Koko Kyouwakoku (Republic of Koko)

Hi all!

I've done some change to Kokoan history for the years between 1850 and 1923, loosely following some advices from Krakaota. Koko is now indipendent since 1872 and not only in 1921. I admit it looks better now, and I've also made some minor adjustments here and there.

Here it comes the entire (revised) Kokoan history from the beginning up to 1943. The latest chapter is also new (all under spoiler because some chapters a pretty much walltext-laden:

1. Early settlements (indefinite-813)
The oldest known settlements on Koko Archipelago are dated somewhere between 20.000 to 15.000 years ago, when small groups of Homo Sapiens reached the northern shores of the islands chain, through Kamchatka, during their migration between Asia and the Americas. Within the next few centuries the settlers slowly moved south from island to island eventually reaching the one known today as Nintoku, with the body of water of the Kyofu Kaikyo apparently forbidding them to reach the lower, warmer islands. Since archaeological finding were quite rare it is unknown how numerous this first community of settlers was, but it it proven that they either left the islands or became extinct somewhere between 9.000 and 8.000 BC. Either because a drought forced them to to leave or because they fell victim of some sort of epidemic disease. Forensic evidence also supports that Eskimo peoples sporadically settled on the norther islands between 10.000 and 5.000 BC during their migrations between Siberia and Alaska.
The next settlers came from the south around the year 350AD. Pacific islanders retracted the Hawaiian island chain until they reached the islands now called Nanto, Kammu and Tojima, slowly spreading up to the north from there. Population grew slowly, but it is estimated that by the first years of the 9th century some 100.000 settlers of Polynesian descent lived on the islands.

2. Japanese Colonization (813-1639)
The date of the first contact between Japanese and Kokoan natives is not exactly know, some sources says it was in 813, others in 815. And it is reported to have happened somewhere along the Kuril island chains. In the subsequent years contact were still sporadic but steadily happening more frequently, so that by the second half of the century a bunch of brave settlers had moved to the newly discovered islands despite the lengthy and dangerous coastal trip along the northwest Pacific. Words of a previously unknown large chain of fertile islands started to reach the Imperial court too.
Finally, during the year 886AD, Emperor Koko finally bowed down to Fujiwara no Motostune's pressures about colonizing the new islands in order to exploit new lands and new resources for the Empire' good. At first very few settlers joined the first pioneers, but by 923AD, under the reign of Emperor Daigo, the small Japanese migration towards the new archipelago had become more steady. That same year a City was founded on an inlet located on the eastern coast of the chain's largest island, The city was called Toumachi, and the island named after Emperor Koko. Slowly, all major islands were named after former Japanese Regents. It is estimated that by the turn of the century more than 700.000 people lived on Koko's island chain, now formally considered part of Japan, a number that eventually hit the 5-million mark during the next 500 years. The native Kokoans were now just a minority. By the start of the 17th century, small trading routes were established with Portuguese explorers, and more assiduously with the Dutch East Indies Company later. During this period western surveys located iron deposits on the islands of Suiko, Jimmu, Tenji, Fujiwara, Hyoto and Shinjima. While Copper ones were discovered on Kitajima, Shinjima and Daigo.

3. Sakoku era (1639-1854)
The growing trade and the presence of new European settlers alienated the Tokugawa Shogunate which suspected that foreign traders and missionaries were actually forerunners of a military conquest by European powers. By 1639 It monopolized foreign policy and expelled traders, missionaries, and foreigners both in the Japanese and Koko archipelagos.
Despite some degree of commercial ties were maintained between Japan and Koko in order to keep the Empire as a single entity, the Sakoku isolationist policies and the distance separating the two island chains helped the rise of a new warlord on the Emperor island chain. Kojirou Morimoto managed to overthrown the local Shogunate emissaries, establishing it's own rule on the islands. Despite no formal independence was ever declared, and despite the Tokugawa clan never acted against it, the Morimoto Shogunate effectively ruled on Koko for the next two centuries, shutting itself even more than the Japanese one.
With the exception of some limited trade with the Dutch East India Company, taking place in the city of Hoshibuma until late 18th century and the aforementioned small commercial link with the Japanese mainland, there were no relationships of any sort between the Koko archipelago and other nations. This also caused the population, wich had almost doubled during the 17th century, to stall just under 13 million people until the first half of the 19th century.

4. Indipendence (1854-1872)
With the End of the Sakoku period with the Signing of the Kangawa Treaty in 1854, Japan immediately started trying to sew up it's ties with Koko once again. At first efforts proved to be unsuccessful, as the Morimoto Shogunate refused any proposal despite the fact Koko's population seemed to be favorable of the idea of reopening the borders or even reuniting with their former country again. The United States moved too, sending Commodore Matthew Perry with a fleet of eleven ships in order to persuade Koko's Shogunate to open up it's borders to the West like he did with Japan just a few years earlier, but to no Avail.
However, the seed of change started to spread within the population, with reformist factions sprouting within the various domains. The 1868 Imperial Restoration in mainland Japan turned out to be the perfect catalyst for all those who wanted to get rid of the Morimoto Shogunate. Betrayed by his own Lords, Shirou Morimoto, the last head of the Shogunate, was quickly overthrown, after a quick and bloody turmoil.
Taking advantage by the political situation of mainland Japan -embroiled in the aftermath of the Boshin War and the various local rebellions that followed- Koko's Lords defied Emperor Meiji and started to create their own form of governemnt with the help of foreign advisors. By early 1872 a unified Koko archipelago had formally declared it's indipendence from Japan. With the claim already backed and recognized by the Netherlands, Germany, The British Empire and the United States -all of them eager to make economic deals for the export of Iron and Copper of which Koko was rich- Japan had little else to do than accept Kokoan indipendence, altough it did not officially recognized it yet.

