African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1720 The Dissatisfaction of the Kwantung Army
Seishiro Itagaki shook his head, saying uncertainly, "It should be difficult..."

Mitsumasa Yonai, however, said confidently, "That's why I suggested starting with the East Indies. As you all know, the empire's expansion in Southeast Asia inevitably involves East Africa."

"We cannot be sure whether East Africa will care about the empire's expansion in Southeast Asia, so under these circumstances, we can use the small country of the Netherlands as a test to see what East Africa's attitude is."

"If East Africa hadn't directly intervened in this war, we would have had an easier time dealing with Britain and France next."

Mitsumasa Yonai's idea was to first test the waters in East Africa, much like how Germany in his previous life constantly made small moves to test the bottom line of Britain and France before World War II.

Of course, the Japanese military leadership was well aware that even if it was a test of East Africa, Japan would still be taking on enormous risks. If East Africa were to actually become involved, Japan would not only be unable to plan for the entire Southeast Asia region, but it would also be difficult to even get involved.

Hideki Tojo then spoke up, saying, "Right now, we only have this one option left. The Empire's conquest of Southeast Asia is the basic national policy for the Empire's external expansion in this new phase. If we can't even conquer Southeast Asia, we will collapse without a fight due to resource depletion."

"At the same time, don't be afraid of offending East Africa. In fact, the grudge between the Empire and East Africa has long been established."

"Whether it's the Ryukyu Islands, the economic interests of East Africa in the Far Eastern Empire in the past, or the current collusion between East Africa and the Far Eastern Empire, it all proves one thing: East Africa will never be friendly to the Empire."

The military aid from East Africa to the Far Eastern Empire, after such a long period of time, could not be kept secret from the Japanese government.

As for the economic interests of the Far Eastern Empire mentioned by Hideki Tojo, this mainly refers to Japan's invasion of the Far Eastern Empire, which caused the original economic sphere of influence of East Africa in the Far Eastern Empire to dissipate.

The same applies to the relationship between Japan and countries such as Britain, France, and the United States, which is based solely on economic interests.

Hideki Tojo then pushed up his glasses and said in a low voice, "Moreover, I have a guess that East Africa would rather see the Empire's army enter the South Pacific region."

His words immediately piqued the interest of the others, and Mitsumasa Yonai asked, "What do you mean?"

Hideki Tojo's expression turned somewhat serious as he said, "Actually, my premonition isn't just directed at East Africa; the United States may also harbor similar thoughts. That is, both countries hope to use others as pawns to reshape the entire East Asian region through their empires."

"Without a doubt, the Greater East Asia region where we are located is a piece of fat meat for the other powers in the world. If it weren't for the empire's reforms to enrich the country and strengthen the military when the Westerners arrived, there wouldn't even be a single power in the entire Greater East Asia region."

"If it weren't for the empire, the fate of the Greater East Asia region would probably not be much better than that of the Native Americans and Africans in the Americas."

Hideki Tojo's words were certainly somewhat boastful. It is true that Japan was indeed the most outstanding country in the entire Far East in modern times.

However, the idea of ​​turning the Far East into the Americas and Africa and eliminating the local indigenous people is unrealistic, given that the Far East's backwardness is only a matter of the last two or three hundred years.

Even before the arrival of Western colonists, the level of civilization in the Far East countries far surpassed that of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and sub-Saharan Africa.

Japan's rise to prominence in the East Asian cultural sphere was due to seizing opportunities and its small size making it more agile. In fact, the Far Eastern empires were no later than Japan in their desire for change, and in just a few decades, they had already tried constitutional monarchy and republicanism, but both failed to take hold due to internal problems.

After all, the Far Eastern Empire was large in size, with a large population and many interest groups. It was difficult to please everyone and unify them all to move in one direction. This was a technically very difficult task.

It's like leading an army. Managing a squad of soldiers is relatively simple, but managing a company becomes much more complex, and managing an army is an even greater test of the system design and the leader's ability.

Hideki Tojo said, "In the past, the two Western countries with the largest interests in the Far East were undoubtedly Britain and France."

"However, the decline of Britain and France in recent years is already visible to the naked eye, especially for other late-developing powers, including Japan."

"Leaving aside Europe today, in our Greater East Asia region alone, the strength of the Empire, East Africa, the United States, and the Soviet Union has grown rapidly, but Britain and France still hold the greatest interests in the entire region, which is unworthy of their position."

