German-Japanese relations
Encyclopedia
From the founding of the Tokugawa Shogunate
in 1603, Japan isolated itself from the outside world until the Meiji Restoration
of 1867, when it began to accept contact with Western nations. German–Japanese relations were established in 1860 with the first ambassadorial visit to Japan
from Prussia
(which predated the formation of the German Empire
in 1871). After a time of intense intellectual and cultural exchange
in the late 19th century, the two empires' conflicting aspirations in China led to a cooling of relations. Japan allied itself with Britain in World War I
, declaring war on Germany in 1914 and seizing key German possessions in Asia.
In the 1930s, both countries rejected democracy in all but name, and adopted militaristic attitudes toward their respective regions. This led to a rapprochement and, eventually, a political and military alliance that included Italy: the "Axis
". During the Second World War, however, the Axis was limited by the great distances between the Axis powers; for the most part, Japan and Germany fought separate wars, and eventually surrendered separately.
After the Second World War, the economies of both nations experienced rapid recoveries; bilateral relations, now focused on economic issues, were soon re-established. Today, Japan and Germany are, respectively, the third and fourth largest economies in the world (after the U.S. and China) and benefit greatly from many kinds of political, cultural, scientific and economic cooperation.
Relations between Japan and Germany date from the Tokugawa Shogunate
(1603–1868), when Germans in Dutch service arrived in Japan to work for the Dutch East India Company
(VOC). The first well-documented cases are those of the physicians Engelbert Kaempfer
(1651–1716) and Philipp Franz von Siebold
(1796–1866) in the 1690s and the 1820s respectively. Siebold was allowed to travel throughout Japan, in spite of the restrictive seclusion policy which the Tokugawa shogunate
had implemented in the 1630s. Siebold became the author of Nippon, Archiv zur Beschreibung von Japan (Nippon, Archive For The Description of Japan), one of the most valuable sources of information on Japan well into the 20th century; since 1979 his achievements have been recognised with an annual German award in his honour, the Philipp Franz von Siebold-Preis, granted to Japanese scientists.
In 1854 the United States
pressured Japan into the Convention of Kanagawa
, which ended Japan's isolation, but was considered an "unequal treaty" by the Japanese public, since the US did not reciprocate most of Japan's concessions with similar privileges. In many cases Japan was effectively forced into a system of extraterritoriality that provided for the subjugation of foreign residents to the laws of their own consular courts instead of the Japanese law system, open up ports for trade, and later even allow Christian missionaries to enter the country. Shortly after the end of Japan's seclusion, in a period called "Bakumatsu" (幕末, "End of the Shogunate"), the first German traders arrived in Japan. In 1860 Count Friedrich Albrecht zu Eulenburg
led the Eulenburg Expedition
to Japan as ambassador from Prussia, a leading regional state in the German Confederation
at that time. After four months of negotiations, another "unequal treaty", officially dedicated to amity and commerce, was signed in January 1861 between Prussia and Japan.
Despite being considered one of the numerous unjust negotiations pressed on Japan during that time, the Eulenburg Expedition, and both the short- and long-term consequences of the treaty of amity and commerce, are today honoured as the beginning of official Japanese-German relations. To commemorate its 150th anniversary, events were held in both Germany and Japan from autumn 2010 through autumn 2011 hoping "to 'raise the treasures of [their] common past' in order to build a bridge to the future."
became diplomatic representative in Japan – first representing Prussia, and after 1866 representing the North German Confederation
, and by 1871 representing the newly established German Empire
.
In 1868 the Tokugawa Shogunate
was overthrown and the Empire of Japan
under Emperor Meiji
was established. With the return of power to the Tenno Dynasty
, Japan demanded a revocation of the "unequal treaties" with the western powers and a civil war ensued. During the conflict, German weapons trader Henry Schnell counselled and supplied weapons to the Daimyo
of Nagaoka
, a land lord loyal to the Shogunate. One year later, the war ended with the defeat of the Tokugawa and the renegotiation of the "unequal treaties".
With the start of the Meiji period
(1868–1912), many Germans came to work in Japan as advisors to the new government as so-called "oyatoi gaikokujin" and contributed to the modernization
of Japan, especially in the fields of medicine (Leopold Mueller, 1824–1894; Julius Scriba
, 1848–1905; Erwin Bälz
, 1849–1913), law (K. F. Hermann Roesler
, 1834–1894; Albert Mosse
, 1846–1925) and military affairs (K. W. Jacob Meckel, 1842–1906). Meckel had been invited by Japan's government in 1885 as an advisor to the Japanese general staff and as teacher at the Army War College
. He spent three years in Japan, working with influential persons including Katsura Tarō
and Kawakami Soroku
, thereby decisively contributing to the modernization of the Imperial Japanese Army
. Meckel left behind a loyal group of Japanese admirers, who, after his death, had a bronze statue of him erected in front of his former army college in Tokyo. Overall, the Imperial Japanese Army intensively oriented its organization along Prusso-German lines when building a modern fighting force during the 1880s. The French model that had been followed by the late shogunate and the early Meiji government was gradually replaced by the Prussian model under the leadership of officers such as Katsura Taro and Nogi Maresuke.
In 1889 the ‘Constitution of the Empire of Japan’ was promulgated, greatly influenced by German legal scholars Rudolf von Gneist and Lorenz von Stein
, whom the Meiji oligarch
and future Prime Minister of Japan
Itō Hirobumi
(1841–1909) visited in Berlin and Vienna
in 1882. At the request of the German government, Albert Mosse also met with Hirobumi and his group of government officials and scholars and gave a series of lectures on constitutional law
, which helped to convince Hirobumi that the Prussian-style monarchical constitution was best-suited for Japan. In 1886 Mosse was invited to Japan on a three-year contract as "hired foreigner" to the Japanese government to assist Hirobumi and Inoue Kowashi
in drafting the Meiji Constitution
. He later worked on other important legal drafts, international agreements, and contracts and served as a cabinet advisor in the Home Ministry
, assisting Prime Minister Yamagata Aritomo
in establishing the draft laws and systems for local government. Dozens of Japanese students and military officers also went to Germany in the late 19th century, to study the German military system and receive military training at German army educational facilities and within the ranks of the German, mostly the Prussian army. For example later famous writer Mori Rintarô (Mori Ōgai
), who originally was an army doctor, received tutoring in the German language between 1872 and 1874, which was the primary language for medical education at the time. From 1884 to 1888, Ōgai visited Germany and developed an interest in European literature producing the first translations of the works of Goethe, Schiller, Ibsen, Hans Christian Andersen
, and Gerhart Hauptmann
.
