The counterfactual torpedo strike that starts war

The scenario preserves the historical harbour standoff and places the break at sea. Japanese cruisers overtake the slow British convoy and torpedo Vincent de Paul after an army officer shames the local naval command into retaliating. Britain answers by seizing a Japanese merchant ship for adjudication, echoing the later Asama Maru incident before attacking Japanese territory. A Japanese air attack on Birmingham leads to a British strike on Kaga, which is exposed near Hainan with two older destroyers. Those attacks turn a local dispute over maritime law into a wider Pacific war.