African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1718 The Japanese Military's Joy and Differences
When news of Germany's formal declaration of war spread, the entire world was shaken.

The reactions varied from country to country. The French were naturally ashen-faced upon hearing the news, feeling like criminals being led to their execution. The British felt similarly oppressed, but managed to muster their spirits.

While some were worried, others were delighted. The Soviets were secretly pleased that Germany had declared war on Britain and France, while Japan was ecstatic.

The war in the Far East had reached a stalemate, and Japan urgently needed its Axis allies in Europe to share the burden. Now that Germany had launched a war in Europe, Japan's pressure from the Soviet Union and Britain and France had been greatly reduced.

1939 2 Month 25 Day.

Japan, Tokyo.

Germany's declaration of war against Britain and France in Europe triggered a new wave of political turmoil in Japan, and the Japanese military was divided on the issue of this major shift in the international situation.

At that time, the Minister of the Army of the Japanese military was Seishiro Itagaki. However, within the military, the army and the navy were on equal footing and there was no unified core.

Army Minister Seishiro Itagaki said, "Gentlemen, this morning Germany officially declared war on Britain and France, and war in Europe is now unavoidable."

"With this move by Europe, the international situation changed dramatically. The two mountains that had once blocked the expansion of the empire, namely Britain and France and the Soviet Union, were completely unable to attend to the Far East."

"The reason why our war with the Far Eastern Empire has reached this point is largely due to the immense pressure exerted on the Empire by the Soviet Union and the Anglo-French blocs, one in the south and one in the north."

"Now that war has broken out in Europe, their attention will inevitably be tied up by our European allies, and their military deployments in the Far East will inevitably be greatly weakened as a result."

"This means that the military forces we used to defend against these countries can now be freed up and we can focus all our efforts on dealing with the Far Eastern Empire."

Before the outbreak of war in Europe, the military power of the Soviet Union, Britain, and France in the Far East posed a tremendous threat to Japan.

Japan must reserve a portion of its forces to prevent them from interfering in Japan's wars and expansion in the Far East, or even to prevent them from taking advantage of the situation.

Even before the war, Japan was already showing signs of fatigue in the current war between Japan and the Far Eastern Empire. And war is the most unpredictable thing; anything can happen.

Therefore, unless Germany completely muddied the waters of Europe, Japan dared not gamble on whether the Soviet Union and Britain and France would intervene in the Far East war at any time, especially the Soviet Union. If the Soviet Union suddenly launched an offensive against Japan from the north at this time, it would be a catastrophic disaster for Japan, since Japan's main forces had already been deployed to the south of the Far East Empire.

This is also an important reason why the Kwantung Army has always maintained a certain size, which is to keep a close eye on the Soviet Union's actions.

However, before 1939, Japan dared not provoke the Soviet Union, thus eliminating potential security threats from the north. While the Soviet Union was somewhat outmatched by Germany, it remained a long-established superpower compared to Japan.

In other words, while the Soviet Navy was indeed incompetent, if the Soviet Union were to actually go to war with Japan, it wouldn't need the navy to play a significant role.

Seishiro Itagaki said, "In my personal opinion, now is the best time for the Empire to take action against the Soviet Union, thereby eliminating the security threat behind us in the Far East war."

In his view, Japan could not change the current situation on the Far Eastern battlefield if it did not first resolve the military pressure from the Soviet Union in the Far East. As long as the Soviet Union was defeated, the Kwantung Army could move south and Japan could break the current stalemate in the war.

Of course, Seishiro Itagaki made this judgment with his own selfish motives. He was now the spokesperson for the interests of the Japanese Army, and in Japan's current war of aggression and expansion, the Far East battlefield was undoubtedly the core of the Japanese Army's strategy and interests.

In other words, the outcome of the Far East campaign was directly tied to the interests of these army officers.

As the leader of the army, Seishiro Itagaki, from his own perspective, naturally preferred to invest domestic resources in the Far East battlefield.

However, the war in the Far East has now reached a stalemate. If the Japanese army wants to gain more resources, it must find a new breakthrough. Undoubtedly, going to war with the Soviet Union is the best breakthrough in their eyes.

Of course, no matter how arrogant the Japanese army was, they were well aware that Japan could not go to war with the Soviet Union in an all-out war, and the gap in national strength between the two countries could not be bridged by the fighting will of the Japanese soldiers.