5. Industrialization (1872-1919)
Exploiting the Iron and Copper deposits discovered by the Dutch nearly three centuries earlier the Kokoan industrial revolution went up with a bang. In ten years silk production quadrupled and coal went up six-fold, over 400miles of railways were built by the mid 1880s and another 970miles during the next 10 years. Shipyards were built to support a large merchant fleet expansion. Iron and copper production surpassed that of Japan. In early 1876 Koko no Kaigun was established to operate around Koko's home waters. Initially formed by the merger of the small flotillas owned by the various former Lords the fleet was later augmented with new units designed with German assistance and built abroad. A second phase of shipyard expansion started in 1883, lasting over two decades, with the goal of allowing Koko to start building it's warships domestically by the turn of the century.
By the end of the Sino-Japanese war diplomatic relations between Japan and Koko had reconciled. This was finalized in the Toumachi Treaty, signed on January 13th 1897, through which Japan officially recognized Koko's indipendence. The treaty also cemented an high degree of collaboration between Japanese and Kokoan armed forces, with Great Britain and Japan itself replacing Germany as the main advisors and influence on Koko's naval developement. Koko ultimately joined the Anglo-Japanese alliance in 1905, shorlty after the Russo-Japanese War had ended.
During World War I Kokoan armed forces took part in the siege of Tsingtao, with Koko no Kaigun beign also involved in further patrols through the Pacific Ocean in order to look after the now declining and scattered German naval forces. In 1916, after a request from the United Kingdom, a few Kokoan ships also sailed for the Atlantic to support naval actions against Thiaria, taking part in the Battle of Tristan a Cunha. The battle marked the first open-sea naval engagement of Koko no Kaigun, and despite actually considered succesful -most of Thiarian Battleships were either sunk or put out of action for several months- it also marked the first major naval loss for the Kokoans, when the Battlecruiser Kuromegami succumbed to her wounds, sinking during the return leg.
However, the Great War events had only marginally involved Koko. Strong of it's exports of raw materials, it reached the end of the 1910s with a population of almost 30million, 50% of the industrial output of the nearby Japanese Empire and the third Navy in the Pacific ocean after the US Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy.

6. Shifting Alliances (1919-1921)
Right after the end of WWI, while involved, like Japan, in the Allied intervention during the Russian Civil War, Koko found itself entangled in the Nikolayevsk Incident. Partisan troops allied with the Red Army seized the city were garrisons from both the IJN and KnR were stationed, ultimately massacring all the soildiers and civilians, foreigners or not, that were in the city. The immediate aftermath and percieved lacking Soviet response in compensating for the loss suffered -over 1.200 Kokoan soldiers died in the incident, nearly three times the total casualities suffered during WWI by the Army and Navy combined- caused a massive backlash within Kokoan population, governemnt and armed forces. Things degenerated so much that the Kokoan government effectively cut all diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union until 1941.
In addition of this, one of the main foreign treaties from which Koko and the Japanese Empire had benefited during the early 20th century was the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. But during the year 1919, the Paris Peace conference and the rejected Racial Equality Proposal (proposed by both Koko and Japan during the conference and vetoed by the United Kingdom itself) started to cast shadows on such alliance. The situation further exacerbated during the next year, ultimately reaching a breaking point by August 1921, when the British Imperial Conference, under pressures from Canada and the United States chose to let the alliance expire.
Somewhat foreshadowing what was about to happen, many members of the Japanese cabinet started making pressure on Prime Minister Hara Takashi to open a table in order to start a negotiation to cement Japan alliance with Koko. The aim was to grant Japan the assurance of an ally on the pacific theater in case the Anglo-Japanese alliance would have expired, and since Japan and Koko had bee deply involved both on the political and economic side after the Toumachi Treaty, there were very little doubts that Koko would have acted as Japan closest ally to date.
During the conference, a few right-wing memebers went as far as proposing to discuss a possible reunification process between tthe two countries, but Hara avoided the topic as the Kokoan delegation clearly opposed such thing. Talks sped up after the British Imperial Conference ended on August 5th 1921. The collaboration between Japanese and Kokoan armed forces was maintained, with the sole exception of the IJN ending the small patrol duties around the Emperor island Chain on behalf of Koko no Kaigun that had been carried since the Toumachi treaty in 1897. Commercial deals were strenghtened and a coomon foreign policy chosen. Ultimately, on September 17th 1921 the Kokoan-Japanese Bilateral Agreements were ratified in Tokyo, marking the creation of the Kokoan-Japanese Alliance. Ironically, this also left dissatisfaction within the extremist fringes of the Japanese imperialists, so that a disgruntled Right-wing railroad worker, Nakaoka Konichi, stabbed to death Prime Minister Hara at Tokyo Station on November 4th 1921, blaming him of damaging the Empire with his policies.

