Unbuilt Japan

[SealTheRealDeal]

Alright, inspired by the recent Unbuilt Canada and Unbuilt Australia threads, along with the somewhat more distant Unbuilt Britain thread.

This is a thread for sharing and discussing proposed, planned, or cancelled building/infrastructure projects in Japan, and their potential impact had they been built. Japan is an absolute treasure trove for these discussions what with it's proposals for indoor cities, tunnels to Korea, and billion dollar schemes to fill in Tokyo Bay. Naturally this thread isn't just limited to mega projects, and more humble proposals are more than welcome.

 

[jlckansas]

Depending on how the land is used, you could see them making more artificial islands for the different towns and cities on the coast.

 

[Sport25ing]

At the end of this website, there was a japanese uncompleted monument of the capture of Hong Kong

Japan’s lost monuments

When I began wwiiafterwwii in 2015 this was one of the first things I wished to write on, simply because it interested me. After some thought I decided that it strayed too far from the concept of W…

wwiiafterwwii.wordpress.com

Quote:
During February 1942 it was decided to build a grand monument to the Japanese victory. The site selected was Mt. Cameron, one of Hong Kong’s highest points. At the time there was only a telegraph shack and a few simple structures on it. The plan was publicly announced on 7 October 1942. On 8 December 1942, the first anniversary of the initial Japanese attack, construction began.

As it was never finished some details of the completed design are lost. The hill would first be made level with a flat platform of stone, cement, and dirt fill. As it would need to support the monument’s immense weight, the stone retaining walls were buttressed in places.

The monument would have been 262’5″ high, plus the height of the foundation. It was of ferro-concrete construction clad with granite quarried locally in Hong Kong.

The front would have “Loyalty Spirit Tower” on masonry offset from the face, as if it were a ribbon draped over the top. The doors were to be solid bronze. The paved courtyard would have a large torch at each corner, with two more torches at the foot of the ceremonial staircase, which was wide enough for infantry units to march up in formation.

The interior’s intended design is unknown. There was a plan for some sort of etched markings, presumably in the pavement stones, showing the directions and distances to other world landmarks. The center of the unfinished tower had a vertical cavity, so apparently access to the top was envisioned.

The monument was clearly visible around Hong Kong and even by passing ships. Had it reached full height, the top of the structure would have been half a mile above sea level.

On 8 December 1943, one year after construction started, a torchlight ceremony was held at the job site. A 500-year old samurai sword was encased in a stone vault in the foundation.

In Allied planning during WWII, Hong Kong was an afterthought due to its lack of strategic relevance. The same was not true for the Japanese. From the middle of WWII onwards there was fear that their occupation might be unsustainable. The IJA garrison was only 3,134 men plus an artillery unit, backed up by a IJN ashore detachment and a 150 man unit of the Kempetai. Even as work on the monument continued, there was always concern about the front against the Chinese to the north collapsing, or a direct amphibious assault by the western Allies.

By the end of June 1945 the Americans had taken Okinawa. Level-headed officers in the IJA knew now that WWII would end either with a final American invasion of the home islands in late 1945 or early 1946, or, some sort of structured armistice. Either way, there was no imaginable path to Hong Kong not being returned to British control.

On or about 1 July 1945, work on the monument ceased. At this point the shell was 80′ tall, 40% of its planned height. The foundation and its retaining walls were completed, but the ceremonial stairway had not yet started.

WWII instead came to an unexpectedly rapid end in August – September 1945. On 30 August 1945 HMS Swiftsure sailed into Hong Kong unchallenged, with WWII officially ending two days later and British sovereignty resuming.

 

[Pipcard]

Alright, inspired by the recent Unbuilt Canada and Unbuilt Australia threads, along with the somewhat more distant Unbuilt Britain thread.

This is a thread for sharing and discussing proposed, planned, or cancelled building/infrastructure projects in Japan, and their potential impact had they been built. Japan is an absolute treasure trove for these discussions what with it's proposals for indoor cities, tunnels to Korea, and billion dollar schemes to fill in Tokyo Bay. Naturally this thread isn't just limited to mega projects, and more humble proposals are more than welcome.

During the 1980s bubble economy (as well as the 90s), Tokyo seemed to be the center of a lot of megaproject/arcology proposals.
I remember seeing Sky City 1000 and the Shimizu Mega-City Pyramid in the Discovery Channel documentary series "Extreme Engineering" in the early 2000s.

There was also the Millennium Tower, Aeropolis 2001, and the X-Seed 4000 (which would have been taller than Mt. Fuji).

 

[SealTheRealDeal]

Seems a bit more Russian than Japanese, but I guess it fits here: Proposed tunnel between Hokkaido and Sakhalin.

 

[Arkenfolm]

A canal between Kyoto and Lake Biwa is an old discussion that IIRC goes back to the 17th century, but it was too expensive (and Edo more important of course) to justify. By the time modern tech arrived in Japan, the era of canals was rapidly ending and there were many other projects the cash-strapped Meiji oligarchy preferred instead. In the end, all they built was a ship railway.

Depending on how the land is used, you could see them making more artificial islands for the different towns and cities on the coast.

Most of the bays in Japan could support more of these, and the only reason they haven't been built is because the local population/economy is not large enough to demand it.

Seems a bit more Russian than Japanese, but I guess it fits here: Proposed tunnel between Hokkaido and Sakhalin.

Politics are the biggest problem with all the Japan-Mainland connections. Russian Far East is not populated/connected enough to the world, and alternatives like a submerged floating tunnel between Japan and Korea has the whole North Korea issue blocking it from land-based trade with China. Were there an alternate Japanese Empire that didn't have the whole WW2 deal and China/Korea still developed as OTL and remained one country, then I feel it's likely there'd be a tunnel linking to the mainland.

 

[jsb]

Seems a bit more Russian than Japanese, but I guess it fits here: Proposed tunnel between Hokkaido and Sakhalin.

I mean, in an AH with POD that Japan kept all of Sakhalin post 1918?