Germany wants Japan to attack the Soviet Union, but why does Japan attack Britain and the United States? What is Japan's plan?

In World War II, Germany attacked the Soviet Union in 1941, causing the Soviet Union to retreat steadily. In order to speed up its victory, Germany also invited Japan to attack the Soviet Union with it. However, Japan did not attack the Soviet Union. Instead, it used its troops to attack Britain and the United States. While Germany and the Soviet Union were fighting, Japan used its troops to sweep across Southeast Asia. What secret is hidden behind this, and why does Japan do this? Japan's Fear of the Soviet Union In fact, Japan did formulate a plan to go north, that is, to attack the Soviet Union. In order to verify this plan, Japan took the initiative to provoke the Soviet-Mongolian coalition forces in the Nomonhan area in 1939, resulting in the Battle of Nomonhan. In a fierce battle, Japan suffered heavy losses, with 7,696 killed, 1,021 missing, 8,647 injured, and 2,350 sick, for a total loss of 19,000 people. The Soviet army also suffered 9,703 killed, 15,251 wounded, and 701 sick, for a total loss of 25,655 people. At first glance, it seems that Japan's losses are not great, and Japan even suffered fewer casualties than the Soviet Union. However, the Soviet Union concentrated a large amount of manpower and material resources in a short period of time. Just to compare the artillery shells, the Soviet Union used 31,000 tons, and Japan used 2,000 tons of materials in the entire campaign. In terms of technical weapons, it is even more incomparable. Japan The Soviet Union invested no more than 100 tanks and armored vehicles, while the Soviet Union invested 524 tanks, 385 armored vehicles, 542 artillery pieces, and 500 combat aircraft of various types. It can be said that at this time, the Soviet army outnumbered Japan by 7:1 in tanks and armored vehicles, 6:1 in artillery, and 3:1 in military strength. This shocking contrast made Japan almost lose confidence, and it can be said that it basically gave up the plan to go north. Even though the quality of the Japanese Kwantung Army was higher than that of the Soviet Union at this stage, the Soviet Union's strong national power and industry made up for this, and its soldiers Their quality is even more incomparable. If they fight hard, the Kwantung Army will probably die and they won't even recognize their mother. Even their emperor and Amaterasu won't be able to recognize them. However, fanatical Japanese militarists still believed that there might be a chance, so after Nomonhan, they actively planned how to attack the Soviet Union. After the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, the number of permanent divisions increased from 14 to 16, and the number of people in each division increased from 15,000 to 24,000. If aviation and ship troops were included, the Kwantung Army at this time The total strength is 750,000, and its strength has been greatly enhanced. At the same time, in response to the disadvantages in technical weapons, the Japanese Kwantung Army also strengthened its technical weapons. The newly added artillery units mainly include 14 field heavy artillery regiments, 3 heavy artillery regiments, and 8 independent heavy artillery regiments, and are equipped with 9 tank regiments, supplying 414 tanks, in addition to various types of artillery regiments. There are 1,025 combat aircraft, an unprecedented increase in military strength. It can be said that as long as the Soviet Army in the Far East weakens its strength, the Kwantung Army will attack immediately. However, to the dismay of the Kwantung Army, the Soviet army had 30 infantry divisions, three cavalry divisions, 16 armored brigades, and 15 artillery regiments in the Far East, with about 610,000 soldiers. It has 2,700 tanks and 2,700 aircraft of various types. No matter how fierce the fighting on the front line was, the Soviet Union did not mobilize the Soviet troops in the Far East. The Japanese base camp's requirement for attacking the Soviet Union was that it must wait until the 30 or so Soviet infantry divisions stationed in the Far East were reduced by half. That is, there are only 15 divisions. The number of tanks was reduced from 2,700 to 900. When the number of aircraft was reduced from 2,700 to 1,000. Only then could the Japanese army launch an attack. However, instead of reducing its troop strength after the war, the Soviet army increased its troop strength, which frustrated the Japanese Kwantung Army. The prerequisite for the offensive is that the Kwantung Army can at least have a small advantage in terms of military strength, and in terms of technical weapons such as tanks, aircraft, and heavy artillery, it can minimize its disadvantages. Only with these two basic conditions can they act. But now the Japanese Kwantung Army has no courage to attack the Soviet Union. They have been completely frightened by the Soviet army. Conflict between Japan and Britain and the United States Japan is an island country that lacks resources. It lacks all kinds of minerals, oil, and rubber. Although Japan occupies Northeast China, its production capacity is not sufficient and it cannot provide Japan with many resources. Northeast China, under the control of the Japanese Army and the South Manchuria Railway Co., Ltd., did not bring much profit to Japan. A typical example is the Anshan Iron and Steel Works. Although its profit was over 100 million yen on the surface at the time, the steel it produced was substandard. It did not even have the strength of ordinary steel plates and was more expensive than armor steel on the market. Four times, and it is still forced to sell to companies in our own country, euphemistically called patriotic steel.