7. The Shi-Shi Kantai and the WNT (1921-1923)
Following the doctrine of Sato Tetsuharo, who argued that the Japanese Imperial Navy had to keep a strength of roughly 70% of the United states Navy, the Japanese Diet under Hara's government had funded a massive naval construction plan which called for the construction of eight Battleships and eight Battlecruisers. The plan, known as the Hachi-Hachi Kantai would have been relied on the Nagato-class Battleships already under construction, further augmented by the planned Tosa, Amagi, Kii and N°13 classes.
This massive plan was also conteplated by Koko as a guide for further naval constructions in a smaller fashion. Half of the size of the Japanese one it would have led to the building of six newer capital ships to be added to the already building Yagumo class, giving life to a smaller Shi-Shi Kantai (or four-four fleet), through which an optimistic aim of getting an almost 1:1 ratio with the US Navy was to be achieved by combining the two Navies strength, even surpassing the needs theorized by Sato.
All new constructed units were planned to carry the newer 409mm guns and to achieve maximum speeds than the Japanese Nagato class for commonality and easier integration between the Kokoan and Japanese squadrons.
After the Bilateral Agreements of 1921 the plan was retained and refurbished. Initially reconsidered as a Shi-Ni Kantai (four-two fleet) by leaving out the slower and lesser armed Yagumo Class it was soon brought back to a full Shi-Shi level by planning a fourth class of Battleships to augmented the three already planned. In sight of this, needed expansions of Toumachi Naval arsenal were underway since 1918, and two of the planned units were even allocated to the civilian Yamatogawa Shipyards in order to sped up construction.
The ambitious plan crashed to an halt on November 1921 when The Washington Naval Conference was called. During the conference a 5:5:3:1.75:1.75 ratio of tonnage between Britain, the United States, Japan, France and Italy was discussed, but for many, interminable, days of negotiations a figure for Koko was not reached. Koko delegation kept asking for a 5:2 ratio when compared to GB and the USA, obviously, neither of the two other delegations was willing to accept it as it would have give to a combined Koko-Japanese fleet effective parity with the royal navy and the US Fleet. The first request from the Americans was a 5:1 ratio, which in turn was rejected by Koko's delegation. Ultimately, a 5:1,25 ratio was achieved, after Koko no Kaigun agreed to scrap the two Nintoku Armored Cruisers and demilitarize the two Heian class Protected Cruisers. Overall, the 5:5:3;1,75:1,75:1,25 ratio was kept, with tonnage restrictions capped at 610.000t for the USN and RN, 366.000t for the IJN, 213.000 for the MN and RM, and ultimately 156.000 for KnK. The United States Navy was granted completion of two Colorado-class Battleships under construction, while the Royal Navy would have built two new ships. All future capital-ship construction was capped at 35.000t of standard displacement. Some specific ships whose tonnage exceeded the limit were allowed to be retained between existing and under construction units, namely two for the USN and RN, and one for each other signatories. France and Italy choose to not exploit this specific concession, as their finances did not allowed further expenditures at the time.
A loophole was thus created, as Koko delegation now pointed out, without the intent of backing up from their claim, that all planned units exceeded the allowed 35.000t limit, while there were no units under construction to fulfill the allowances. A solution was ultimately reached by allowing one of the Capital ships under construction in Japan to be transferred to Koko. In exchange of this, united states and Great Britain were granted completion of a further ship above 35.000t. the US Navy and chose to complete three units of the six Lexington-class Battlecruisers, Great Britain exploited that with Hood and the two G3-class Battlecruisers, whose construction had been started in October 1921 just before the Washington Conference had been called, Japan choose to complete Tosa, while koko no Kaigun would have received one out of Kaga, Akagi or Amagi. Another price to be paid for the capital ship transfer was that Koko was not allowed any tonnage for Aircraft Carrier construction. Other nations were instead allowed to convert two unfinished capital ship hulls into 33.000t Aircraft carriers, and to build new ones to a maximum displacement of 27.000, for a total of 135.000t for the USN and RN, 81.000t for Japan and 60.000t for France and Italy. Koko was also forbidden to exploit the around-30.000t of allowance left before 1927.
The Washington Naval Treaty was effectively ratified on February 6th 1922. In August of the same year a deal was made between Japan and Koko for the transfer of the Battlecruiser Amagi.

8. Treaty era (1923-1930)
The aftermath of the Treaty of Versailles and the Washington Naval Treaty ratification left in Koko's population the same distrust and bitterness towards the Western Powers that also grew in Japan. The measures taken them were considered by many as refusal of by the Occidental powers to consider Japan and Koko as an equal partner. This feeling was exacerbated by the relative closeness between Koko's easternmost island, Tojima, and Midway Island, located 891 km, or 480 nautical miles away. Even worse Attu and the Aleutians were just over 600km (323nm) northeast of Wasureshima. Those US possessions, which were considered by most of the population as an advantage to improve commercial relations, slowly started to be perceived as threats and possible means for the Americans to spy and interfere with Koko's sovereignty and internal affairs. This was especially true for Midway, which was under control of the US Navy, were a radio station was operational since 1903. Despite the years leading to the end of the decade were regarded as being peaceful, militarist movements started to gain support under the premises set after the end of WWI. While it started to close to Western Countries Koko enjoyed excellent relationships with Japan: Koko no Kaigun and the Imperial Japanese Navy maintained a deep affinity between them, sharing technology, training facilities and design board projects. Cadets of both navies were given familiarization tours on both Countries Academies and warships, as the command and recruiting structure remained more or less the same for both, helping to form a strong bond between the two Navies personnel. Being limited in Battleships construction by fixed deadlines (no new ships allowed before 1927) and tonnage (30.000T available unless older ships were scrapped), KnK focused it's naval building program on Cruisers, Destroyers and Submarines, which were not restricted in number, with the aim of tripling the fleet size by 1930. A secondary building program aimed at giving the Navy all the smaller and auxiliary units it needed to perform tasks that before the 1921 Bilateral Agreements were conducted by IJN units.
The only shadow casting on Japanese/Koko relationships laid in Koko no Rikugun and Imperial Japanese Army rivalry, as neither manged to achieve the same level of cooperation KnK and the IJN immediately formed. Indeed, the only thing the two armies managed to have in common was weaponry and equipment. New recruits and far-right members of the IJA still resented Koko's armed forces as they arrogated to them the sole right to defend the Empire. An Empire of which they still considered Koko beign a part of it.