"Therefore, there are four parties vying for interests in the Far East, all coveting the resources and territory controlled by Britain and France, namely the Empire, East Africa, the United States, and the Soviet Union."

"The Soviet Union is in a better position. They are currently tied down in Europe by Germany. If the two countries go to war, the Soviet Union will have a hard time winning over the interests in the Far East. In other words, the main competitors of the future empire in the Far East will be the United States and East Africa."

"The United States and East Africa are both very insidious and cunning. They may not be willing to directly confront Britain and France, as this would not be good for their international image."

"But they can't give up their interests in the Far East. In this situation, they need to push things along and find a country to explore the way. Ideally, they should completely destroy the original order in the Far East. And the Empire is undoubtedly the 'bad guy' and scapegoat they have chosen."

It must be said that Hideki Tojo's guess was completely correct. East Africa goes without saying, and the United States definitely had the same idea.

As a Pacific Rim nation, the United States values ​​its interests in the Far East more than in East Africa, and even considers the entire Pacific region as its own interest.

This is similar to how East Africa considers the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic as its sphere of influence.

Other members of the Japanese military also agreed with Hideki Tojo's assessment.

Seishiro Itagaki said with a grim expression, "East Africa and the United States must both be thinking this way, but the Empire absolutely cannot back down because of the calculations of these two countries."

Even knowing the schemes of East Africa and the United States, Japan had no other choice if it wanted to realize its ambitions. After all, without dominating the Far East, Japan could not become a world power, especially a superpower with global influence like Britain, East Africa, and the United States.

Therefore, even knowing that the Far East war was a pit of fire, Japan would still jump into it.

Seishiro Itagaki said, "Even if we don't take a gamble, the Western powers will not let us off the hook once the order of the Western world stabilizes. At least we can take advantage of the strategic initiative now to create greater opportunities for the empire, especially to control the Strait of Malacca and the Sunda Strait."

"By controlling these two strategic locations, the pressure we face in Europe and East Africa will be greatly reduced, and we can then focus on winning a decisive battle with the United States in the Pacific."

"Of course, the Empire is not fighting alone. If our allies in Europe can achieve the final victory in the war, our chances of winning will be even greater."

"At that time, Germany will probably also need the Reich to counterbalance the United States and East Africa."

When Seishiro Itagaki mentioned the Axis powers, the pressure on the Japanese military was immediately relieved. If they were to face East Africa and the United States alone, Japan would naturally lack confidence. However, they also had their own allies in Europe! If Germany were to gain hegemony in Europe in the future, it would be most advantageous for Japan. After all, if Germany ruled Europe, it would inevitably compete with the United States in the North Atlantic, as well as in the Indian Ocean and East Africa.

Mitsumasa Yonai also said, "As long as we can prevent the formation of the Greater East Asia region and hold out until our European allies are victorious, the Empire will have ample time to digest the spoils of war in the future."

"Therefore, we must acquire the South Pacific region, especially the Straits of Malacca and the Sunda Strait, to block the vital passageways from the West into the Far East,"

"The East Indies, especially Sumatra, are located right between these two key points."

"In other words, by occupying Sumatra, we can gain a springboard to occupy the Strait of Malacca and the Sunda Strait. Therefore, this risk is entirely worthwhile for the Empire to take, and it is also a good opportunity to use the Netherlands to test the attitude of East Africa."

"However, we also need to find an excuse, preferably one that can reasonably legitimize our upcoming war with the Netherlands, which would further reduce the risk of intervention from other countries."

Even a country as unscrupulous as Japan needs a legitimate reason to launch a full-scale war of aggression against the Far Eastern Empire under the pretext of missing soldiers.

Not to mention the Netherlands, a European country with a very high international profile.

Seishiro Itagaki said, "We should communicate with Germany about this and see what their plans are next in Europe."

"If the Netherlands is also a target of Germany, then we don't need to look for an excuse. We can directly declare war on the Netherlands in the name of the Axis powers."

"If Germany has no intention of attacking and occupying the Netherlands, then we will have to create our own opportunity."

Since Germany is an ally of Japan, and Germany has now declared war on Britain and France, Japan could easily use this as a pretext to wage war against both countries as well.

However, the situation is relatively more complicated with the Netherlands. There is no doubt that Germany has designs on the Netherlands, but the Japanese government is unaware of this.

On the one hand, Germany was bound to be reserved with its allies in terms of military and strategic deployments; on the other hand, the experience of World War I gave Japan a false sense of security.