. After the conclusion of the First Sino-Japanese War
in April 1895, the Treaty of Shimonoseki
was signed, which included several territorial cessions from China to Japan, most importantly Taiwan
and the eastern portion of the bay of the Liaodong Peninsula including Port Arthur
. However, Russia
, France
and Germany grew wary of an ever-expanding Japanese sphere of influence and wanted to take advantage of China's bad situation by expanding their own colonial possessions instead. The frictions culminated in the so-called "Triple Intervention
" on 23 April 1895, when the three powers "urged" Japan to refrain from acquiring its awarded possessions on the Liaodong Peninsula. In the following years, Wilhelm II’s nebulous fears of a “Yellow Peril
” – a united Asia under Japanese leadership, led to further Japanese–German estrangement. Wilhelm II also introduced a regulation to limit the number of members of the Japanese army to come to Germany to study the military system.
Another stress test for German–Japanese relations was the Russo-Japanese War
of 1904/05, during which Germany strongly supported Russia, e.g. by supplying Russian warships with coal. This circumstance triggered the Japanese foreign ministry to proclaim that any ship delivering coal to Russian vessels within the war zone would be sunk. After the Russo-Japanese War, Germany insisted on reciprocity in the exchange of military officers and students, and in the following years, several German military officers were sent to Japan to study the Japanese military, which, after its victory over the tsarist army became a promising organization to study. However, Japan's growing power and influence also caused increased distrust on the German side.
The onset of the First World War in Europe eventually showed how far German–Japanese relations had truly deteriorated. On 7 August 1914, only two days after Britain declared war on the German Empire, the Japanese government received an official request from the British government for assistance in destroying the German raiders of the Kaiserliche Marine
in and around Chinese waters. Japan, eager to reduce the presence of European colonial powers in South-East Asia, especially on China's coast, sent Germany an ultimatum
on 14 August 1914, which was left unanswered. Japan then formally declared war on the German Empire
on 23 August 1914 thereby entering the First World War as an ally of Britain, France and the Russian Empire
to seize the German colonial territories of South-East Asia
.
The only major battle that took place between Japan and Germany was the siege of the German-controlled Chinese port of Tsingtao in Kiautschou Bay. The German forces held out from August until November 1914, under a total Japanese/British blockade, sustained artillery barrages and manpower odds of 6:1 – a fact that gave a morale boost during the siege as well as later in defeat. After Japanese troops stormed the city, the German dead were buried at Tsingtao and the remaining troops were transported to Japan where they were treated with respect at places like the Bandō Prisoner of War camp
. In 1919, when the German Empire formally signed the Treaty of Versailles
, all prisoners of war were set free and returned to Europe.
Japan was a signatory of the Treaty of Versailles, which stipulated harsh repercussions for Germany. In the Pacific, Japan gained Germany's islands north of the equator (the Marshall Islands
, the Carolines, the Marianas, the Palau Islands
) and Kiautschou/Tsingtao
in China. Article 156 of the Treaty also transferred German concessions in Shandong
to Japan rather than returning sovereign authority to China, an issue soon to be known as Shandong Problem
. Chinese outrage over this provision led to demonstrations, and a cultural movement known as the May Fourth Movement
influenced China not to sign the treaty. China declared the end of its war against Germany in September 1919 and signed a separate treaty with Germany in 1921. This fact greatly contributed to Germany relying on China, and not Japan, as its strategic partner in East Asia for the coming years.
After Germany had to cede most of former German New Guinea
and Kiautschou/Tsingtao to Japan and with an intensifying Sino-German cooperation, relations between Berlin and Tokyo were nearly dead. Under the initiative of Wilhelm Solf
, who served as German ambassador to Japan from 1920 to 1928, cultural exchange was strengthened again, culminating in the re-establishment of the "German-Japanese Society" (1926), the founding of the "Japanese-German Cultural Society" (1927), and of the "Japanese-German Research Institute" (1934).
Despite experiencing contrasting fortunes regarding the First World War, both Japan and Germany changed their direction toward democratic systems of government during the 1920s, with German–Japanese relations being limited to cultural exchanges. However, parliamentary government was not deeply rooted in either country and did not withstand the economic and political pressures of the 1930s
, during which anti-democratic elements became increasingly influential in both countries. These shifts in power were made possible partly by the ambiguity and imprecision of the Meiji Constitution
in Japan and the Weimar Constitution
in Germany, especially with regard to the positions of the Japanese Emperor and the German Reichspräsident
in relation to their respective constitutions. With the rise of militarism in Japan and Nazism
in Germany in the 1930s, political ties between both countries became closer again, intensifying the existing cultural exchange. On the Japanese side, army officer Hiroshi Ōshima
particularly advocated a closer relationship with Germany and, together with German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop
, worked for an alliance when he became military attaché in Berlin in 1934. Over the following decade, Ōshima would serve twice (1938–39 and 1941–45) as ambassador to Berlin, always remaining one of the strongest proponents of Japan's close partnership with Nazi Germany.
A temporary strain was put on German-Japanese rapprochement in June 1935, when the Anglo-German Naval Agreement
was signed between the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany, one of many attempts by Adolf Hitler
to improve relations between the two countries. After all, Hitler had already laid down his plans in Mein Kampf
, in which he identified England as a promising partner, but also defined Japan as a target of "international jewry", and thus a possible ally:
At the time, many Japanese politicians, including Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
(who was an outspoken critic of an alliance with Nazi Germany), were shocked by the Anglo-German Naval Agreement. Nevertheless, the leaders of the military clique then in control in Tokyo concluded that it was a ruse designed to buy the Nazis time to match the British navy.
