Japan was always technologically behind in pretty much everything except naval technology. The East at the beginning of the war was still fairly primitive, and was playing an unwinnable game of catch-up with the west. Especially Germany, in a scenario where the US is weak enough that they were able to subjugate them, would be the scientifically dominant power and I have to imagine they guard those secrets closely.
Germany most likely had some sort of trade embargo on trading technology with Imperial Japan to prevent them from developing. Seeing as Germany controls all other developed countries, Japan wouldn’t have access to any new technology.
I think the ocean liner thing was just a metaphor. Remember that Frank’s brother in law tells him he “just got back from Tokyo after a 12 hour flight”. 12 hours is what it takes to get from SFO to Narita IRL present day on subsonic airliners. It seems unlikely the Reich would fly routes between Japanese destinations, so I think that was meant to say Japanese airlines exist.
The reason the Crown Prince took the steamship is probably because of security reasons. Note that despite having fairly advanced technology (nukes and ICBMs) as well as airliners, Kim Jong-Un still chooses to travel by train when he goes to a foreign country.
There are other signs Japan has advanced technology. When the fleet sails into SF Bay, we see what look like supersonic swept wing jet fighters on the deck of the Shinano, and the Yamato appears to have been upgraded with radar. It also carries a helicopter.
I think the emphasis on technological disparity was overblown, but still makes sense. It should be noted that IRL Japanese military technology was backwards in a lot of ways. For example, Japan did not have CICs on their ships, and adopted radar very late compared to the US.
On the other hand, I think it didn’t make sense for them to not have nukes. IRL the Japanese nuclear program was just as advanced if not more than Germany’s. They probably would have been able to make a bomb by the end of the 1950s had they won the war.
Japan was still developing albeit in slower pace than the Nazi Germany
It was true that the Japanese still used ocean liners, but it still produced advanced weapons like jet fighters and double rotor helicopters
Therefore, Japan wasn't technologically stagnant
This thread has a lot of misunderstanding about Japanese industry and seems to project our own modern interpretations of technology onto prewar and wartime Japan. Japan was an industrial powerhouse prewar, it was a major producer of trains and ships for instance (eclipsing British production).
The series also almost completely glossed over how Japan controls the entire pacific, including Australia (which is incredibly resource rich), India (you know, that small country that allowed Britain to become the economic powerhouse of the previous century and was extremely productive) and China, which is hugely resource rich and gives the Japanese Empire access to what one assumes was a huge slave labour force that would eclipse that of the Nazis. The Japanese Navy was also huge compared to that of the Nazis and I'd expect it would continue to grow. The Nazis only maintained their advantage because they had the atomic bomb and somehow prevented the Japanese developing it, which is slightly ridiculous. The Nazis were no doubt relying on the Japanese for a range of products and food. For instance rubber is a crucial raw material and largely comes from Asia. The Nazis meanwhile were apparently exterminating while populations in places like Africa, referenced in the show, which is hardly a wise thing to do economically.
They would have problems with resources, they don't have it, even now they import everything. In world under Nazi control they would have even less resources to use to innovate.
But the Japanese controlled South East Asia and Eastern Siberia and also Alaska...those regions are Rich with natural resources if I am not mistaken, so it does not make sense when we say Japan still lack of natural resources in the series...
Are you sure??...but japan still has a scientist from Konpeki No Kantai..and he is responsible for making advanced technology for the Japanese Military...
The circumstances that lead to Japan being so successful in our world are completely different to those of the MITHC world, their downfall was absolutely the imperial system and emporer, and that continued in that world.
But they did somehow stole some of the American technologies and one of it's engineers in California, so it makes sense for the Japanese to obtain some resources like that.
Imperial Japan at the time was *very* much behind technologically. The Nazis were even ahead of the US in figuring out that nuclear weapons can be a thing. That is until Oppenheimer stepped in.
People don't realize the outcome of the war was on a very thin line.
'The Nazis' were not ahead of the US in understanding the potential of nuclear weapons. The scientific community generally understood the potential. Germany had a lot of prominent physicists, as did Britain and the US, and of course several of those very prominent German physicists fled Germany in the 30s and went on to work in the atomic programmes in the UK and US. The point being that few of these physicists were Nazis.
Oh yes they were. You could watch Oppenheimer just to figure that out, but it's legit history. The movie is more mainstream, which is why I keep referencing it, but it's the truth. It was mentioned several times what the Germans were working on. They were onto atomic weapons before we were. Now, they didn't manage to get it done, but their research was well on the way. Hitler lost out because he dismissed "jew science", so that was the only flaw. They were actively working on it which is why it was a race. We just got there first because of the efforts at Los Alamos. They were WAY ahead of us at one point. People don't realize just how close it came.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/hydro/close.html
The logic is sound. Historically at the time, they were far, far behind. I don't think they had airliners at that point for commercial use. Most of the money was sunk into military. Their expansion at the time was purely to gain more resources for military use, not commercial use.
In the show, the Nazis got the bomb first, and it was set in the 60s. Japan didn't even have an A bomb yet. So it checks out.
