Imperial Japanese Navy - Admiral Tokugawa

More uniforms!

I like to put faces on them cause it doubles as character development, even though it's likely these characters will exist just to serve as models for said uniforms. Oh, well.

Im my AU, even though none of my (planned) stories take place in Japan yet and the following facts would be irrelevant even if there was an adventure in Japan, here it goes:

I initially scheduled Emperor Akihito to die in 2012, since it seemed like a good year to start a new  era (many people thought the world would end that year, hahaha!), and his son Naruhito would be crowned the 127th Emperor of Japan. The first measure of his Era would be the recreation of the Armed Forces as they were before 1947. No more "Self-Defense Forces", but Imperial Army, Navy and, for something new, Air Force (before 1945, Army and Navy had their own air services). The Diet also altered the Constitution to allow Japan to declare war "in self-defense" and use military force in cooperation to other nations in joint military efforts round the globe.

Of course, there was reactions in China and both Koreas due to the annoucement, but Japan just didn't cared for that. As one military aide said, "the good thing about unilateral actions is that you can complain, but not change them". No one wanted to risk a war because of something everybody saw as just a new, pompous name to something already existant. And in steady expansion...

But things went further than that. Soon, the IJN was acquiring nuclear submarines from Russia, starting a collaboration agreement with that country since Beijing had been strained diplomatic relations with Moscow at the time and Tsar Nicholas III was excited about the prospect of bringing Japan (the "Watchdog of the Orient", in his words) to his side. This was prompted by the refusal of the USA, still Japan's closest military ally, to hand the mentioned weapons.

Nowadays, the IJN is mainly used to keep an eye over North Korea and build the sea bases for the new anti-missile shield over Japan (in case of Chinese attack, even in case of the restoration of the Great Qing. Yes, there is a huge lobby around a certain descendant of Puyi going on).

Featuring: Admiral Prince Tokugawa, the first commander of the new IJN. He is a member of the clan that ruled Japan as a Shogunate until the Meiji Restoration in 1868 and had his title restored due to the abolishment of the 1947 Household Laws, that restored the privileges of nobility and the cadet branches of the imperial family (Oke) to secure the succesion due to Naruhito failing to produce an heir to the throne. The Emperor ended up naming his nephew, Hisahito, as his heir.

I should consider this a relief, but I came to find the IJN uniforms to be absurdly simple. The dark-blue one has some charm with the neck insignias and unique design, but the white one, totally devoid of anything... Too simple. But, it may be due to the fact they are Japanese, so their simplicity is beyond our understanding. Trying to apply some medals to it, I ended up finally making a vector version of the Order of the Chrysanthemum that pleases me, the Order of the Golden Kite, AND the Gensui Badge (a decoration awarded to recognize meritorious personal service to His Majesty the Emperor).