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?
Lv 7
? asked in Arts & HumanitiesHistory · 1 month ago

If the Axis had won WW II, would we in the US have been speaking Japanese or German today?

17 Answers

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  • Anonymous
    1 month ago
    Favorite Answer

    Neither. Look at what happened in Eastern Europe - less than half the people today are able to speak Russian, and continue to communicate in their native languages. Of course it would become important to be able to speak the language of the ruling class, just as the Normans and Anglo-Saxons did - which is why in English we have different word for the same thing, often according to how the farmers saw their livestock (pig, cow, sheep) and the consumers saw it (pork, beef, mutton). But your question presupposes that the Japanese would occupy the US, which is not only absurd - it was never the intention.

  • 4 weeks ago

    the Germans in WW2 never forced any country to speak German

  • 4 weeks ago

    I don't see the connection. Many people in the US already spoke Japanese or German prior to the war.

    Also, if the Axis LOST WWII, why didn't all countries mandate eradication of Japanese and German languages, not to mention Czech and Italian?  Go to the South Tirol, which was sliced off the tip of Germans-speaking Austria, making it part of Italy, and see how welcome you are speaking Italian there.

  • Anonymous
    1 month ago

    None. The Japanese and Germans would have forced Americans to speak Swahili, just for fun.

  • 1 month ago

    Neither. There wouldn't be any people alive at all on the entire North American continent, except for German and Japanese scientists in heavily shielded research laboratories and wearing radiation suits every time they went outside.

    Because with the industrial capacity difference, the population size difference, and resources available to each, there is no possibility Germany or Japan could have won the war without covering all of North America with glass, created by subjecting silicone crystals in the soil to fission-level heat.

    And if they had won with nukes, if there had been even half a million Americans left alive, their grandchildren would someday occupy Berlin and Tokyo. And if through some impossible miracle they won *without* nukes, their entire national product for the next century would have to go to paying for occupation armies and new death camps, in a FUTILE attempt to hold on to their new property. Ditto the Soviets, who would have cheerfully fought a 100 year guerrilla war if necessary. The Volga and the Mississippi would have run red with blood, and being "sent to America" would be the worst punishment a German soldier could suffer. 

    I wonder how long a uniformed SS officer would live, walking down the street in Brooklyn, or Chicago's South Side, or Dallas, Albuquerque, Kansas City, or El Lay? I bet not very long.

    The Nazis came closer than the Japanese to a possibility of winning, but even they never really had a chance after 1942. It was only a matter of time.

  • JuanB
    Lv 7
    1 month ago

    No.  There would be little change.  America would speak Hispanic just like it does now.

  • ?
    Lv 6
    1 month ago

    They already speak both languages - and more.

    If you're asking whether either of the two Axis countries would be dominating the United States today the answer would be no.

    Contrary to the propaganda that has been spewed out over the past 75 years,  neither Germany nor Japan was "trying to rule the world" - and neither had their sights set on the United States.

    They got involved with the United States only because the United States picked a fight with them.

    The history books don't tell the whole story - only the side that makes the Allies look good. Japan was provoked into attacking the United States and FDR did everything he could to create conflicts between Poland and Germany so that a war would break out that he could get the United States into.

    He needed this because his "New Deal" programs that were meant to revive America after the Great Depression were failures. Partly to create employment and partly to hide his disgrace from the voters, he orchestrated the conflicts between Poland and Germany

    But Congress wouldn't give him the support he needed to go to war in Europe. The issues there were on the other side of the world and none of America's business. To get around this, FDR provoked an attack by the Japanese and this forced Congress's hand to go after Germany.

    This is the reason Hitler never declared war on the United States until after Japan attacked. He wasn't interested in attacking the United States, but he knew what Roosevelt was up to and knew that he (FDR) was the one responsible for Germany's trouble with Poland.

    Once the US got into the war with Japan, Hitler knew Roosevelt would bring the war to him.

  • No....they could have never successfully invaded us. But they could very much isolate us and our lives would be much different

    you know like having to stand 6feet apart, wear face masks, close churches and schools...stuff like that

  • 1 month ago

    Probably neither.  It depends alot on what 'won' looks like.  Let's say Japan had never gone after Pearl Harbor, therefore the US stayed out of it.  The Axis would realistically still have lost because the Russians were really the ones that beat Germany, and the Japanese wouldn't have been able to take the resource rich pacific islands -- many of which were under US control and the US had an embargo on Japan.  So without Pearl, Japan would have been resource starved and odds are would have had difficulty maintaining their mechanized warfare while NOT going after the resources close to them.

    Even if you imagine a victory scenario where the US DOES get involved and loses and is conquered, odds are they aren't going to try to change the language of the entire US.  That's unnecessary and would just make everything harder.  German troops posted here would speak English.  But the more one thinks about this scenario the more fanciful it becomes.  How would Japan have maintained supply lines for an invasion of the US from the west, and where did this magical navy come from that Germany would have needed to invade the US?  It just doesn't make alot of sense.

  • ?
    Lv 7
    1 month ago

    Probably not. I hope you DO know that the Axis was never going to win, though at first, it seemed a possibility.

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