". In general, further expansion was envisioned – either northwards, attacking the Soviet Union
, a plan which was called "Hokushin", or by seizing French, Dutch and/or British colonies to the south, a concept dubbed "Nanshin
". Hitler, on the other hand, never desisted from his plan to conquer new territories in Eastern Europe for Lebensraum
; thus, conflicts with Poland
and later with the Soviet Union
seemed inevitable. The first legal consolidation of German-Japanese mutual interests occurred in 1936, when the two countries signed the Anti-Comintern Pact
, which was directed against the Communist International (Comintern) in general and the Soviet Union in particular. After the signing, Nazi Germany's government also included the Japanese people
in their concept of "honorary Aryan
s". Fascist Italy
, led by Benito Mussolini
joined the pact in 1937, initiating the formation of the so-called Axis between Rome, Berlin and Tokyo.
Originally, Germany had a very close relationship with the Chinese nationalist government, even providing military aid and assistance to the Republic of China
. Relations soured after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War
on 7 July 1937, and when China shortly thereafter concluded the Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact with the Soviet Union. Eventually Hitler concluded that Japan, not China, would be a more reliable geostrategic partner, notwithstanding the superior Sino-German economic relationship and chose to end his alliance with the Chinese as the price of gaining an alignment with the more modern and powerful Japan. In a May 1938 address to the Reichstag, Hitler announced German recognition of Manchukuo
, the Japanese-occupied puppet state in Manchuria
, and renounced the German claims to the former colonies in the Pacific held by Japan. Hitler ordered the end of arm shipments to China, as well as the recall of all German officers attached to the Chinese Army. Despite this move, however, Hitler retained his general perception of neither the Japanese nor the Chinese civilizations being inferior to the German one. In The Political Testament of Adolf Hitler, he wrote:
During the late 1930s, though motivated by political and propaganda reasons, several cultural exchanges between Japan and Germany took place. A focus was put on youth exchanges, and numerous mutual visits were conducted; for instance, in late 1938, the ship Gneisenau
carried a delegation of 30 members of the Hitlerjugend to Tokyo for a study visit.
In 1938, representative measures for embracing the German-Japanese partnership were sought and the construction of a new Japanese embassy building in Berlin was started. After the preceding embassy had to give way to Hitler's and Albert Speer
's plans of re-modeling Berlin to the world capital city of Germania
, a new and more pompous building was erected in a newly established diplomatic district next to the Tiergarten
. It was conceived by Ludwig Moshamer under the supervision of Speer and was placed opposite the Italian embassy, thereby bestowing an architectural emphasis on the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo axis.
Despite tentative plans for a joint German-Japanese approach against the USSR which were slowly maturing and regardless of the 1936 Anti Comintern Pact, the years 1938 and 1939 were already decisive for Japan's decision to finally expand south, instead of north. The Empire decisively lost two border fights against the Soviets, the Battles of Lake Khasan
and Khalkin Gol
, thereby convincing itself that the Imperial Japanese Army
, lacking heavy tanks and the like, would be in no position to challenge the Red Army
at that time. Nevertheless, Hitler's anti-Soviet sentiment soon led to further rapprochements with Japan, since he still believed that Japan would join Germany in a future war against the Soviet Union, either actively by invading southeast Siberia
, or passively by binding large parts of the Red Army
, which was fearing an attack of Japan's Kwantung Army in Manchukuo
, numbering ca. 700,000 men as of the late 1930s.
In contrast to his actual plans, Hitler's concept of stalling – in combination with his frustration with a Japan embroiled in seemingly endless negotiations with the United States, and tending against a war with the USSR – led to a temporary cooperation with the Soviets in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which was signed in August 1939. Neither Japan nor Italy had been informed beforehand of Germany's pact with the Soviets, demonstrating the constant subliminal mistrust between Nazi Germany and its partners. After all, the pact not only stipulated the division of Poland between both signatories in a secret protocol, but also rendered the Anti-Comintern Pact more or less irrelevant. In order to remove the strain that Hitler's move had put on German–Japanese relations, the "Agreement for Cultural Cooperation between Japan and Germany" was signed in November 1939, only a few weeks after Germany and the Soviet Union had concluded their invasion of Poland
and Great Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany.
Over the following year, Japan also proceeded with its expansion plans. The Invasion of French Indochina on 2 September 1940 (which by then was controlled by the collaborating governmment of Vichy France
), and Japan's ongoing bloody conflict with China
, put a severe strain on American-Japanese relations. On 26 July 1940, the United States
passed the Export Control Act
, cutting oil, iron and steel exports to Japan. This containment policy was Washington's warning to Japan that any further military expansion would result in further sanctions. However, such US moves were interpreted by Japan's militaristic leaders as signals that they needed to take radical measures to improve the Empire's situation, thereby driving Japan closer to Germany.
including France, but also maintaining the impression of a Britain facing imminent defeat
, Tokyo interpreted the situation in Europe as proof of a fundamental and fatal weakness in western democracies. Japan's leadership concluded that the current state of affairs had to be exploited and subsequently started to seek even closer cooperation with Berlin. Hitler, for his part, not only feared a lasting stalemate with Britain, but also had started planning an invasion of the Soviet Union. These circumstances, together with a shortage in raw materials and food, increased Berlin's interest in a stronger alliance with Japan. German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop
was sent to negotiate a new treaty with Japan, whose relationships with Germany and Italy, the three soon to be called "Axis powers", were cemented with the Tripartite Pact
of 27 September 1940.
The purpose of the Pact, directed against an unnamed power presumed to be the United States, was to deter that power from supporting Britain, thereby not only strengthening Germany's and Italy's cause in the North African Campaign
and the Mediterranean theatre
, but also weakening British colonies in South-East Asia in advance of a Japanese invasion. The treaty stated that the three countries would respect each other's "leadership" in their respective spheres of influence
, and would assist each other if attacked by an outside party. However, already-ongoing conflicts, as of the signing of the Pact, were explicitly excluded. With this defensive terminology, aggression on the part of a member state toward a non-member state would result in no obligations under the Pact. Relations between Germany and Japan were driven by mutual self-interest, underpinned by the shared militarist, expansionist and nationalistic ideologies of their respective governments.