9. The London Naval Treaty (1930-1931)
At the turn of the decade, a new conference for naval arms limitation was called. From January 21st to April 22nd all signatories of the Washington Naval Treaty, with the addition of the newcomer Thiara, met in London to resolve the unfilled issues left after the 1927 Geneva conference and to extend WNT regulations.
In a state of general financial instability after the market crash of 1929, -which had hit hard most of the nations involved, with the sole exception of Thiaria being marginally affected- the general feeling was that most nations aimed at putting a limit to any possible building spree that could have beens tarted by one of the signatories, this particularly feared for the Thiarian Navy, and to a lesser extent, for Koko no Kaigun.
For the first time, distinction was made between cruisers armed with guns up to 6.1-inch (155mm) and those sporting guns up to 8-inch (203mm). The former being designated Light Cruisers and the latter Heavy Cruisers. The treaty also extended the tonnage cap on the newly re-designated Cruisers, Destroyers and also Submarines. Some older capital ships were also set to be decommissioned or converted to training duties.
Ratio for battleships was retained, with Thiaria granted a fifth of USN and British tonnage at 122.000T, Capital ship building holiday was extended and aircraft carrier quotas were also retained. Thiaria, again, gained 40.600T in Aircraft Carrier construction and 41.600T in Heavy Cruisers. Heavy cruiser tonnage was set at 182.880T for the US Navy (for a total number of 18 units), 149.149T for the Royal Navy (for a total of 15 ships) and 110.134 for the IJN (for 12 ships), Thiaria could exploit it's tonnage with a maximum of 5 ships. Light cruisers were also limited in tonnage but not in numbers 145.796T for the USN, 195.275T for the RN, 102.057T for the IJN and 39.905T for Thiaria. Destroyer tonnage was capped at 152.400T for both the USN and RN, 107.188T for the IJN and 38.100T for thiaria. Maximum destroyer standard tonnage was set at 1.850T, with no more than 16% of the allotted tonnage to be exploited by vessels above 1.500T. Submarine tonnage numbers were 53.543T for the USN, RN and IJN, Thiaria got 13.385T. France and Italy ultimately decided no to sign.
The United States Navy allowed to retire B-32 Wyoming and convert her for training duties, while the Royal Navy would have scrapped the old Battlecruiser Tiger and demilitarized the Battleship Iron Duke. Japan was to scrap Settsu and demilitarize or convert into a training ship the Battlecruiser Hiei.
Koko Tonnage ratios were the result of more complex negotiations that just a simple fulfillment of treaty ratios. In the years after the WNT Koko no Kaigun had built an enormous number of Cruisers, matching Japan in Light units, and had started to build heavy cruisers too. A large number of Destroyers had entered service or was being built, and a sizable Submarine program had been started recently. On top of that, duing the conference wors started to spread that the two battleships built by Koko under the WNT agreement were possibly up as 4.000T over their declared 32.000T standard displacement.
Both the US and GB delegations worked in order to limit KnK at the lowest achievable level as to avoid where possible that the combined force of the Japanese and Koko fleets reached superiority. After a constant clash with Koko's delegation which was unwilling to give up on their claims, a last-minute agreement was finally reached.
Initial cruiser tonnage proposal was made by the British delegation as 45.720T for CAs and 48.818T for Cls, but koko was highly unwilling to scrap seven light cruisers built between 1920 and 1923 Heavy cruiser tonnage was capped at 14.200T, expendable on just two ships (the already commissioned Saimei and the under construction Nanto), with the remaining 77.338T allotted to the Light cruisers, for a total Cruiser allowance of 91.538T, roughly a quarter of the British total and not enough to reach parity with the US fleet even if added to the IJN's tally. Submarines were limited to just 12.605T enough to allow completion for the units already under construction, no new build were allowed. Battleship Yagumo was to be removed from active service and converted into a training ship.
A point of high divergence was that concerning Destroyer tonnage. Both the American and British initially proposed a 38.100T limit, which was bluntly rejected by Koko's delegation as it would have forced to scrap 36 Destroyers, two thirds of them less than 7 years old, other than another six under construction and four more already funded and about to be laid down, and thus deemed unacceptable. A compromise was reached by raising the cap tonnage at 72.806 and cutting the planned units from four to three, and Koko agreed to scrap the sixteen oldest Destroyers in the fleet. Still this apparently generous concession came with a counterbalance: 34.000 extra tons in Destroyers coupled with the overweight problems of the Kii class Battleships let both the US and British delegations to negate any Aircraft Carrier tonnage to Koko for the second time, despite some protests coming even from the Japanese delegation. Thiarians did not interfered with the matter, as they felt that the concessions they had managed to obtain were highly satisfactory and preferred to avoid any other matter. Koko's representatives strongly protested and tried again to obtain at least some 20.000T for Aircraft carriers, but when the British demanded that separate tonnage from Commonwealth members should have been added in that case Koko finally gave up any claim and accepted the limitations.
The London Naval treaty was thus officially signed on April 22nd 1930, and ultimately ratified on October 27, 1930.

10. Breaking Treaties (1931-1934)
A few years before the London Naval Conference, in 1928, Koko's elections were won by a coalition led by Kusako Morimoto, which became Koko's new prime minister. Kusako, despite being a member of the Morimoto family, which had ruled Koko for centuries under their shogunate until forced out their positions during the Meiji restoration, had always been an outcast within his family. Unlike many of his relatives -which choose to retire to private life after beign overthrown from power during the late 1860s- Kusako had always been a fervent supporter of the Imperial rule and a militarist. He was firmly convinced that Koko's fortunes would have been grater the more Koko would have followed and supported Japanese policies. During his term, Morimoto took the advantage to put trustworthy officers within Koko no Kaigun and Koko no Rikugun, also tightening his connections with IJA's higher ups during his frequent trips to Tokyo, having served himself with the KnR - under Imperial Japanese Army command in China- during WWI, leaving service because of injuries he suffered during the siege of Tsingtao.
After the ratification of the LNT Morimoto used the limitations imposed upon Koko no Kaigun as a mean to spread anti-western propaganda to appeal right-wing nationalists, his government also passed a bill, later jointly ratified with Japan, that allowed an IJA division to be permanently stationed on Koko's territory. Officially this was for joint exercises, drills and training with Koko no Rikugun troops, in reality their purpose was to keep an eye on those groups inside KnR which were openly critical of the Government course of action.
Another bill was passed to fund the new Koko no Kaigun naval construction plan, centered around treaty-skirting Destroyers like the Shizuha class, the Suiraiteis and the Hayabusa Seaplane Tenders, which were actually Seaplane Cuisers in anything but name.
When the Mukden incident occurred, on September 18th 1931, Morimoto openly supported the Japanese claims, although he ultimately did not send Rikugun troops to support the IJA as he originally planned. His governemnt also recognized the puppet state of Manchuko when it was later established. The cabinet course of actions actually backfired after the subsequent international backlash towards Japan and Koko, leading Morimoto to lose the 1932 elections, although he still managed to held grips onto the political scene thanks to the trusted men he had placed were needed, ultimately succeeding of being appointed as the Minister fo the Interior in the new cabinet..
In March 1933 Japan withdrew from the League of Nations after it refused to acknowledge Machucko as an independent nation, Koko momentarily remained a member of it, as the new government struggled on it's internal factions about deciding what the most suited course of action would have been: Leaving the League of Nations or start to withdraw from their alliance with Japan. Later, on August 11th 1933, geological surveys on the island of Nintoku led to the discovery of a sizable oil field below the northwestern shores of the island. Morimoto immediately proposed to exploit the fields and to supply Japan with any extra storage the oil fields would have produced, this generated protests within those faction within the Government and Koko no Rikugun which opposed to further alliance with Japan in order to not to be caught in the crossfire of the recently building tensions between Japan and Western powers.
On November 8th 1933, a dissatisfied group of Rikugun soldiers tried to storm Kusako Morimoto house with the intent of preventing him to interfere anymore with the State affairs, being it by arrest or killing him if needed, Other men were supposed to secure the government buildings from external interference in order to protect politicians which were favorable of cutting ties with Japan from right-wing retaliation. The plan was foiled thanks to Morimoto links within the Rikugun, with the IJA garrisons also taking part in suppressing the rebels. Within two days the attempted coup was vanquished, with Morimoto exploiting the situation to place all the blame on the left wing and, supposedly, pacifist factions which were used as scapegoats for his benefit. Committing his loyal men and the IJA troops he actually reversed the coup while claiming that he was acting to restore order and stability to the country. By December 2nd 1933, all opposition factions were largely purged, and Morimoto was appointed to form a new government. As one of the first actions of the new cabinet, Morimoto renewed Koko's alliance with Japan, then, on February 5th, 1934, Koko officially withdrew from the League of Nations.

