On July 1, Nagumo Chuichi's fleet had arrived at the final attack position.
At this last moment, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs once again used its usual diplomatic tactics towards the Third Reich.
Japan's Foreign Minister claimed: "We hope to avoid armed conflict with the Soviet Union until the strategic conditions are mature."
In order to make the German government understand their concept and to prevent Reinhardt from insisting on exchanging diplomatic notes on the Japanese troops heading north to the Soviet Union, at least for now, Japan also explained many reasons in detail to Germany:
Although Japan cannot launch an attack on the Soviet Union, they can guarantee that in the event of war with the United States, the Japanese navy will intercept all American ships bound for the Soviet Union.
This is a very intriguing answer.
The Japanese have always been good at playing tricks, such as their commitment to Germany this time.
Although the Japanese army did not want to provoke the Soviet Union in the north, since the Japanese army was at war in the United States, they could cut off all material shipments from the United States to the Soviet Union.
This is equivalent to helping the Germans in disguise.
At the same time, even if the United States cut off material aid to the Soviet Union, it did not directly provoke the Soviet government. This was also a way for Japan to avoid enmity with the Soviet Union.
However, the Japanese Foreign Minister finally said that if Ribbentrop still insists on requiring the Kwantung Army to provide guarantees on the issue of marching north to the Soviet Union, in this case we have no other choice but to issue a statement:
In principle, Japan will prevent the United States from transporting combat supplies to the Soviet Union through the Sea of Japan.
However, from a strategic perspective, the Japanese base camp believes that they still need to prevent the Soviet Union from fighting Japan in the short term, which means that the Japanese navy cannot intercept the entire Soviet Union.
Such a statement was equivalent to a huge discount on Japan's commitment to assist the German army in blocking the Soviet Union.
Yes, the Japanese army can indeed intercept American transport ships. But if the Soviet Union sends its own transport ships to transport supplies back from the United States, then the Japanese Navy will let these Soviet transport ships go.
In other words, as long as the U.S. aid supplies to the Soviet Union were hung with the Soviet flag, the Japanese would have an excuse not to attack them.
Of course, the arrogant base camp finally made a decision: if the German government refused to agree to Japan's proposal, then they could only choose to suspend the signing of the treaty with the Germans.
The Japanese base camp, which had given up on advancing north, now had no chance of provoking the Soviet Union.
At least, they won't have this urge in the short term.
If Germany had to ask them to attack the Soviet Union, the Japanese base camp would have no choice but to refuse the Third Reich's request.
However, the Japanese need not be so worried. Reinhardt actually did not insist that Japan fight the Soviet Union while fighting the United States.
As for why, not only the militarists in Tokyo or anyone else don't understand, but even many people in the German Foreign Ministry don't understand.
However, joining forces with the Japanese army is not a calculation where one plus one equals two.
First of all, if Japan diverts its energy to march northward into the Soviet Union, its strength for U.S. military operations will be greatly reduced.
Reinhard knew that even Japan, which was going all out, was no match for the U.S. military. If they were allowed to allocate their energy to join forces with Germany to deal with the Soviet Union, the U.S. military might be able to easily overthrow Japan.
Furthermore, deep down in his heart, Reinhard did not want the Third Reich to join forces with the so-called Empire of Japan.
Today, Germany has a very high reputation in the world and internationally. Moreover, the German propaganda team has been trying to build the Third Reich's international image into a symbol of justice.
On the other hand, Japan not only abuses biological and chemical weapons and conducts inhumane experiments, but also commits massacres, and its international reputation is extremely poor.
If Germany joins forces with Japan, the image that Germany has carefully prepared will be burned to the ground.
Finally, from a purely emotional point of view, Reinhard doesn’t like this crazy country like Japan at all.
Now that Japan can slightly agree to help block the supplies shipped by the United States to the Soviet Union, Germany will of course happily agree.
But if Japan wants Germany to make any commitment, then sorry, Reinhardt will not give any black and white response.
In any case, Japan has made up its mind to deal a heavy blow to the United States in the Pacific.
As early as May 1940, Roosevelt ordered the Pacific Fleet, which had concluded its annual routine exercises, not to return to the west coast of the United States, but to stay at Pearl Harbor to deter Japan. This had already touched the psychological bottom line of the Japanese navy, leaving the possibility of starting a war.
foreshadowing.
Of course, this is like Roosevelt's obvious stimulus to Japan, as if he is forcing Japan to declare war on the United States.
But the Japanese base camp actually endured it. For this, we have to admire the Japanese people's endurance.
As a result of his patience, Roosevelt immediately went one step further and announced a comprehensive oil embargo against Japan, which was undoubtedly fatal to Japan, which was extremely short of resources.
For this reason, Japan couldn't bear it anymore and had no choice but to attack Pearl Harbor and make a fatal gamble.
Gambling king Isoroku Yamamoto analyzed that the purpose of attacking Pearl Harbor was to eliminate the main force of the U.S. Navy in the Pacific. Even if it could not completely defeat the U.S. Navy, it could at least temporarily destroy the main U.S. warships in the Pacific.
According to Japanese intelligence, the U.S. military has 3 large aircraft carriers, 16 cruisers, and 40 destroyers stationed in Pearl Harbor. If such a powerful force were to be wiped out in one fell swoop, according to Yamamoto Isoroku, it was only successful this time.
It can bring strategic advantages of about 6 months to 1 year.
Taking advantage of this period of strategic advantage, Japan can attack resource-producing areas such as the Dutch East Indies without obstruction from the U.S. Navy, ensuring that its strategic resources can be supplied.
From the very beginning, the purpose of Japan's "Southern Movement" was actually to seize Indonesia's oil and demand the re-carving up of Southeast Asian colonies.
Today, the remaining British forces in Southeast Asia are nothing to fear and can be easily eliminated. The trouble is the United States. The U.S. military owns the colonies of the Philippines and Guam in Southeast Asia. Their Pacific Fleet directly poses a threat to the flanks of Japan's north-south lines of communication.
Theoretically, if Japan wants to completely defeat the United States, it needs to "occupy the islands of Hawaii and Aleutians in the North Pacific, completely eliminate the U.S. Pacific Fleet, then use a powerful navy and air force to launch landing operations on the U.S. mainland, and finally eliminate them by the army.
U.S."
This idea is too huge, so huge that it far exceeds Japan's war capabilities and logistics capabilities, and there is almost no way to implement it.
Therefore, the strategy actually implemented by the Japanese army was the stalemate strategy proposed by Yamamoto Isoroku, rather than a winning strategy.
The essence of this strategy is to quickly conquer Southeast Asia after greatly weakening the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and then use the obtained resources to continue to confront the United States.
In the final analysis, Yamamoto's strategy was to "shift from quick battle to defense", and the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor was only a tactical purpose to achieve the final strategy.
Now, if the Germans are willing to help and strengthen the momentum of the Japanese army in the world, that is of course the best. Even if the Germans do not support Japan, the Nagumo Chuichi fleet, which has already arrived at the combat position and has decided on the final strategy, cannot just turn around and turn back.
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The time for a big fight has arrived, and nothing can stop this decisive battle. What's more, Nagumo Chuichi also has a feasible combat plan that has long been given by Germany...