Another decisive limitation in the German-Japanese alliance were the fundamental differences between the two nation's policies towards Jews. With Nazi Germany's well-known attitude being extreme Antisemitism, Japan refrained from adapting any similar posture. On 31 December 1940, Japanese foreign minister Yōsuke Matsuoka
, a strong proponent of the Tripartite Pact, told a group of Jewish businessmen:
Until 1945, both countries would continue to conceal any war crimes committed by the other side. The Holocaust
was systematically concealed by the leadership in Tokyo, just as Japanese war crimes
, e.g. the situation in China, were kept secret from the German public. Another example is the atrocities committed by the Japanese Army in Nanking in 1937
, which were denounced by German industrialist John Rabe
. Subsequently, the German leadership ordered Rabe back to Berlin, confiscating all his reports and prohibiting any further discussion of the topic.
After the signing of the Tripartite Pact, mutual visits of political and military nature increased. After German ace and parachute expert Ernst Udet
visited Japan in 1939 to inspect the Japanese aerial forces, reporting to Hermann Göring
that "Japanese flyers, though brave and willing, are no sky-beaters", General Tomoyuki Yamashita
was given the job of reorganizing the Japanese Air Arm in late 1940. For this purpose, Yamashita arrived in Berlin in January 1941, staying almost six months. He inspected the broken Maginot Line
and German fortifications on the French coast, watched German flyers in training, and even flew in a raid over Britain
after decorating Hermann Göring
, head of the German Luftwaffe
, with the Japanese "Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun". General Yamashita also met and talked with Hitler, on whom he commented,
According to Yamashita, Hitler promised to remember Japan in his will, by instructing the Germans "to bind themselves eternally to the Japanese spirit." In fact, General Yamashita was so excited that he said: "In a short time, something great will happen. You just watch and wait." Returning home, the Japanese delegation was accompanied by more than 250 German technicians, engineers and instructors. Soon, Japan's Air Force was among the most powerful in the world.
On 11 November 1940, German–Japanese relations, as well as Japan's plans to expand southwards into South-East Asia, were decisively bolstered when the crew of the German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis
boarded the British cargo ship . Fifteen bags of Top Secret
mail for the British Far East Command
were found, including naval intelligence reports containing the latest assessment of the Japanese Empire's military strength in the Far East, along with details of Royal Air Force
units, naval strength, and notes on Singapore
's defences. It painted a gloomy picture of British land and naval capabilities in the Far East, and declared that Britain was too weak to risk war with Japan. The mail reached the German embassy in Tokyo on 5 December, and was then hand-carried to Berlin via the Trans-Siberian railway
. A copy was given to the Japanese; it provided valuable intelligence prior to their commencing hostilities against the Western Powers. The captain of the Atlantis, Bernhard Rogge
, was rewarded for this with an ornate katana
Samurai sword; the only other Germans so honored were Hermann Göring
and Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
.
After reading the captured documents, on 7 January 1941 Japanese Admiral Yamamoto wrote to the Naval Minister asking whether, if Japan knocked out America, the remaining British and Dutch forces would be suitably weakened for the Japanese to deliver a deathblow. Thereby, Nanshin-ron
, the concept of the Japanese Navy conducting a southern campaign quickly matured and gained further proponents.
Hitler on the other hand was concluding the preparations for "Operation Barbarossa
", the invasion of the Soviet Union. In order to directly or indirectly support his imminent eastward strike, the Führer had repeatedly suggested to Japan that it reconsider plans for an attack on the Soviet Far East throughout 1940 and 1941. In February 1941, as a result of Hitler's insistence, General Oshima returned to Berlin as Ambassador. On 5 March 1941, Wilhelm Keitel
, chief of OKW issued "Basic Order Number 24 regarding Collaboration with Japan":
On 18 March 1941, at a conference attended by Hitler, Alfred Jodl
, Wilhelm Keitel
and Erich Raeder
, Admiral Raeder stated:
In talks involving Hitler, his foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop
, his Japanese counterpart at that time, Yōsuke Matsuoka
, as well as Berlin's and Tokyo's respective ambassadors, Eugen Ott
and Hiroshi Ōshima
, the German side then broadly hinted at, but never openly asked for, either invading the Soviet Union
from the east or attacking Britain's colonies in South-East Asia, thereby preoccupying and diverting the British Empire away from Europe and thus somewhat covering Germany's back. Although Germany would have clearly favored Japan's attacking the USSR, exchanges between the two allies were always kept overly formal and indirect, as shown in the following statement by Hitler to ambassador Ōshima (2 June 1941):
Matsuoka, Ōshima and parts of the Japanese Imperial Army were proponents of "Hokushin", Japan's go-north strategy aiming for a coordinated attack with Germany against the USSR and seizing East Siberia. But the Japanese army-dominated military leadership, namely persons like minister of war
Hideki Tōjō
, were constantly pressured by the Japanese Imperial Navy and, thus, a strong tendency towards "Nanshin
" existed already in 1940, meaning to go south and exploit the weakened European powers by occupying their resource-rich colonies in South-East Asia. In order to secure Japan's back while expanding southwards and as a Soviet effort to demonstrate peaceful intentions toward Germany, the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact was signed in Moscow on 13 April 1941 by Matsuoka on his return trip from a visit to Berlin. Hitler, who was not informed in advance by the Japanese and considering the pact a ruse to stall, misinterpreted the diplomatic situation and thought that his attack on the USSR would bring a tremendous relief for Japan in East Asia and thereby a much stronger threat to American activities through Japanese interventions. As a consequence, Nazi Germany pressed forward with Operation Barbarossa, its attack on the Soviet Union, which started two months later on 22 June without any specific warning to its Axis partners.
Joseph Stalin
had little faith in Japan's commitment to neutrality even before the German attack, but he felt that the pact was important for its political symbolism, to reinforce a public affection for Germany. From Japan's point of view the attack on Russia very nearly ruptured the Tripartite Pact on which the Empire was depending for Germany's aid in maintaining good relations with Moscow so as to preclude any threat from Siberia. Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe
felt betrayed because the Germans clearly trusted their Axis allies too little to warn them of Barbarossa, even though he had feared the worst since receiving an April report from Ōshima in Berlin that "Germany is confident she can defeat Russia and she is preparing to fight at any moment." Foreign minister Matsuoka on the other hand vividly tried to convince the Emperor, the cabinet as well as the army staff of an immediate attack on the Soviet Union. However, his colleagues rejected any such proposal, even regarding him as "Hitler's office boy" by now and pointed out to the fact that the Japanese army, with its light and medium tanks, had no intention of taking on Soviet tanks and aircraft until they could be certain that the Wehrmacht
had smashed the Red Army to the brink of defeat.