11. Towards WWII (1934-1941)
Within days of his reinstatement as a Prime Minister, Morimoto passed a rearmament bill that actually restarted Naval constructions despite the limitations of the London Naval Treaty. Submarines production was restarted in 1933, with two units being laid down under the pretext that they were going to replace the two oldest units within the fleet. Full-size destroyer production restarted by late 1934, immediately followed by heavy cruisers, although at first planned to be light cruisers, claimed to be replacing the older Kashino class. Thus, when Japan and koko jointly announced their denunciation of the Washington Naval Treaty on December 29th 1934, Koko was actually ignoring it since a year.
In December 1935, both Koko and Japan deserted the Second London Naval Conference, clearly revealing that both governments were inclined to let the treaty provision to expire at the end of the year. Then, on November 25th 1936, both nations ratified the Anti-Comintern pact along with Germany. Despite Morimoto pushed as usual in his immovable resolve to follow Japan, the pact was well accepted by most of the population,, as the Soviets had been perceived as a great threat since the years following WWI, with the distrust of Kokoans towards them being even stronger than that against the United States. In light of the newborn alliances and the imminent collapse of the Washington Naval Treaty Morimoto's government passed another rearmament bill: Light cruiser construction restarted in late 1936, with the first new battleship being laid down by December of the same year, with a second class of heavy cruisers following. For the first time in it's history, in 1937, Fleet carriers were laid down for Koko no Kaigun, with the establishment of the naval aviation branch for the Navy, two Seaplane tenders under construction were to be converted into Light Carriers.
When the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out after the Marco Polo bridge incident in August 1937, a few Koko no Rikugun garrisons joined the IJA during the first stages of the conflict, but no sizable reinforcements were made until 1939, so that, by chance, no Rikugun soldier was involved in the Nanjing Massacre.
By 1938, Morimoto had manged to extend his influence within the Rikugun higher-ups and the IJA troops stationed in Koko so much that this, combined with his ties with Tokoyo's government, almost placed his own country under direct Japanese control. Under this conditions, despite concern among civilian population about the current course of actions started to arise again, Morimoto's party had it's leadership confirmed. By September 1940 Koko and Japan had joined Germany, Italy and Thiaria in the Axis powers, subsequently, Koko and Japan signed the Neutrality Pact with the Soviet Union in April 1941. After the fall of France, in 1940, Japanese troops occupied the French Indochina, causing great backlash from the United States, which began an embargo on goods such as petroleum and scrap iron products. Such embargo was quickly extended to Koko as well.
When On July 25, 1941, all Japanese and Kokoan assets in the US were frozen, the situation deteriorated to a point of no-return. Despite being rich of raw materials deposits, Koko's resources were not enough to support both both countries military strength. While Iron and Copper mines production proved to be almost enough to supply the rearmament programs, the mobility of the IJN and Koko no Kaigun was dependent on now dwindling oil reserves, as Koko oil fields were could not support prolonged naval operation unless extra sources could be exploited. This had the effect of increasing Japan's dependence on and need for new acquisitions. When the attempted negotiations between Japan, Koko and the United States failed Most military leaders in Japan and Koko, including Kusasko Morimoto himself, believed that a war against the United states and the Western powers was now inevitable.
On the night between November 29th and November 30th 1941, under the cover of darkness, the IJN Kido Butai crossed Kyofu Kaikyo, en route to attack Pearl Harbor. Then on December 4th 1941, the bulk of Koko no Kaigun carrier force left Toumachi Bay bound for Midway Island, with another naval formation leaving Taniguchi on the same day and steaming for Attu, Aleutians.
The pacific war was about to start.

