is a Japanese alternate history series produced by J.C.Staff. The series focuses on both a technologically advanced Imperial Japanese Navy and a radically-different World War II that were brought about by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's revival by unexplained circumstances. Both the published books and the original video animation (OVA) series are also notable for using the Imperial Japanese calendar, instead of the Western calendar, in denoting the years in which the events of the series take place. It also spawned a 1997 OVA side story, , one manga sequel, and two turn-based strategy games for the PC-FX and the Super Famicom.
Konpeki no Kantai is based on a novel series written by Yoshio Aramaki, whose first volume was published in December 1990. The novel's popularity reportedly rose dramatically because of the start of the Gulf War the following month. Aramaki later wrote a different series, (literally "Fleet of the Rising Sun"), elements of which were used in the OVA sequel. Both series eventually sold more than five million copies.Thinking the Opposite: An Interview with Yoshio Aramaki by Mitsutaka Oide (available at the Dalkey Archive Press, University of Illinois). Between 1997 and 2000, Aramaki wrote two sequel series: Shin Konpeki no Kantai (新・紺碧の艦隊, 9 volumes) and Shin Kyokujitsu no Kantai (新・旭日の艦隊, 18 volumes).
The title is a reference to the series depicting an advanced submarine force.
Point of divergence In the first episode, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's death still proceeds on April 18, 1943, just as in reality. Just before his damaged plane crashes into Bougainville Island, Yamamoto blacks out before he awakens in a ship quarters as his younger self. Unaware of what has just happened, Yamamoto speaks with a crewman and discovers that he is on board the Japanese cruiser Nisshin. He is then informed that the date is May 28, 1905 and that the Battle of Tsushima has just ended. Yamamoto discovers that he has somehow been transported back in time or to a parallel world.
With his memory from the original timeline intact, Yamamoto decides to revert to his old name of Isoroku Takano,In 1916, Isoroku was adopted into the Yamamoto family, a family of former Nagaoka samurai, and took the Yamamoto name. At the time, Japanese families without sons often adopted suitable young men to carry on the family name. and vows to use his advanced knowledge of the next 38 years to ensure that Japan does not make the same mistakes as in our timeline.
Yamamoto's first priority is to spearhead a massive naval construction program that involves building a large fleet of advanced battleships and supercarriers, nuclear submarines based on the design of the real-life I-400 Sen Toku submarine, and advanced combat aircraft that were in prototype or concept form during the late stages of the actual Pacific War.The aircraft appear to be based on actual prototypes such as the Mitsubishi J8M and Nakajima Kikka jet fighters, the Aichi S1A Denko night fighter, and the proposed Nakajima G10N ultra-long-range super-heavy bomber.
His plan for success begins with a coup d'état against the hardline government of Imperial Japanese Army General Hideki Tōjō in late 1941, on the eve of the Pearl Harbor attack, and he installs an ally, Lieutenant General Yasaburō Otaka as prime minister. Otaka, who has also been transported back in time, agrees to work with Yamamoto to change history and ensure that the Japanese Empire emerges victorious against the United States in the Second World War.
Alternate Pearl Harbor attack The first episode of the series depicts the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Yamamoto uses his advanced knowledge of the future and the now-superior technology of the Imperial Japanese Navy to ensure that the strategy and the outcome of the attack are considerably different from in our timeline:
Alternate Depiction Actual Events Japan's declaration of war against the United States is delivered before the attack begins. The slow decoding and translation of diplomatic cables from Tokyo make the Japanese embassy in Washington not deliver a written statement that peace talks had ended until after the attack had begun. The actual declaration of war was not made until the following evening., page 58. The attack is launched before daybreak since Japan has perfected night-time aircraft carrier operations. The original time of attack was at 6:30 a.m. Hawaiian Time, but the complications of launching the planes and making the 200-mile flight in the dark necessitated a change to the attack taking place at around 8 a.m. Unlike the British Fleet Air Arm, the Japanese Navy was not capable of night-carrier operations.Prange, Gordon. At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor, The raid begins with Japanese pathfinders dropping flares. No flares were used during the attack by either side since the attack took place at daytime. The entire military base at Pearl Harbor is destroyed. Most of Pearl Harbor's infrastructure, such as the power station, fuel depot, shipyards, submarine pens, armories, and the military headquarters, sustained no damage during the attack. (Yamamoto later stated that sparing these facilities was a critical error.) , page 98.The only military infrastructure to sustain serious damage were the airfields and hangars. Japanese military planners decided that unless the airfields were immediately targeted, the large number of American aircraft based on the island would pose a severe threat to the Japanese attack force. Consequently, nearly all Japanese fighters not assigned to attack the warships in the harbor were ordered to strike the airfields. That strategy was largely successful since all of the airfields suffered severe