Subsequently, Konoe removed Matsuoka from his cabinet and stepped up Japan's negotiations with the US again, which still failed over the China and Indochina issues, however, and the American demand to Japan to withdraw from the Tripartite Pact in anticipation of any settlement. Without any perspective with respect to Washington, Matsuoka felt that his government had to reassure Germany of its loyalty to the pact. In Berlin, Ōshima was ordered to convey to the German foreign minister Ribbentrop that the "Japanese government have decided to secure 'points d'appui' in French Indochina to enable further to strengthen her pressure on Great Britain and the United States of America," and to present this as a "valuable contribution to the common front" by promising that "We Japanese are not going to sit on the fence while you Germans fight the Russians."
Over the first months, Germany's advances in Soviet Russia were spectacular and Stalin's need to transfer troops currently protecting South-East Siberia from a potential Japanese attack to the future defense of Moscow
grew. Japan's Kwantung Army in Manchuria was constantly kept in manoeuvres and, in talks with German foreign minister Ribbentrop, ambassador Oshima in Berlin repeatedly hinted at an "imminent Japanese attack" against the USSR. In fact, however, the leadership in Tokyo at this time had in no way changed its mind and these actions were merely concerted to create the illusion of an eastern threat to the Soviet Union in an effort to bind its Siberian divisions. Unknown to Japan and Germany, however, Richard Sorge
, a Soviet spy disguised as a German journalist working for Eugen Ott, the German ambassador in Tokyo, advised the Red Army on 14 September 1941, that the Japanese were not going to attack the Soviet Union until:
Toward the end of September 1941, Sorge transmitted information that Japan would not initiate hostilities against the USSR in the East, thereby freeing Red Army divisions stationed in Siberia for the defence of Moscow. In October 1941 Sorge was unmasked and arrested by the Japanese. Apparently, he was entirely trusted by the German ambassador Eugen Ott, and was allowed access to top secret cables from Berlin in the embassy in Tokyo. Eventually, this involvement would lead to Heinrich Georg Stahmer
replacing Ott in January 1943. Sorge on the other hand would be executed in November 1944 and elevated to a national hero in the Soviet Union.
, was settled.
On 25 November, Germany tried to further solidify the alliance against Soviet Russia by officially reviving the Anti-Comintern Pact of 1936, now joined by additional signatories, Hungary
and Romania
. However, with the Soviet troops around Moscow now being reinforced by East Siberian divisions, Germany's offensive substantially slowed with the onset of the Russian winter in November and December 1941. In the face of his failing Blitzkrieg
tactics, Hitler's confidence in a successful and swift conclusion of the war diminished, especially with a US-supported Britain being a constant threat in the Reich's western front. Furthermore, it was evident that the "neutrality" which the US had superficially maintained to that point would soon change to an open and unlimited support of Britain against Germany. Hitler thus welcomed Japan's sudden entry into the war with its air raid on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor
on 7 December 1941 and its subsequent declaration of war on the United States and Britain
, just as the German army suffered its first military defeat at the gates of Moscow
. Upon learning of Japan's successful attack, Hitler even became euphoric, stating: "With such a capable ally we cannot lose this war." Preceding Japan's attack were numerous communiqués between Berlin and Tokyo. The respective ambassadors Ott and Ōshima tried to draft an amendment to the Tripartite Pact, in which Germany, Japan and Italy should pledge each other's allegiance in the case one signatory is attacked by – or attacks – the United States. Although the protocol was finished in time, it would not be formally signed by Germany until four days after the raid on Pearl Harbor. Also among the communiqués was another definitive Japanese rejection of any war plans against Russia:
Nevertheless, publicly the German leadership applauded their new ally and ambassador Ōshima became one of only eight recipients of the Grand Cross of the Order of the German Eagle in Gold
, which was awarded by Hitler himself, who reportedly said:
Although the amendment to the Tripartite Pact was not yet in force, Hitler chose to declare war on the United States and ordered the Reichstag
, along with Italy, to do so on 11 December 1941, three days after the United States' declaration of war
on the Empire of Japan
. His hopes that, despite the previous rejections, Japan would reciprocally attack the Soviet Union, were not realized, as Japan stuck to its Nanshin strategy of going south, not north, and would continue to maintain an uneasy peace with the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, Germany's declaration of war
further solidified German–Japanese relations and showed Germany's solidarity with Japan, which was now encouraged to cooperate against the British. To some degree, Japan's actions in South-East Asia and the Pacific in the months after Pearl Harbor, including the sinking of the HMS Prince of Wales and the HMS Repulse
, the occupation of the Crown Colonies of Singapore
, Hong Kong
, and British Burma
, and the air raids on Australia, were a tremendous blow to the United Kingdom's war effort and preoccupied the Allies, shifting British (including Australian) and American assets away from the Battle of the Atlantic and the North African Campaign
against Germany to Asia and the Pacific against Japan. In this context, sizeable forces of the British Empire were withdrawn from North Africa to the Pacific theatre with their replacements being only relatively inexperienced and thinly spread divisions. Taking advantage of this situation, Erwin Rommel
's Afrika Korps
successfully attacked only six weeks after Pearl Harbor, eventually pushing the allied lines as far east as El Alamein. In the long run, Germany and Japan envisioned a partnered linkage running across the British-held Indian subcontinent
that would allow for the transfer of weaponry, resources as well as other possibilities. After all, the choice of potential trading partners was very limited during the war and Germany was anxious for rubber
and precious metals, while the Japanese sought industrial products, technical equipment, and chemical goods.