The Japanese army's true intention was to defeat the Soviet forces in the Far East, and then, by leveraging the Soviet military pressure in Europe, force the Soviet Union to completely abandon its military confrontation with Japan in the Far East.

This idea is somewhat presumptuous, based on the premise that the Soviet Union would abandon its interests in the Far East. However, it is not surprising that some high-ranking Japanese army officials had this idea, since the Soviet Union was ultimately a European country.

The Far East was probably considered a dispensable "side hustle" for the Soviet Union.

In fact, Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in its previous life was also driven by similar ideas. Initially, the Japanese leadership was not so arrogant as to think that Japan could actually defeat and conquer the United States. They also wanted to force the United States not to intervene in the Far East war by destroying the United States' military presence in the Pacific.

The final result is self-evident: Japan's bizarre idea is unacceptable to any normal country.

Ultimately, this stems from Japan's unique ideology, which inherently embraces "military adventure."

Since the late 19th century, Japan's military adventures have yielded considerable results, especially against the Far Eastern Empire. Back then, Japan invaded the Korean Peninsula and the northeastern part of the Far Eastern Empire, and even destroyed its navy. In the end, the Far Eastern Empire did not fight Japan to the death.
The Russo-Japanese War was similar; ultimately, the war between Japan and Tsarist Russia was confined to the Far East and did not escalate into a long-term, full-scale military confrontation between the two countries.

Therefore, given these experiences, it is not surprising at all that Seishiro Itagaki encouraged Japan to go to war with the Soviet Union at this time.

However, Seishiro Itagaki's idea was not accepted by the rest of the military.

Japanese Navy Minister Mitsumasa Yonai was the first to object, saying, "Itagaki-kun, I completely disagree with your statement. Your idea is nothing but a habitual risky behavior. But war is not child's play. The Empire cannot gamble its national destiny on such risky games every time."

"Ishihara's wisdom, Itagaki's courage." This is a saying circulating within the Japanese military today. Itagaki refers to Seishiro Itagaki, and the phrase "Itagaki's courage" reveals his extreme fondness for military adventures.

Therefore, Mitsumasa Yonai's evaluation of it can be said to be entirely consistent with his true character.

Mitsumasa Yonai continued, "Right now, we should not go to war with the Soviet Union at all. I think we must consider this from two perspectives. "First of all, although the Germans have launched a war in Europe, Germany's declaration of war is directed at Britain and France, not the Soviet Union."

"This also means that the Soviet Union does not need to worry about Germany launching a war against it at all. The combined strength of Britain and France is by no means weak. If they mobilize their full strength, they may be able to keep Germany tied down in Western Europe."

From Japan's perspective, while Germany is indeed powerful, Britain and France, as two long-established European powers, are also formidable. Together, the two countries are fully capable of challenging Germany.

Mitsumasa Yonai said, "Even though Germany has a stronger military and allies like Italy, I think it would take Germany at least one to two years to completely defeat Britain and France."

"In the last World War, Britain and France fought Germany for nearly six years. Although Britain and France have weakened in recent years, they should be able to resist Germany for a year without much problem."

"Not to mention that the Royal Navy is still the strongest in the world, and Britain did not use its full strength during the last World War."

Although Britain contributed significantly to World War I, as Mitsumasa Yonai pointed out, its war potential was never fully realized as it was in France, since the battlefields of World War I never truly reached the British mainland.

Mitsumasa Yonai continued, "Therefore, even if the Empire were to become an enemy of the Soviet Union, it should wait until Germany and the Soviet Union declare war, rather than testing the Soviet Union now."

"On the other hand, the Empire's current predicament in the war is mainly due to the shortage and depletion of resources. Although the Soviet Far Eastern Empire is rich in mineral resources, it does not have the strategic materials that we need more urgently in the war."

"Especially oil, rubber, copper, cotton, sugar, and so on, and these resources are now concentrated in the Southeast Asia region. Therefore, we should expand the empire's territory towards the Southeast Asia, rather than provoking the Soviet Union now."

"Germany has clearly declared war on Britain and France. Britain and France will inevitably withdraw their troops from the Southeast Asia region, at which point the British and French military presence in the Southeast Asia region will be reduced to a minimum."

"This is a golden opportunity for the empire, so we should seize it and wait until the war between Germany and Britain and France breaks out in full force, when their colonies in Southeast Asia are particularly vulnerable, and then take over their colonies in Southeast Asia in one fell swoop."

