Breaks and Continuity

After the devastating defeat in the Pacific War, most Japanese were hardly excited about the new government, made up from military intelligence. However, it wasn't like most really thought they could help it and for now, there was peace. The bombings had come to an end, the troops were coming home and although the nation was burried under piles of rubble and a mere shadow of its former self, it was now at peace. Some also at least appreciated that while the Kusunoki regime had about as much regard for democracy as the last few cabinets before it, it at least also kept the internal peace up and hold down the lingering threat of revolution. Still, although tolerated, Kusunoki knew, that a regime merely built on force of arms would hardly last and she also did not want to just be another military dictator of Japan. Kusunoki planned something greater, something that ironically was easier now after the war, than it had been before, the wish, to restore the Japanese Empire to its position as a great power and for it to assume its place in the global concert. For while the Japanese had been defeated, it was this war that had enabled Kusunoki to cleanse the nation of its internal corruption and which had driven out any outside competition from Asia.

While the war had ended, the suffering hadn't. And while Kusunoki had already proclaimed that after the war, Japan had now to win the peace, there was little room to concern oneself with monumental feats to restore the great power status of Japan. More, the ordinary people and the politicians concerned themselves with the first battle of this new "war", which already looked grim. The devastation wrought upon Japan had pretty much resulted in an economic collapse and the loss of Korea cut off the Japanese from one of their main sources of rice, threatening the food supply. Trade in the region also had almost ceased, making compensating for shortfalls rather hard.

Meanwhile, as goods were already in short supply, hundreds of thousands of soldiers were brought back from the continent by the Navy, which shipped them from China to Japan, hurrying to get out from China to not get drawn into the fighting between Nationalists and Communists. While Kusunoki's government had decided that the Chinese could just keep killing each other though, the chaos in Korea was deemed of greater concern to Japan, and so plans were drawn up for intervention.