Until Germany attacked the Soviet Union, the two countries were able to exchange these materials using the Trans-Siberian Railway
, but after the attack submarines had to be sent on so-called "Yanagi" (Willow) – missions, since the American and British navies rendered the high seas too dangerous for Axis cargo ships. However, given the limited capacities of submarines, eyes were soon focused directly on the Mediterranean
, the Middle East and British India, all vital to the British war effort. Most importantly, though, these regions offered a direct land- and/or sea-linkage between the Third Reich and Japan, which would improve trade possibilities and enable potential joint military operations. By August 1942 the German advances in North Africa rendered an offensive against Alexandria and the Suez Canal
feasible, which, in turn, had the potential of enabling maritime trade between Europe and Japan through the Indian Ocean. On the other hand, in the face of its defeat at the Battle of Midway
in June 1942 with the loss of four aircraft carriers, the Japanese Navy decided to pursue all possibilities of gaining additional resources to quickly rebuild its forces. As a consequence, ambassador Ōshima in Berlin was ordered to submit an extensive "wish list" requesting the purchase of vast amounts of steel and aluminium to be shipped from Germany to Japan. German foreign minister Ribbentrop quickly dismissed Tokyo's proposal, since those resources were vital for Germany's own industry. However, in order to gain Japanese backing for a new German-Japanese trade treaty, which should also secure the rights of German companies in South-East Asia, he asked Hitler to at least partially agree upon the Japanese demands. It took another five months of arguing over the Reichsmark-Yen-exchange rate and additional talks with the third signatory, the Italian government, until the "Treaty on Economic Cooperation" was signed on 20 January 1943.
Despite this treaty, the envisioned German-Japanese economic relations were never able to grow beyond mostly propagandistic status. This was, at least partly, due to the German-Italian loss of North Africa in spring 1943 since the Allies never abandoned their "Germany first" policy throughout the war despite a brief, post-Pearl Harbor shift of their attention. This policy stipulated that Nazi Germany should be defeated before the focus would be shifted to Japan, and thus, with superior communication between them, the Allies, in contrast to the Axis, were able to jointly coordinate massive counter-attacks. These included three decisive movements, all within the first three weeks of November 1942: 1) The British breakthrough at Rommel
's positions near El Alamein
, 2) the American-British landings in Morocco
and 3) the Soviet offensive
at Stalingrad
. By early 1943 Germany's strategic situation had drastically worsened, thereby putting an end to Hitler's advances towards the Middle East, especially the oil fields of Iran
, as the Wehrmacht's operations would never pass Egypt
and the Caucasus. Additionally, Japan would not be able to recover from its naval losses at Midway and the imperial alternative plan of conquering the Solomons
at Australia's doorstep turned into a continuous retreat for the Japanese of which the defeat on Guadalcanal marked the beginning. Subsequently Japan's invasion of India, already halted in Burma
, rendered any decisive joint operations aimed at a convergence on the Indian subcontinent, aside from the German U-boat flotilla "Monsun Gruppe
" cooperating with the Japanese Navy in the Indian Ocean, impossible. With submarines remaining the only link between Nazi-controlled Europe and Japan, trade was soon focused on strategic goods such as technical plans and weapon templates. Only 20-40% of goods managed to reach either destination and merely 96 persons travelled by submarine from Europe to Japan and 89 vice versa during the war as only six submarines succeeded in their attempts of the trans-oceanic voyage: (April 1942), (June 1943), (October 1943), (November 1943), (March 1944), and the German submarine U-511
(August 1943). U-234
on the other hand is one of the most popular examples of an aborted Yanagi mission in May 1945.
In the face of their failing war plans, Japanese and German representatives more and more began to deceive each other at tactical briefings by exaggerating minor victories and deemphasizing losses. In several talks in spring and summer 1943 between Generaloberst Alfred Jodl
and the Japanese naval attaché
in Berlin, Vice Admiral
Naokuni Nomura
, Jodl downplayed the afore described defeats of the German Army, e.g. by claiming the Soviet offensive would soon run out of steam and that "anywhere the Wehrmacht can be sent on land, it is sure of its untertaking, but where it has to be taken over sea, it becomes somewhat more difficult." Japan, on the other hand, not only evaded any disclosure of its true strategic position in the Pacific, but also declined any interference in American shipments being unloaded at Vladivostok
and large amounts of men and material being transported from East Siberia to the German front in the west. Being forced to watch the continued reinforcement of Soviet troops from the east without any Japanese intervention was a thorn in Hitler's flesh, especially considering Japan's apparent ignorance with respect to the recent Casablanca Conference at which the Allies declared only to accept the unconditional surrenders of the Axis nations. During a private briefing on 5 March 1943, the "Führer" got a rage attack and gave remarks on the Japanese like
As the war progressed and Germany began to retreat further, Japanese ambassador Ōshima never wavered in his confidence that Germany would emerge victorious. However, in March 1945 he reported to Tokyo on the "danger of Berlin becoming a battlefield
" and revealing a fear "that the abandonment of Berlin may take place another month". On 13 April, he met with Ribbentrop — for the last time, it turned out — and vowed to stand with the leaders of the Third Reich in their hour of crisis but had to leave Berlin at once by Hitler's direct order. On 7 and 8 May 1945, as the German government surrendered
to the Allied powers, Ōshima and his staff were taken into custody and brought to the United States. Now fighting an even more hopeless war, the Japanese government immediately denounced the German surrender as an act of treason and interned the few German individuals as well as confiscated all German property (such as submarines) in Japanese territory at the time. Four months later, on 2 September, Japan had to sign its own surrender documents
.
. Here it was the goal of the Allied prosecutors to portray the limited cooperation between the Third Reich and Imperial Japan as a long-planned conspiracy to divide the world among the two Axis-partners and thereby delivering just another demonstration of the common viciousness expressed by alleged joint long-term war plans. According to modern historic research, however, such a consipracy did not exist and is considered Allied propaganda. Although there was a limited and cautious military cooperation between Japan and Germany during the Second World War, no documents corroborating any long-term planning or real coordination of military operations of both powers exist.
in 1952 and joined the United Nations in 1956, Germany was split into two states, which were both founded in 1949. The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) restored diplomatic ties with Japan in 1955, the German Democratic Republic
as late as 1973, the year both German states became UN-members.
Quickly, academic and scientific exchange was strengthened, and in 1974, West Germany and Japan signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in science and technology, re-intensifying joint scientific endeavours and technological exchange. The accord resulted in numerous bilateral cooperations since then, generally focused on marine research and geosciences, life sciences
and environmental research. Additionally, youth exchange programs were launched, including a "Youth Summit" held annually since 1974.