"In order to acquire their oil fields, rubber plantations, and other mineral resources and war materials that the empire was scarce in the South Seas."

"Moreover, by taking over the British colonies on both sides of the Strait of Malacca, the empire can completely sever the connection between Western countries and the Far East, and more confidently realize the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere strategy."

Comparing the two, there is no doubt that Mitsumasa Yonai's suggestion is far more pragmatic and feasible than Seishiro Itagaki's.

From a purely military perspective, the difficulty of attacking British and French colonies is incomparable to that of attacking Soviet Far Eastern territories.

No matter how little importance the Soviet Union placed on the Far East, it was still Soviet territory, unlike the British and French colonies in Southeast Asia.

Not to mention that, apart from the Strait of Malacca, the British and French colonies in Southeast Asia were not particularly important to Britain and France themselves. Britain's core colony was India, while France's was North Africa. Southeast Asia was only relatively important to both countries, but it was not something that could not be abandoned.

Seishiro Itagaki was well aware of this, but he still wanted to try. After all, expanding into the South Seas would inevitably involve the Japanese Navy as the main force, making it difficult for the army to gain any military merit.

He said to the others in the military, "You can also offer your suggestions, but I still want to deal with the Soviet threat first."

Itagaki Seishiro's words were clearly directed at the other army representatives in the military headquarters, in order to build momentum for the northward advance plan. He certainly wouldn't be able to influence the navy personnel.

As expected, the naval officers were the first to speak out. Nagano Osami, the military advisor of the naval faction, said: "I support Lord Yonai Mitsumasa's opinion. What the empire needs most right now is resources. In order to obtain resources such as oil, we should not hesitate to offend all the Western countries in Southeast Asia."

"Without oil and rubber, the Empire's ships, tanks, planes, and cars will come to a standstill. It's impossible to expect the Empire's warriors to fight the enemy with only their blood and light weapons!"

"Moreover, putting aside other countries in the Southeast Asia region, Britain and France will inevitably be unable to spare the resources to provide reinforcements. It will be very easy for the Empire to acquire the territories of the two countries in the Southeast Asia. We can acquire a large amount of land, resources and people at a very low cost, and then invest them in the Empire's war."

The population of British and French colonies in Southeast Asia was also a resource that Japan could utilize.

After all, these colonies were regions enslaved by Britain and France. Japan could have used the pretext of expelling Britain and France to cooperate with local forces and establish and support pro-Japanese regimes.

As long as Japan extracts relatively fewer resources from its colonies than Britain and France, it can easily win over the hearts and minds of the local indigenous people and use them for its own purposes.

While Japan's population was undoubtedly that of a large country in the world in 1939, it also faced a shortage of human resources. This was mainly because the Far East battlefield was too large and the battle lines were too long. In addition, the Japanese-occupied areas were not stable under the war of resistance of the Far East Empire and also required military force to suppress them.

This also led Japan to support a large number of puppet troops and puppet governments, and to recruit local people from other Japanese colonies, especially the Korean Peninsula, to become its lackeys.

The escalating scale of the war also led to difficulties in Japan's domestic production. After all, the military personnel were young and strong laborers and the core of social production. Therefore, if the indigenous people of Southeast Asia could be utilized by Japan, they would be of great help to Japan.

Next, Navy officers such as Yamamoto Isoroku and Yoshida Zengo supported Yonai Mitsumasa. After they finished speaking, it was the army officers' turn.

The first army general to speak was Yoshijiro Umezu, who supported Seishiro Itagaki and believed that defense against the Soviet Union should be the priority. However, he also mentioned that the expansion and escalation of the conflict with the Soviet Union should be avoided.

This means that Yoshijiro Umezu supported Seishiro Itagaki, but not completely, and the statements of other high-ranking Japanese army officials were even more "excessive" than those of Yoshijiro Umezu.

Sugiyama Gen supported infiltration into Southeast Asia, but believed that the Far East battlefield needed to be stabilized first, which meant he favored the navy's suggestion.

Hideki Tojo went even further, believing that the "northward advance" strategy should be abandoned in favor of a "southward advance" to plunder the resources of Southeast Asia.

As a result, at this military conference in Japan, the vast majority of people, whether from the navy or the army, believed that "advancing south" was more advantageous than "advancing north," which completely thwarted Seishiro Itagaki's idea.

(End of this chapter)