12. Storm over the pacific (1941-1942)
On the morning of December the 7th 1941 bombs had been falling on Pearl Harbor for a little more than 30 minutes when Koko no Kaigun attacked Midway Island and Attu. The American garrison on Attu put up a fierce resistance but was eventually overwhelmed by the disparity of forces between them and the Rikugun troops. The last fighting dying by December 9th evening. Clashes around midway were the busiest, with the Kokoan carrier fleet engaging USS Lexington's planes in the first carrier-battle of the war. Despite suffering losses, the still green air-crews managed to damage the American carrier and sink a destroyer, forcing TF-12 to retreat. Midway eventually fell the next day after fierce bombardments when Rikugun tropps landed on the island. On December 11th another landing was made on the Island of Kiska, in the Aleutians. With the royal Navy losing two capital ships by the hands of Japanese planes near Singapore, the US navy quickly built up a task-force around the USS Saratoga to strengthen the Aleutian fleet and prevent more offensive movements from Koko. Luckily for Koko, Saratoga had just left Pearl Harbor one day before when Koko no Kaigun and TF-8 met off Sequamis Island on December 16th. Aided only marginally by their respective land-based air forces the two fleet faced each other in the Battle off Turf Point, during which the light cruiser Trenton was sunk, again for negligible losses for Koko no Kaigun. The invasion of Adak started the same day.
Kokoan engineers quickly worked to built an operating airfield on Adak, providing air cover against US planes based on Dutch Harbor while troops from bot KnR and IJA occupied most of the other islands between Attu and Adak. KnK Koku Sentai (carrier division) started patrolling the waters around Midway, with most of the surface fleet split between them and the Aleutian waters. Submarines were deployed to hit merchants and any American warship that would have been spotted. As fiery as it had been during the first two weeks, the Aleutian theatre soon saw action dying down, reduced to sporadic bombing runs by Kokoans against Dutch Harbor and Americans against Adak, which in turn waned into dogfights between fighters and a handful of inconclusive skirmishes between light units, the most serious ones usually requiring a few days of repairs on either side Destroyers.
With the eastern front Against the United States temporarily motionless, Koko's attention shifted towards Supporting the Japanese invasion of the Philippines and Indonesia. KnK sent the Battleshp Amagi, Sentai 5 (a cruiser division) and a few Suirai Sentai (destroyer squadrons) to join the IJN ranks. During the night of January 25th 1942, part of this task force engaged the British Battlecruiser Irresistible and her escort in the Naval battle of Balikpapan. Despite the only ship sunk was the Australian Destroyer HMAS Vendetta, both side inflicted heavy damage to it's opponent, with Irresistible ultimately forced to withdraw after being hit by two torpedoes fired by the heavy cruiser Fujiwara. After the battle, Amagi returned to Koko for repairs, but was back within two months, backed by the Battleships Kii and Owari. The rest of Koko no Kaigun group was supplemented by auxiliary units and marginally involved in the subsequent battles, which saw the ABDACOM fleet being defeated in the battles of Makassar, Badung, Sunda and Java. In early April the three Kokoan battleships, accompanied by two destroyer squadrons joined the Kido Butai as escorts during the Indian Ocean Raids. Here, an accursed report from a British recon plane which inexplicably mistook the three ships for the Japanese Cruiser Kumano, Suzuya and the destroyer Shirakumo, led to the loss of the Battleship Marlborough sunk by Amagi herself and two Recerchean destroyers. Warspite, the other British battleship engaged, managed to retreat with minor damage after a gunnery duel with Kii.
The three Kokoan battleships then escorted the carriers Hiryuu, Soryuu and Akagi for a further dash to the south: on April 13th aerial attacks were made against the Recerchean port of Hopetoun. The raids resulted in damage to infrastructure, harbor facilities and a few RRN ships berthed inside the bay. Five merchant ships were also sunk, and another seven damaged. The attack aimed at luring out a part of the Recerhean fleet in order to engage it in battle, splitting Recerchean war efforts on two fronts, indirectly relieving some pressure against the Maddelenians. The Recerchean units did depart, but worsening weather conditions caused by an incoming Cyclone caused the fleets to miss each other. Further operations against Recherche were initially planned, but subsequent events led them to be indefintely postponed and replaced by simple -although dense- air patrols from Japanese-held Indonesia.
Overal, by mid April 1942, Koko and Japan had managed to hold half of the Aleutians, Midway, Wake, the Philippines, Indonesia and much of Indochina while keeping its advance towards India and New Guinea. All with a string of naval victories in which they had never lost anything larger than a destroyer. Japanese and Kokoan submarines patrolled the Pacific Ocean targeting warships and merchants, with the USS Saratoga torpedoed by I-6 on January 11th 1942 and the battlecruiser Constitution hit and almost sunk by Ki-32 on April 5th of the same year. With the Axis on the loose in Europe too, and Thiaria seemingly one step from defeating Brazil, victory appeared on sight, as Morimoto's government propaganda never failed to echo. Still, the Americans had not threw in the towel yet. On April 2nd a USN carrier task force had left Alameda, and was now slipping undetected south of Koko on her way to Japan.....