German-Japanese political exchange further intensified again with both countries taking part in the creation of the so called Group of Six, or simply "G6", together with the US, the UK, France and Italy in 1975 as a response to the 1973 oil crisis
. The G6 was soon expanded by Canada and later the Russian Federation, with G6-, G7-, and later G8-, summits being held annually since then.
Over the following years, institutions, such as in 1985 the "Japanese–German Center" (JDZB) in Berlin and in 1988 the "German Institute for Japanese Studies" (DIJ) in Tokyo, were founded to further contribute to the academic and scientific exchange between Japan and Germany.
Around the mid-80s, German and Japanese representatives decided to rebuild the old Japanese embassy in Berlin from 1938. Its remains had remained unused after the building was largely destroyed during World War II. In addition to the original complex, several changes and additions were made until 2000, like moving the main entrance to the Hiroshima Street, which was named in honour of the homonymous Japanese city, and the creation of a traditional Japanese Garden
.
Nevertheless, however, post-war relations between Japan and both halves of Germany, as well as with unified Germany since 1990, have generally been focused on economic questions, and as such, Germany, dedicated to free trade, continues to be Japan’s largest trading partner within Europe until today. This general posture is also reflected in the so called "7 pillars of cooperation" agreed on by Foreign Minister of Japan Yōhei Kōno
and Foreign Minister of Germany Joschka Fischer
on 30 October 2000:
In 2000, bilateral cultural exchange culminated in the "Japan in Germany" year, which was then followed by the "Germany in Japan" year in 2005/2006. Also in 2005, the annual German Film Festival in Tokyo was brought into being.
In 2004, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder
and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
agreed upon cooperations in the assistance for reconstruction of Iraq
and Afghanistan
, the promotion of economic exchange activities, youth and sports exchanges as well as exchanges and cooperation in science, technology and academic fields.
and an increase of the number of its permanent members. For this purpose both nations organized themselves together with Brazil and India to form the so called "G4 nations
". On 21 September 2004, the G4 issued a joint statement mutually backing each other's claim to permanent seats, together with two African countries. This proposal has found opposition in a group of countries called Uniting for Consensus. In January 2006, Japan announced that it would not support putting the G4 resolution back on the table and was working on a resolution of its own.
Certain inefficiencies with respect to the bilateral cooperation between Germany and Japan were also reflected in 2005, when former Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa
wrote in a commemoration to the 20th anniversary of the Japanese-German Center in Berlin that
Nevertheless, as of 2008, Japan still was Germany's second largest trading partner in Asia after China. In 2006, German imports from Japan totaled €15.6 billion and German exports to Japan €14.2 billion (15.4% and 9% more than the previous year, respectively). In 2008, however, Japanese exports and imports to and from the European Union fell by 7.8 and 4.8% after growing by 5.8% in 2007 due to the global financial crisis. Bilateral trade between Germany and Japan also shrank in 2008, with imports from Japan having dropped by 6.6% and German exports to Japan having declined by 5.5%. Despite Japan having remained Germany's principal trading partner in Asia after China in 2008, measured in terms of total German foreign trade, Japan’s share of both exports and imports is relatively low and falls well short of the potential between the world’s third- and fourth-largest economies.
On 14 and 15 January 2010, German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle
conducted his personal inaugural visit to Japan, focusing the talks with his Japanese counterpart, Katsuya Okada
, on both nation's bilateral relations and global issues. Westerwelle emphasized, that and both ministers instructed their Ministries to draw up disarmament initiatives and strategies which Berlin and Tokyo can present to the international community together. Especially with regard to Iran's nuclear program, it was also stressed that Japan and Germany, both technically capable of and yet refraining from possessing any ABC weapons, should assume a leading role in realizing a world free of nuclear weapons and that international sanctions
are considered to be an appropriate instrument of pressure. Furthermore, Westerwelle and Okada agreed to enhance cooperation in Afghanistan and to step up the stagnating bilateral trade between both countries. The visit was concluded in talks with Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama
, before which the German foreign minister visited the famous Meiji Shrine
in the heart of Tokyo.
On Friday 11 March 2011, the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
, the most powerful known earthquake to hit Japan at the time, and one of the five most powerful recorded earthquakes of which Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan
said, "In the 65 years after the end of World War II, this is the toughest and the most difficult crisis for Japan." hit Honshu
. The earthquake and the resulting tsunami
not only devastated wide coastal areas in Miyagi Prefecture
but also caused the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
triggering a widespread permanent evacuation surrounding the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant
. German chancellor Angela Merkel
immediately expressed her deepest sympathy to all those affected and promised Japan any assistance it would call for. As a consequence rescue specialists from the Technisches Hilfswerk
as well as a scout team of I.S.A.R. Germany (International Search and Rescue) were sent to Japan, however parts of the German personnel had to be recalled due to radiation danger near the damaged power plant. Furthermore, the German Aerospace Center
provided TerraSAR-X
- and RapidEye
-satellite imagery of the affected area. In the days after the disaster, numerous flowers, candles and paper cranes were placed in front of the Japanese embassy in Berlin by compassionates, including leading German politicians. Though never materialised, additional proposals for aid included sending special units of the German Bundeswehr
to Japan, as the German Armed Forces' decontamination equipment belongs to the most sophisticated in the world.
On 2 April 2011, German Foreign Minister Westerwelle visited Tokyo on an Asia voyage, again offering Japan "all help, where it is needed" to recover from the tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster of the previous month. Westerwelle also emphasised the importance of making progress with a free trade agreement between Japan and the European Union
in order to accelerate the recovery of the Japanese economy. Together with his German counterpart, Japanese foreign minister Takeaki Matsumoto
also addressed potential new fields of cooperation between Tokyo and Berlin with respect to a reform of the United Nations Security Council
.
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...
in 1603, Japan isolated itself from the outside world until the Meiji Restoration
Meiji Restoration
The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...
of 1867, when it began to accept contact with Western nations. German–Japanese relations were established in 1860 with the first ambassadorial visit to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
from Prussia
Prussia
Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...
