Anti-Tank Arty.:[/b] 120
[b]Anti-Aircraft Arty.:[/b] 100
[b]Horses:[/b] 7,500
[b]Bicycles:[/b] 28,000
[b]Motor Vehicles:[/b] 1,800
[b]Armored Cars:[/b] 30
[b]Tanks:[/b] 0
[b]Aircraft:[/b] 0