Empire of Japan (Dai Nippon no Teikoku)
The Empire of Japan was one of the few Asian empires that ever existed. Its rise started in 1895 as a result of its victory over China in the First Sino-Japanese War. However, its start as a potential empire started with the Meiji Restoration in 1868.
After a few years of modernization during the Meiji Restoration, Japan was poised to enter the world stage as it enters the First Sino-Japanese war in 1894. The First Sino-Japanese War ended with a quick Japanese victory over Qing China and was awarded with the control of the Korean Peninsula, as well as the northern parts of Manchuria and the island of Formosa.
In 1901 to 1903, tensions ran high between Spain and Japan over the colonies in the south east Asian regions, particularly the Philippines. The result was the Hispano-Japanese War, in which Japan claimed victory in a quick and decisive manner. Further Japanese consolidation of the region were confirmed with the annexation of those colonies.
However, Japan resumed its war with Qing China in 1910 when Japan invaded the rest of China from its occupied territories in Manchuria (similar to its real world version of its second Sino-Japanese conflict). That war dragged well into World War One of Timeline 191.
World War One
The Great War was a perfect opportunity to test its military power against the Central Powers, then the Entente as the first two years of the Great War was spent by Japan on the Entente side. During the 1914-1915 period, Japan along with Great Britain attempted to recapture the Sandwich Islands from the USA, which seized the islands. However, in 1916 Japan switched sides to the Central Powers when it smashed the entire British garrison in the Sandwich Islands. Further actions that Japan took went further with the invasion of Russian held Alaska and the western part of Canada. By 1917, Japanese troops occupied all of British Columbia, the Yukon as well as Washington state, Oregon and California as well as Baja California from the Empire of Mexico.
Japan also fought the Confederacy over the province of Sonora and Chihuahua. Further woes to the Confederacy happened with Japanese aid to the black rebels in the Red Uprising in 1916. This event was the only setback the Japanese suffered in the conflict. However, this was redeemed with the occupation of the two provinces of Sonora and Chihuahua and more Japanese victories in the Pacific and the Atlantic.
The Great War ended with the victory for the Central Powers, but Japan managed to keep its colonies that were seized from both sides. The Treaty of Versailles limited the defeated entente powers to 100,000 men in their army, and no heavy weapons were allowed. Austria-Hungary occupied Serbia, Montenegro and Romania as well as Albania, while Germany created the puppet kingdom of Poland. The Russian Revolution happened, but as in Timeline 191, the Red Bolsheviks were crushed and went into hiding.
The 1920's proved to be the calm before the storm. As the Great Depression rocked the world, Japan was also affected. The result was that the Emperor Showa (Hirohito) authorized the further industrialization of the empire. However, Japan was not immuned from the rise of the Freedom Party under Jake Featherston. Further complication happened with the rise of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany during 1933, despite the fact that Germany was one of the victors. This happened primarily because some Germans wanted a new government without the Kaiser in place.
Both the Nazi and Freedom Parties enacted racist policies that targeted their respective Jewish and black minorities. The only difference was that the Nazi Party also called for the enslavement of the Slavic race, in which the Freedom Party considered superior by the white supremacist standards. To add insult to injury, Italy had also undergone a Fascist regime under Benito Mussolini which called for the return of the Roman Empire. Eventually, the Axis Powers was to be recognized, in which Italy, Germany and Japan were the three main powers with Austria-Hungary in question. The only difference with this timeline and the real timeline was that Nazi Germany in the real timeline incorporated austria into its borders. That difference was solved with the dismantling of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and leaving out the Kingdom of Hungary as a tributary. The Fourteen Points of Confederate President Woodrow Wilson was ignored although new states were created out of the old Austro-Hungarian empire: Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia with Hitler's decision to incorporate Austria and leaving out the South Slavic regions to self-determination. As in the real timeline, Nazi Germany took over the Rhineland and Czechoslovakia as well as Austria. Only in this timeline, Austria was taken over first.
In Japan and its empire, the IJN as well as the IJA had also undergone massive reforms taht would upgrade its fighting force. Many factories that produce war materials were relocated in the newly established puppet Manchukuo. The Japanese weren't as brutal as they were in the real timeline although resistance movements in China and South East Asia still plague the imperial power.
World War Two
Unlike the real timeline, Germany did not attack Poland right away. The puppet Polish government rebelled against their German masters and the result was occupation. The sides in this conflict wouldn't be two. Instead, it would be three or four. On one side there is Imperial Russia, Great Britain, France and the Confederate States(entente). On another side is Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and Fascist Italy(Axis). The United States remained neutral but it created its own side with the Ottoman Empire, Yugoslavia, Spain and Portugal(Allies).
1939: September 1: Poland rebels. Germany invades as a result.
September 3: Great Britain, France and Russia declare war on Germany. The CSA remains neutral.
September 27: Poland is occupied
May: Germany invades the Low Countries except the Netherlands
May: German invasion of France
July 10: Battle of Britain starts
June 22: Invasion of Tsarist Russia
September 25: German siege of St. Petersburg (in real timeline, the siege of Leningrad)
1940: March 22: Japan begins mobilization.
May 4: Japan declares war on Great Britain, France and Russia.
July 7: Australia is invaded.
September 26: Australia occupied.
Oct. 25: Japan suppress the uprising in Vancouver, BC
Oct. 10: Japanese sponsored puppet Republic of Philippines established
Dec. 7: Japanese raid on Boeing production plant in Seattle.
December 11: Japan declares war on United States and the Confederate States.
Aug. 6: Japan starts the nuclear project.
Aug. 9: Japan invades the Confederate States territory of Texas, and saves the black population from annhiliation by Freedom Party guards.
1941: June 22: Operation: Blackbeard begins with the CSA invasion of the USA at Ohio
1942: January: Operation Coalscuttle launched.
March 25: US forces go on the offensive.
Apr. 23: Capture of Chattanooga
Jul. 12: March towards Louisiana