If they don't buy it, Japanese entrepreneurs will be assassinated. The former president of the Mitsui Zaibatsu, Dan Kazuo, died in an assassination. However, this self-deception allowed the Army to control the Northeast together with the South Manchuria Railway Co., Ltd., but it prevented Japan's Ministry of Finance and Navy from setting foot in the Northeast, and it also benefited the leaders of the Japanese Kwantung Army. But in fact, it cannot solve the actual situation of Japan's lack of resources, that is, lack of resources. Japan relies heavily on imports of minerals, oil, rubber and other resources. Japan relies heavily on the purchase of oil, scrap steel, and scrap rubber from the United States. After the scrap steel is recycled, it becomes the high-quality steel that Japan needs. The scrap rubber can also make up for the rubber shortage in Japan after being extracted. However, with the outbreak of the European War, Japan took the opportunity to seize French colonies in Asia after France's defeat. This made Britain and the United States very dissatisfied and ended most trade with Japan, which once plunged Japan into crisis. Because Japan's own oil reserves cannot be used by itself, Japan will be in crisis before long. Roosevelt even directly asked Japan to withdraw from China and terminated its scrap steel and scrap rubber business with Japan. Roosevelt warned Japan that if it did not withdraw its troops and persisted in its own way, the United States would use the most drastic measures to completely interrupt oil trade with Japan and impose an oil embargo on Japan. The actions of the United Kingdom and the United States, especially Roosevelt, were not unreasonable. Japan's invasion of Northeast China had already aroused dissatisfaction among various countries. Because they monopolized the Northeast market, goods from other countries could not be sold here, and Japan alone made huge profits. When the war of aggression against China broke out, Japan completely turned the occupied areas into its own property and refused American goods to enter the market, which greatly angered the United States. On the other hand, the United States is also very worried about Japan's expansion of power in the Pacific. For this reason, the United States must contain Japan. As for Japan, Southeast Asia has the resources they need, and has long been completed by Britain and the United States and other countries. As long as it captures Southeast Asia and then captures the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia and other places, Japan will no longer be short of resources, especially the power of Britain and the United States in the Pacific. It is not as powerful as Japan, which makes Japan very interested in the southward strategy. In Japan's eyes, it is more beneficial to attack Southeast Asia and expand in the Pacific, rather than an expedition to the Soviet Union. Contradictions between Japan and Germany Aside from these situational issues, the contradiction between Japan and Germany is also the reason why Japan is unwilling to attack the Soviet Union. In fact, when Japan joined the Three Kingdoms Axis, it was the Army faction that advocated joining and advocating a northward strategy. It is believed that as long as the Soviet Union is defeated, resources will naturally not be a problem. Most people in the Navy opposed joining and advocated a southward strategy. After all, Japan and Germany fought in World War I, and the two countries had bad relations. They were too far apart to form a strategic alliance. At that time, the Japanese Army and Navy were at loggerheads over the issue of whether to join. The Army even surrounded the Navy Ministry with troops. Isoroku Yamamoto, who opposed joining, once lived on a warship because the Army wanted to kill him. Even when Yamamoto Isoroku was at home, he had to prepare a machine gun for self-protection. At that time, Hitler's "Mein Kampf" published by Germany in Japan had Chapter 11 deleted from the original German version. One of the passages reads: ""Japan is an inferior nation that lacks imagination, but Germany can use Japan and use their intelligence and persistence to serve Germany. "In other words, Hitler looked down on Japan, and he would also conquer Japan in the future. The bumpkins in the Army basically couldn't understand the German version of "Mein Kampf," but the Navy knew about it, so they opposed it, and even more In order to advocate the strategy of advancing southward, in fact, when the Battle of Nomonhan broke out in May 1939, Japan originally planned to join forces with Germany to attack the Soviet Union in order to win the battle against the Soviet Union and realize its plan to advance northward. Japan and the Soviet Union concluded the "Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact", which caused Japan to be betrayed by its allies. This made Japan very frustrated and had to sign an armistice agreement with the Soviet Union and admit its failure in Nomonhan. Later, Japan still joined the Three Kingdoms Axis, but the army's northward strategy was basically bankrupt, and the navy had the upper hand, and the navy's southward plan was ultimately implemented. On the other hand, Japan was also worried that if it defeated the Soviet Union, Germany would. It is not in Japan's interest to directly enter Asia and have such a powerful country as a neighbor. If Germany goes deep into China for more resources, the Japanese army will definitely be unable to resist the German army. The final result will be that it will be defeated. Therefore, Japan would rather attack Britain and the United States than join forces with Germany to attack the Soviet Union.

After all, Japan did not want Germany to become their new powerful enemy after defeating the Soviet Union. Conclusion In fact, Japan was unwilling and did not want to help Germany defeat the Soviet Union from the beginning. This was of no benefit to them and would even be a huge danger. The Axis Powers themselves are an alliance with different agendas. How can we expect them to truly unite? Therefore, it is normal for Japan not to attack the Soviet Union, because neither Germany nor Japan really regards the other as allies, but only uses each other. References: "History of World War II" "History of World War II: Insider Revealed" "Pacific War"