13. Stalemate and rebound (1942-1943)
The Doolittle Raid was a great embarrassment for Japan, but it was even more for Koko and it's Navy, as Hornet task group had managed to sail undetected through waters patrolled by KnK crafts. To add insult to injury, despite sailing en-masse after news of the attack reached Toumachi, Koko no Kaigun failed to locate the American fleet for three days. The carriers Umineko, Ahodori and Fukuro gave chase but failed to achieve something too. Attempting to attack with submarines resulted in the sinking of Ki-20. This utter failure caused great abashment within Morimoto's government, leading him to personally require the dispatch of more IJA troops to supplement the Rikugun ranks in the Aleutians fearing a possible imminent American offensive. Something that didn't help to mitigate the bitter rivalry that was breeding between the two arimes. Admiral Kensuke Kaneda, Koko no Kaigun Commander in chief, stepped down after taking the blame of having relaxed the fleet too much after the initial successes. His successor, Genzaburo Karasawa immediately crafted a new, more offensive, plan to be implemented together with Operation Mo, the Japanese invasion of Port Moresby. Departing from Toumachi on May 3rd Koko no Kaigun carrier force bombed and destroyed US installations on Tern Island (French frigate shoals) on May 6th, then steamed north to launch another raid against Dutch Harbor three days later. Success of the two raids was reappraised when the Umineko was torpedoed and damaged by the Submarine Pompano during the return leg, forcing the carrier to underwent a month of repairs.
Failure by the Japanese to land troops at Port Moresby thanks to US carrier interference led the joint Kokan-Japanese command to speed up operation AL/MI. The plan, developed by IJN CiC Isoroku Yamamoto, called for a large IJN and KnK carrier and surface fleet to attack Dutch Harbor, Akutan, Unimak, Cold bay, King Cove and other key settlements on Alaska Peninsula in advance of a large invasion force. This was supposed to lure out the American carrier fleet, which would have been ambushed and disposed by another IJN/KnK combined fleet centered around the Kido Butai, which would have been waiting off Midway Island. Unknown to either the Japanese and Kokoans, US intelligence had managed to discover about AL/MI in due time. On june 4th, 1942, while the light carriers Ryujo, Junyo, Ahodori and Fukuro were making the second attack run against Dutch Harbor, a force of three American carriers ambushed and sank Kaga, Akagi, Hiryuu and Soryuu during the Battle off Midway, while only losing Yorktown in the process.
Suddenly, with Umineko and Shokaku undergoing repairs the joint Japanese and Kokoan fleet found themselves with just a single operational Fleet Carrier: Zuikaku. The invasion of Dutch Harbor was canceled as attention was diverted into strengthening the positions on the Solomon Islands, in anticipation of a possible attack against the Fiji Islands. Despite this, most of Koko no Kaigun fleet, including the carriers was left in northern water under pressures from Morimoto, who feared a possible American counterattack, despite Admiral Karasawa strongly protested as he was not of the same opinion.
The Americans still took the initiative, landing troops on Guadalcanal on August 7th before the Japanese could complete an airfield on the island. To counter it, a fleet consisting of seven heavy cruisers (five IJN two KnK), two light cruisers and a destroyer was assembled and quickly departed from Rabaul. Just after midnight, on august 9th, the Kokoan-Japanese fleet ambushed the joint American-Australian and Recerchean escorting fleet sinking the cruisers Canberra, Quincy, Astoria, Vincennes and Hobart, also damaging the Australia and Norseman (both seriously), Chicago, San Juan, Anvil and five destroyers in the process. However, US troop transports were spared a disastrous fate when Admiral Mikawa ordered the fleet to turn back fearing attacks from USN carriers, only to have Kako sunk by USS S-44 on her way home.
Not involved in the Battle of the Eastern Solomons Kokoan ships returned into action during the Battle of Cape Esperance, with the cruisers Saimei and Nanto involved in the sinking of the American cruiser Boise and Destroyer McCalla. Other ships lost were the USS Duncan, and the IJN Furutaka and Fubuki. Saimei herself was also damaged. Still left to patrol Midway and Aleutian waters, guarding against a possible attack from USN TF8 based on Anchorage, Koko no Kaigun carrier fleet also missed the battle of Santa Cruz.
Finally Realizing that an American offensive in the Aleutians was not materializing, and that the Guadalcanal theatre was in dire need of new ships (especially carriers), Morimoto finally allowed Karasawa to deploy his ships. Koko no Kaigun combined fleet finally started to sail for southern waters, with battleships Amagi and Owari, escorting the Umineko and the brand new Tanchozoru beign the first to depart. The bulk of the fleet followed shortly after, centered around the light carriers Tobuio, Ajisashi, Ahodori and Fukuro.
The fleet arrived too late to help Hiroaki Abe mission to bombard Henderson Field during the First naval battle of Guadalcanal, but just day after planes from Umineko and Tanchozoru gave the IJN enough air cover to save Kinugasa form air attacks. Ten out of eleven of the reinforcement transports led by Raizo Tanaka also managed to escape destruction. On the night of November 14-15th Owari and Amagi, backed by a Suirai Sentai (Desron), joined Nobutake Kondo's fleet led by the battleship Kirishima. Together the three capital ships managed to force the USS Washington into retreat after suffering heavy damage despite Admiral Lee brilliant fight. The USS South Dakota was also crippled and left in sinking condition. Tanaka's convoy started landing troops and supplies during the night. After another day of airstrikes against each other, both fleets retreated on November 16th evening. During the course of the next days, while ground troops fought for Henderson Field, both sides mustered as much ships they could, as the Japanese also hastly prepared a new invasion force to reinforce the Guadalcanal contingent. On november 21st Kokoan carrier-based planes attacked Henderson field, then engaged in combat those launched by the USS Enterprise and Saratoga and HMRS Bremer Bay. That night Japanese/Kokoan a fleet made by six battleships, six heavy cruisers, three light cruisers and numerous destroyers met with an USN and Recerchean fleet composed by six battleships, three battlecruisers, four heavy cruisers, five light cruisers and many destroyers. The fierce battle that ensued, known as the Third naval battle of Guadalcanal saw the Japanese side prevail. Losing to enemy fire the destroyers IJN Teruzuki and KnK Yuki, they managed to sink the battleship New Mexico, the battlecruiser Constellation, the heavy cruiser HMRS Quagi and the light cruisers Concord and San diego, also inflicting heavy damage on the USS Alabama and HMRS Audacious, scoring hits on many of the other units. The US fleet regrouped and fell back to assit the damaged battleships, allowing the enemy to shell the airfields.
Anyhow, the IJN/KnK fleet had not escaped damage either, with many ships suffering various levels of damage -battleship Suruga being the most battered one- so that their fleet withdrew too as dawn approached. With the new day carrier-borne attacks resumed from both sides, followed by a nightime bombardment of Henderson field by IJN Kongo and Haruna non the night of November 23rd. The next day, at dawn, the Japanese convoy started to unload it's troops, with IJN Hiyo and Junyo joining the Kokoan carriers against Enterprise and Saratoga, which also got CVEs Nassau and Altamaha in support. In the ensuing skirmishes USS enterprise suffered damage despite her CAP shot down many of the attacking aircrafts. At the end of the battle the IJA and KnR garrison on Guadalcanal had been strengthened enough to go on the offensive. Americans attempts to open a secure route for supplies failed when the USS Northampton was sunk and three other CAs were heavily damaged during the Battle of Tassafaronga on November 30th. A further attempt was fended off by Umineko and Tanchozoru, whose planes sank the USS Chicago and USS DeHaven during the Battle of Rennel island on January 30th 1943. Ultimately, the US troops were forced to evacuate Guadalcanal starting on February 7th.
With the initiative regained once again, Admirals Yamamoto and Karasawa planned the next offensive against the allied forces. In order to cut off Australia and New Guinea from American supply runs Japanese and Kokoan troops were to occupy the new Hebrides and, later, the Fiji. To fend off any American opposition, a large fleet led by three fleet carriers (Zuikaku, Tanchozoru and Umineko) and seven light carriers took the seaf rom Truk in early March 1943, followed by a massive surface fleet led by the Battleship Yamato, the invasion force convoys shadowing them. To stand before it were two veterans of the south Pacific, US carriers Enterprise and Saratoga, aided the Recerchean Eyre, Bremer Bay and Peppermit Bay, plus six escort carriers. Everything the Allies could assemble at the time. In the subsequent Battle of Torres island surface units on both sides played marginal roles. The Kokoan/Japanese carrier fleet managed to damage Enterprise (but failed to sink her once again, much to their dismay) and sink three of the escort carriers while losing the light carrier Ajisashi.
Despite inflicting more damage on the enemy the joint fleet failed to destroy the most important targets, the two American fleet and the reacerchean fleet carriers, also suffering heavy loses in their air-crews to the growing experienced USN pilots. Failure to achieve air superiority negated the possibility for the surface fleet to open a path for the transports, so ultimately the Kokoan/Japanese combined fleet regrouped and returned to Truk.
Here it was planned to launch a new offensive the next month, as this time the fleet would have relied on two more fleet carriers, the Shokaku returning from japan and the brand new Inuwashi, which had just ended her post-shakedown trials, to replace the lost Ajisashi.
Still' once again American intelligence works would have changed the table in an unexpected way...