damage and very few American aircraft could actually to join the battle, but it also required Japanese aircraft to refrain from attacking nearly all other land-based military facilities. After the initial attack, the Japanese fleet regroups and annihilates the remainder of the US Pacific Fleet, including its three aircraft carriers, as they return to Pearl Harbor to join the battle. The Kido Butai Battle Group The Kido Butai (機動部隊, literally "Mobile Unit/Force") was the Japanese Combined Fleet's main carrier battle group until July 1942, when it was disbanded, with its ships being transferred to the IJN 3rd Fleet.Kido Butai!: Stories and Battle Histories of the IJN's Carrier Fleet by Anthony Tully, last updated July 12, 2009. turned back immediately without any further engagements with American forces. The huge distance the fleet had to travel between Japan and Hawaii and the return trip meant that the fleet's fuel capacity permitted it to operate near Hawaii for only a limited period of time. In addition, many of the ships were needed immediately to support Japanese military offensives in the Western Pacific.The three aircraft carriers of the US Pacific Fleet were not at Pearl Harbor during the attack. The Enterprise and the Lexington were relatively close to Hawaii, but neither encountered the Kido Butai battle group. The Saratoga was near San Diego during the attack and did not reach Hawaii until December 15. The four remaining American aircraft carriers, Yorktown, Hornet, Wasp and Ranger, were then operating in the Atlantic Ocean. The episode ends with Japanese troops invading Hawaii. The Japanese military briefly considered trying to seize the Hawaiian Islands but decided that it was impractical since Japan's ground forces, logistics, and resources were already fully committed to the Second Sino-Japanese War but also for military offensives in Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific that were planned to occur almost simultaneously with the Pearl Harbor attack.Despite several requests from the Combined Fleet, the Japanese Army refused to supply any ground forces or resources for an invasion of Hawaii, as it wished to focus on operations in China and Southeast Asia (a lack of co-operation between the Army and the Navy hampered Japanese military operations throughout the war).In late December 1941, Yamamoto began trying to secure support an invasion of Hawaii but continued to face stiff opposition from the army but also Fleet Admiral Osami Nagano (永野修身), who felt that such an operation was too risky. Eventually, Yamamoto reportedly secured a tentative agreement for an invasion of Hawaii after military operations in the Western Pacific were completed and additional ground troops and warships were available. However, Japanese losses at the Battle of Midway made any future offensives against Hawaii impossible.Weinberg, Gerhard L., A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1994, page 260, 323, 329-330.
After Pearl Harbor Following its successful invasion, Japan uses Hawaii as its main North Pacific base. The subsequent episodes depict the Japanese military easily defeating Allied forces in Southeast Asia and granting nominal independence to all of the territories that had been under European and American colonial rule under the banner of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. In subsequent battles in the Tasman Sea and the Torres Strait, the Imperial Navy further cripples American naval power and advances across the Pacific Ocean to strike at the West Coast of the United States. A Japanese submarine-carrier flotilla destroys the Panama Canal's Gatun locks, which significantly hinders American efforts to transfer ships from the Atlantic Fleet to the Pacific theater. The US suffers more crushing setbacks, including a second Panama Canal attack and a long-range surgical airstrike on the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos facilities. They prove too much for US President Henry Roosevelt, who dies of a stroke after learning of the destruction of Los Alamos. His successor, Bill Truman, realizes that the US cannot continue the war and so sues for peace and accepts the surrender terms offered by Japan.
Although the Japanese are initially allied with Nazi Germany, the German dictator, Heinrich von Hitler, becomes concerned about their string of victories and the rapid growth of Japan's technological and military power, which was boosted partly by the expertise of Albert Einstein. Hitler declares war on Japan, whose first thrust against Germany comes in the form of a precision attack by three intercontinental flying-boat bombers on the Germans' atomic weapons research facility.
German forces start the invasion of British India and the United Kingdom. On the Indian Front, the German Wehrmacht conducts an airborne assault on Kolkata and sends troops south to Cochin to meet other German forces coming down the western coast. Japan intervenes by deploying armored forces to support surviving British and Indian units. Another Japanese Navy carrier fleet is also deployed to the Indian Ocean. The Americans lend their support by bombing German convoys. The submarine-carrier flotilla that attacked the Panama Canal, which now exists as a long tunnel to prevent future air attack, is later redeployed to the Bab el-Mandeb to ambush a Kriegsmarine force being sent to the Indian Ocean. Germany, meanwhile, defeats the Soviet Union as Stalin's forces surrender in the Ural Mountains. US forces invade Brittany to ease the pressure off the German invasion of Britain, but the Wehrmacht holds its ground and drives the US forces into the sea, with the last troops forced to leave from their redoubt in Brest. Germany eventually conquers the southern half of England.