Books like United States of Japan by Peter Tieryas Liu

Decades after Japan's triumph in World War II, the United States endures a totalitarian rule that venerates the Imperial family and suppresses dissent. In this alternate history, a clandestine group known as the George Washingtons—shadows of rebels—seek to undermine the regime by distributing an illegal video game that invites players to reimagine a world where the United States won the war. Captain Beniko Ishimura, a staunch censor tasked with dismantling subversive media, is assigned to trace the origins of the game. As he probes deeper, Ishimura realizes that the rebellion’s motives are more complex than simple freedom‑seeking, and the game’s backstory holds a perilous truth that could destabilize the authoritarian order. The novel explores themes of oppressive authority, the power of imagined histories, and the moral ambiguities that surface when resistance movements are layered with hidden agendas.

First publish date: 2016