14. Vengeance, intelligence, lost chances (1943)
Planning for a new offensive against the New Hebrides was done by April 7th. This time the combined Japanese/Kokoan fleet would have moved as one, with the surface fleet sailing with the carriers as to bolster the anti-air defense instead of just shadowing them. Something that had been proved completely useless at Midway and the previous battle of Torres Island. Large waves of land-based sorties would have provided further air-power to hit any allied warship sighted during the operation before joining carrier-based squadrons against the expected Allied carrier fleet. The attack was planned to start on April 26nd when the fleet, which meanwhile was being assembled at Truk, would have departed. In order to boost personnel morale and review airfields, military positions, air groups and equipment -which had to be on station to counter any possible Allied surprise attack- Admirals Yamamoto and Karasawa started an inspection tour of New Guinea and Solomon Islands.
Unknown to both the Japanese and Kokoans, American Intelligence had intercepted a message which detailed the Admirals planned trip through the Solomons. On April 20th both were scheduled to visit Kirakira, on San Cristobal island. It was the closest stop to the New Hebrides and President Roosevelt himself ordered to take the risk and “get them both”. The planned raid was named “Operation Vengeance”. Since San Cristobal was out of range from land-based planes, a small carrier task force was assembled, composed by the USS Enterprise and Saratoga and the Recherchean HMRS Eyre. Enterprise selected eighteen Corsairs to launch the actual attack, while the other two carriers would have provided much needed air-cover in case anything had gone wrong.
Launched 500 miles south of San Cristobal, Enteprise fighters traveled as low as 15 meters (50 feet) above the water to avoid radar coverage and eventually intercepted two Betty bombers shooting both down while suffering only one plane lost. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was killed and his Chief of Staff Matome Ugaki survived by pure luck when his plane ditched in the water. However, the Americans had missed Admiral Karasawa, but not because of any wrong doing form their part. Karasawa had in fact canceled his flight from Guadalcanal to San Cristobal at the last moment, choosing to carry out a review of the Kokoan fleet at Truk instead, as no Kokoan personnel was stationed at San Cristobal yet. All of this still oblivious to the fact he was effectively saving his own life.
Anyhow, the death of Yamamoto was a terrific blow to both the Japanese and Kokoans. Japanese and Kokoan airfields on Guadalcanal and San Cristobal unleashed their entire air complement to hunt the enemy carriers, but the three Allied flattops had already reached the safety of Espiritu Santo air cover when they were finally located. Despite Mineichi Koga was appointed as CiC of the Japanese fleet by April 21st the planned sortie of the combined fleet stalled. Admiral Karasawa speculated that such enemy raid against the IJN and KnK highest ranking officers (he was supposed to be there after all) could only have been possible if there was a spy among the logistic or communication personnel, or worse, if the Americans had cracked Japanes and Kokoan codes. Upon receiving such news Morimoto immediately ordered all Koko no Kaigun operations in the south pacific to be temporarily halted, consequently forcing the Japanese to further postpone the planned attack against the New Hebrides as the grounded Kokoan fleet devoided them of six carriers and five battleships. This caused a rift between the newly appointed Koga and Karasawa. The first lamented how grounding the Kokoan fleet hampered the planned operation against the New Hebrides, although he was reluctant himself about launching it under the circumstances. The latter insisted that if the Americans knew precisely about Japanese and Kokoan planned movements, like it happened with Yamamoto, deploying the fleet could have resulted in an enemy ambush. Eventually, concern within the higher up of both navies spread enough that an investigation was started in an attempt to shed light on what had happened, with the planned offensive indefinitely postponed. Ultimately, the only finding came a few weeks later from the interrogation of a downed American pilot, who revealed that civilian coastwatchers in the Solomons observed Yamamoto boarding a bomber and relayed the information by radio to American naval forces in the immediate area. Unknown to both the Japanese and captive himself, it was only a ruse of the American secret service to make both the Japanese and Kokoans believe they had not broken their codes. Both Kokoan and Japanese fell for it once again, although Admiral Karasawa remained wary of American intentions. As an extra caution he still ordered naval codes to be changed. This led to a change in Koko no Kaigun internal communications, which became undecipherable to the Americans for almost a year-and-a-half. Unfortunately, as the IJN kept the former codes, all communications between the two naives were still vulnerable to Allied interception.
When the disarray caused by Operation Vengeance was finally over, a whole month had been lost. The irremissible error of postponing the operations made by koga, Karasawa and Morimoto allowed the Americans to regroup and strengthen their defenses around Espiritu Santo, something quickly corroborated by the increased losses of auxiliary ships, like minelayers, caused by land-based Allied air raids. Realizing his error of judgment, Karasawa proposed to finally deploy the combined fleet against Espiritu Santo, but Koga preferred to weaken again American air power in the area before attacking. While Japanese and Kokoans launched carrier and land based raids against enemy bases, the allied did the same. At this point, even despite no major battle had been fought, the whole southeastern front was stalling.

Coming with it are a few remarks:

-Right now most of the accomaining text for the ships built between 1897 and 1922 is outdated(*). I'll go back to change some descriptions in order to fit the new timeline during the next few weeks. And there are 21 years worth of new ships to be drawn to cover the 1876-1897 timeframe, so a bunch of older ships will eventually pop out too, breaking my usual chronological order of posting ships.

-Expanded the demographic section in the fist page with some more population history data.

-Last, but not least, my PC is working again. Not thanks to the technician, but just because it decided to start working again (No kidding, one day it kept freezing,the day after started working again and it's been like that since two weeks... So new ships will start to appear here in the next few weeks!

edit: (*)all accompaining text is now up to date with the new background history.

Shipbucket

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