During World War I, although the Netherlands leaned towards Germany, it remained a neutral country and did not directly participate in the war, thus escaping disaster.

In this European war, who can guarantee that the Netherlands won't be able to play both sides as it did in the last World War?
Therefore, if Germany did not declare war on the Netherlands, Japan could not directly attack the Netherlands as an ally and would have to create its own pretext for war.

Mitsumasa Yonai squinted and said, "Then let's prepare for both possibilities. If Germany declares war on the Netherlands, we'll take direct action against the East Indies."

"Germany has no such idea. We can also have our intelligence agencies stage a ruse in Batavia or elsewhere, like the Strasbourg bombing in Germany, to create a pretext for war."

Batavia, also known as Jakarta, is the capital of the Dutch East Indies and a city where Japanese intelligence organizations were relatively active in Southeast Asia.

There are many Japanese expatriates and spies in Batavia, so replicating the Strasbourg bombing was entirely feasible.

Yonai Mitsumasa's words were echoed by other high-ranking military officials. Itagaki Seishiro said, "In that case, let's report the results of this meeting to His Majesty the Emperor!"

……

The Far Eastern Empire, Northeast China.

The Japanese high command determined the strategic direction of "southward advance," and this news quickly reached the Japanese Kwantung Army. However, it was clear that some officers in the Kwantung Army could not accept this outcome.

At that moment, Tsuji Masanobu, the operations staff officer of the Kwantung Army, was holding the telegram from above and complained to Lieutenant General Komatsubara Michitaro, commander of the 23rd Division of the Kwantung Army: "Those guys in the General Staff Headquarters are really short-sighted. How could they abandon the northward advance plan and fail to eliminate the Soviet threat? In the future, the Soviets will inevitably become a major problem for the Empire."

Lieutenant General Michitaro Komatsubara harbored considerable resentment towards the instructions issued by the General Staff of the Japanese Army, but he still told Masanobu Tsuji, "Right now, the Empire also has many issues to consider, especially with the stalemate on the Far East battlefield, the Empire has spent a lot of resources on the Far East battlefield."

"As a result, the empire's material reserves were running low, so it had to increase revenue and reduce expenditure. And the only way to increase revenue was to choose the southward route."

"So, Mr. Tsuji Masanobu, you should still be more understanding of the choice made by the headquarters."

Tsuji Masanobu was not easily persuaded by Komatsubara Michitaro: "General Komatsubara Michitaro, I do not believe there is any conflict between advancing north and advancing south."

"At present, Germany has already started a war in Europe, and it is only a matter of time before a war breaks out between Germany and the Soviet Union. After all, the Soviets cannot stand by and watch Germany become completely dominant in Europe."

It is true that Germany has now declared war on Britain and France, but this does not mean that the Soviet Union will be as gloating as Britain and France were when they hoped that Germany and the Soviet Union would fight each other.

After all, Germany and the Soviet Union were mortal enemies. Once Germany dealt with Britain and France, it would inevitably turn its attention to the Soviet Union. Moreover, after assimilating Britain and France, Germany and the Axis powers would become even stronger.

Therefore, Masanobu Tsuji judged that the Soviet Union would not wait until the war between Germany and Britain and France ended before slowly declaring war on Germany.

He said, "There is a very high probability, even a certainty, that the Soviets would launch a surprise attack on Germany from behind while Germany was fighting Britain and France. Otherwise, if Germany had conquered Europe, the Soviet Union's chances of defeating Germany would have been even slimmer."

"Therefore, I assert that the Soviet Union and Germany will inevitably go to war before the end of this year. Even if Germany does not take the initiative to attack the Soviet Union, the Soviet Union will launch an attack on Germany from behind."

"Therefore, this provides us with an excellent opportunity. Now we should launch an attack on the Soviet Union first, crush its military forces in the Far East in one fell swoop, and then force the Soviet Union and the Empire to sign an armistice agreement, making them designate the Far East as a demilitarized zone."

"Of course, for the soldiers of the Empire, it is only through this that we can achieve merit and make contributions to the Empire."

"Our Kwantung Army and the Soviet Far East forces will fight each other without delaying the Imperial Navy's attack on the South Pacific. I think the reason they oppose the northward advance plan is that they don't want to see our army achieve more victories and merits."

"After all, we have already achieved such remarkable results on the Far East battlefield, so the naval idiots must be jealous!"

(End of this chapter)