The East Asian Co-Prosperity Organisation in 1989

[Kuraru]

On AlternateHistory.com I said I'd do a 'cool' map of Japan where it won World War 2, and I have, sort of.

It's actually a Japan that stayed out of WW2, it never allied with Germany and became increasingly involved with the US instead. Under the USA's influence the initially Japan-centric East Asian Co-Prosperity Organisation gradually gradually became more and more capitalist and less centred around Japan.

Japan also became the nation to turn to for former Asian colonies when they needed money to stimulate their economy and to industrialise. As a result, a few former European colonies have become heavily economically involved with Japan, and have joined the EACO as a result.

Though it seems like you guys don't get a lot of political maps on here, I hope you all like this map!

[Midgardsormr]

Very nice! I like the paper aging you've applied, and the sunburst emphasizing Japan is a good touch.

I could wish that the landmass continued beyond the countries depicted, to show that they're not the whole of the continent.

[Kuraru]

Cool beans!

I'll second what Midgard said. The paper aging looks flawless and the sunburst is almost cheeky, but in an appropriate/cool kind of way.

Very nice! I like the paper aging you've applied, and the sunburst emphasizing Japan is a good touch.

Thank you all!

I could wish that the landmass continued beyond the countries depicted, to show that they're not the whole of the continent.

That's what I was originally planning to do, but I was drawing this all in InkScape, which doesn't let you copy images/objects from one file and then paste them in another, so I had deleted the map I was tracing from before I had realised that I would have to draw the Northernmost part of Borneo. Unfortunately I had also gone on to draw a great deal before I realised this, so undoing until the map reappeared would mean undoing a great deal of work, so I decided to just leave the rest of Asia out and just have the EACO instead.

[NeonKnight]

Cool beans!

[Ascension]

I'll second what Midgard said. The paper aging looks flawless and the sunburst is almost cheeky, but in an appropriate/cool kind of way.

[Steel General]

Cool stuff!

[ravells]

Beautiful! It looks really convincing.

[Gandwarf]

Let me just chime in and say: yes, cool map
Political maps are not my cup of tea, but I definitely like this one. I like the way how you made Japan the focal point.

[Fabrice]

Really nice map. Paper effect makes it look very authentic.

On the accuracy side, if you do not mind my pinpointing of details, there is a slight mistake on the representation of Korea.

In the hypothesis that Japan did not participate in WW2 and was allowed to proceed with their plans, Korea should be depicted with the same color and same name as Japan.

Indeed, Japan made Korea a protectorate in 1905 (Eulsa treaty) and annexed it fully in 1910. Thereafter the colonial power started a campaign of "assimilation" of the Korean people, including, at some point of time, the ban of use of Korean names and of the Korean language, replacing them with Japanese equivalents. Therefore the peninsula would have been probably considered fully Japanese by the late 80's if the Japanese defeat in WW2 had not reversed this course of events.

Moreover, the name "Republic of Korea" would not have existed (it was founded after the war in 1948 ). When Korea was annexed it was known as the Korean Empire (since 1897) and as Joseon (or Chosun) before that. The Taegukgi (Korean national flag) was created briefly before the collapse of the Korean Empire, and was not yet recognised as a representative symbol of Korea by the world at large.

As for the other countries on your map I do not know...

Sorry for the long post!


PS: to any Japanese reader, the historical facts discussed above do not constitute a criticism or condemnation of the Japanese culture as a whole or of contemporary Japan, which I appreciate and respect.

[bartmoss]

The map looks really well. I'm very doubtful about the historic likelihood though. Japan only attacked the US because the US stopped oil supplies (Pearl Harbor, from the Japanese POV was a preemptive strike in a defensive war), and the US only got involved in Asia because of Pearl harbor. The American influence on the Japanese was only possible because of Japan's defeat in WW2, I am almost certain that an Imperial Japan would not take orders from anybody, ever. (Indeed the whole idea of the co-prospertiy sphere was to remove Western influence in Asia and replace it with Japanese dominance.)

Anyway, never mind history, as a map-making exercise it's fine and the style is very convincing.