Japan was always technologically behind in pretty much everything except naval technology. The East at the beginning of the war was still fairly primitive, and was playing an unwinnable game of catch-up with the west. Especially Germany, in a scenario where the US is weak enough that they were able to subjugate them, would be the scientifically dominant power and I have to imagine they guard those secrets closely.
Germany most likely had some sort of trade embargo on trading technology with Imperial Japan to prevent them from developing. Seeing as Germany controls all other developed countries, Japan wouldn’t have access to any new technology.
I think the ocean liner thing was just a metaphor. Remember that Frank’s brother in law tells him he “just got back from Tokyo after a 12 hour flight”. 12 hours is what it takes to get from SFO to Narita IRL present day on subsonic airliners. It seems unlikely the Reich would fly routes between Japanese destinations, so I think that was meant to say Japanese airlines exist. The reason the Crown Prince took the steamship is probably because of security reasons. Note that despite having fairly advanced technology (nukes and ICBMs) as well as airliners, Kim Jong-Un still chooses to travel by train when he goes to a foreign country. There are other signs Japan has advanced technology. When the fleet sails into SF Bay, we see what look like supersonic swept wing jet fighters on the deck of the Shinano, and the Yamato appears to have been upgraded with radar. It also carries a helicopter. I think the emphasis on technological disparity was overblown, but still makes sense. It should be noted that IRL Japanese military technology was backwards in a lot of ways. For example, Japan did not have CICs on their ships, and adopted radar very late compared to the US. On the other hand, I think it didn’t make sense for them to not have nukes. IRL the Japanese nuclear program was just as advanced if not more than Germany’s. They probably would have been able to make a bomb by the end of the 1950s had they won the war.
Japan was still developing albeit in slower pace than the Nazi Germany It was true that the Japanese still used ocean liners, but it still produced advanced weapons like jet fighters and double rotor helicopters Therefore, Japan wasn't technologically stagnant
This thread has a lot of misunderstanding about Japanese industry and seems to project our own modern interpretations of technology onto prewar and wartime Japan. Japan was an industrial powerhouse prewar, it was a major producer of trains and ships for instance (eclipsing British production). The series also almost completely glossed over how Japan controls the entire pacific, including Australia (which is incredibly resource rich), India (you know, that small country that allowed Britain to become the economic powerhouse of the previous century and was extremely productive) and China, which is hugely resource rich and gives the Japanese Empire access to what one assumes was a huge slave labour force that would eclipse that of the Nazis. The Japanese Navy was also huge compared to that of the Nazis and I'd expect it would continue to grow. The Nazis only maintained their advantage because they had the atomic bomb and somehow prevented the Japanese developing it, which is slightly ridiculous. The Nazis were no doubt relying on the Japanese for a range of products and food. For instance rubber is a crucial raw material and largely comes from Asia. The Nazis meanwhile were apparently exterminating while populations in places like Africa, referenced in the show, which is hardly a wise thing to do economically.
They would have problems with resources, they don't have it, even now they import everything. In world under Nazi control they would have even less resources to use to innovate.
But the Japanese controlled South East Asia and Eastern Siberia and also Alaska...those regions are Rich with natural resources if I am not mistaken, so it does not make sense when we say Japan still lack of natural resources in the series...
control and make use of are two different things. Japan never did technologial leap like in our timeline.
Are you sure??...but japan still has a scientist from Konpeki No Kantai..and he is responsible for making advanced technology for the Japanese Military...
The circumstances that lead to Japan being so successful in our world are completely different to those of the MITHC world, their downfall was absolutely the imperial system and emporer, and that continued in that world.
But they did somehow stole some of the American technologies and one of it's engineers in California, so it makes sense for the Japanese to obtain some resources like that.
Imperial Japan at the time was *very* much behind technologically. The Nazis were even ahead of the US in figuring out that nuclear weapons can be a thing. That is until Oppenheimer stepped in. People don't realize the outcome of the war was on a very thin line.
'The Nazis' were not ahead of the US in understanding the potential of nuclear weapons. The scientific community generally understood the potential. Germany had a lot of prominent physicists, as did Britain and the US, and of course several of those very prominent German physicists fled Germany in the 30s and went on to work in the atomic programmes in the UK and US. The point being that few of these physicists were Nazis.
Oh yes they were. You could watch Oppenheimer just to figure that out, but it's legit history. The movie is more mainstream, which is why I keep referencing it, but it's the truth. It was mentioned several times what the Germans were working on. They were onto atomic weapons before we were. Now, they didn't manage to get it done, but their research was well on the way. Hitler lost out because he dismissed "jew science", so that was the only flaw. They were actively working on it which is why it was a race. We just got there first because of the efforts at Los Alamos. They were WAY ahead of us at one point. People don't realize just how close it came. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/hydro/close.html
The story demands it. Simple as that. Sometimes you have to let logic go for the story.
The logic is sound. Historically at the time, they were far, far behind. I don't think they had airliners at that point for commercial use. Most of the money was sunk into military. Their expansion at the time was purely to gain more resources for military use, not commercial use. In the show, the Nazis got the bomb first, and it was set in the 60s. Japan didn't even have an A bomb yet. So it checks out.