Cherry, Plum, and Chrysanthemum

The successful Mongol invasion to Japan in 1281 changed the Japanese society very much. Japan was subjugated as a tributary state for Yuan Dynasty and the country's myth of racial superiority died even before its bloomed. With the collapse of Bakufu government, the warrior class of samurai almost went into extinct and Japanese society became less militarized than in OTL.

Together with the court aristocratic class, a new class of bureaucratic scholars emerged and dominated the politics of Ancient Japan. New social order based on Confucianism was established, resulted to the period of domestic peace and stability. As result, there is no Sengoku period and science, technology, and education was more emphasized during this peacetime era.

Increasing influences of Confucianism within inspired the establishment of a centralized Japanese state with the Emperor as its centre. Under the rule of Emperors, Japan founded a strong maritime armada by mid-fourteenth century which then supported the formation of Japanese maritime hegemony in East Asia and Oceania for more than 300 years.

Well, it is still a Japan, but it is not a same Japan like we ever see anymore, it is not a Japan that known for its brutality in the World War II. This is a Japan that able to achieve an ambition that its OTL counterpart even cannot did. It is just a story of the Luminous Shore country and the world surrounding it...