(which predated the formation of the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
in 1871). After a time of intense intellectual and cultural exchange
O-yatoi gaikokujin
The Foreign government advisors in Meiji Japan, known in Japanese as oyatoi gaikokujin , were those foreign advisors hired by the Japanese government for their specialized knowledge to assist in the modernization of Japan at the end of the Bakufu and during the Meiji era. The term is sometimes...
in the late 19th century, the two empires' conflicting aspirations in China led to a cooling of relations. Japan allied itself with Britain in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, declaring war on Germany in 1914 and seizing key German possessions in Asia.
In the 1930s, both countries rejected democracy in all but name, and adopted militaristic attitudes toward their respective regions. This led to a rapprochement and, eventually, a political and military alliance that included Italy: the "Axis
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
". During the Second World War, however, the Axis was limited by the great distances between the Axis powers; for the most part, Japan and Germany fought separate wars, and eventually surrendered separately.
After the Second World War, the economies of both nations experienced rapid recoveries; bilateral relations, now focused on economic issues, were soon re-established. Today, Japan and Germany are, respectively, the third and fourth largest economies in the world (after the U.S. and China) and benefit greatly from many kinds of political, cultural, scientific and economic cooperation.
First contacts and end of Japanese isolation (before 1871)
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...
(1603–1868), when Germans in Dutch service arrived in Japan to work for the Dutch East India Company
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
(VOC). The first well-documented cases are those of the physicians Engelbert Kaempfer
Engelbert Kaempfer
Engelbert Kaempfer , a German naturalist and physician is known for his tour of Russia, Persia, India, South-East Asia, and Japan between 1683 and 1693. He wrote two books about his travels...
(1651–1716) and Philipp Franz von Siebold
Philipp Franz von Siebold
Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold was a German physician and traveller. He was the first European to teach Western medicine in Japan...
(1796–1866) in the 1690s and the 1820s respectively. Siebold was allowed to travel throughout Japan, in spite of the restrictive seclusion policy which the Tokugawa shogunate
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...
had implemented in the 1630s. Siebold became the author of Nippon, Archiv zur Beschreibung von Japan (Nippon, Archive For The Description of Japan), one of the most valuable sources of information on Japan well into the 20th century; since 1979 his achievements have been recognised with an annual German award in his honour, the Philipp Franz von Siebold-Preis, granted to Japanese scientists.
In 1854 the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
pressured Japan into the Convention of Kanagawa
Convention of Kanagawa
On March 31, 1854, the or was concluded between Commodore Matthew C. Perry of the U.S. Navy and the Tokugawa shogunate.-Treaty of Peace and Amity :...
, which ended Japan's isolation, but was considered an "unequal treaty" by the Japanese public, since the US did not reciprocate most of Japan's concessions with similar privileges. In many cases Japan was effectively forced into a system of extraterritoriality that provided for the subjugation of foreign residents to the laws of their own consular courts instead of the Japanese law system, open up ports for trade, and later even allow Christian missionaries to enter the country. Shortly after the end of Japan's seclusion, in a period called "Bakumatsu" (幕末, "End of the Shogunate"), the first German traders arrived in Japan. In 1860 Count Friedrich Albrecht zu Eulenburg
Friedrich Albrecht zu Eulenburg
Count Friedrich Albrecht zu Eulenburg was a Prussian diplomat and politician. He led the Eulenburg Expedition and secured the Prusso-Japanese Treaty of 24 January 1861, which was similar to other unequal treaties that European powers held Eastern Countries to.-Biography :Eulenburg was born in...
led the Eulenburg Expedition
Eulenburg Expedition
The Eulenburg Expedition was a diplomatic mission conducted by Friedrich Albrecht zu Eulenburg on behalf of Prussia and the German Customs Union in 1859-62...
to Japan as ambassador from Prussia, a leading regional state in the German Confederation
German Confederation
The German Confederation was the loose association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to coordinate the economies of separate German-speaking countries. It acted as a buffer between the powerful states of Austria and Prussia...
at that time. After four months of negotiations, another "unequal treaty", officially dedicated to amity and commerce, was signed in January 1861 between Prussia and Japan.
Despite being considered one of the numerous unjust negotiations pressed on Japan during that time, the Eulenburg Expedition, and both the short- and long-term consequences of the treaty of amity and commerce, are today honoured as the beginning of official Japanese-German relations. To commemorate its 150th anniversary, events were held in both Germany and Japan from autumn 2010 through autumn 2011 hoping "to 'raise the treasures of [their] common past' in order to build a bridge to the future."
Japanese diplomatic mission in Prussia
In 1863, three years after Eulenberg's visit in Tokyo, a Shogunal legation arrived at the Prussian court of King Wilhelm I and was greeted with a grandiose ceremony in Berlin. After the treaty was signed, Max von BrandtMax von Brandt
Maximilian August Scipio von Brandt was a German diplomat, East Asia expert and publicist.- Biography :...
became diplomatic representative in Japan – first representing Prussia, and after 1866 representing the North German Confederation
North German Confederation
The North German Confederation 1866–71, was a federation of 22 independent states of northern Germany. It was formed by a constitution accepted by the member states in 1867 and controlled military and foreign policy. It included the new Reichstag, a parliament elected by universal manhood...
, and by 1871 representing the newly established German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
.
In 1868 the Tokugawa Shogunate
Tokugawa shogunate
The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...
was overthrown and the Empire of Japan
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
under Emperor Meiji
Emperor Meiji
The or was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 3 February 1867 until his death...
was established. With the return of power to the Tenno Dynasty
Emperor of Japan
The Emperor of Japan is, according to the 1947 Constitution of Japan, "the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people." He is a ceremonial figurehead under a form of constitutional monarchy and is head of the Japanese Imperial Family with functions as head of state. He is also the highest...
, Japan demanded a revocation of the "unequal treaties" with the western powers and a civil war ensued. During the conflict, German weapons trader Henry Schnell counselled and supplied weapons to the Daimyo
Daimyo
is a generic term referring to the powerful territorial lords in pre-modern Japan who ruled most of the country from their vast, hereditary land holdings...
of Nagaoka
Nagaoka, Niigata
is a city located in the central part of Niigata Prefecture, Japan. It is the second largest city in the prefecture, behind the capital city of Niigata...
, a land lord loyal to the Shogunate. One year later, the war ended with the defeat of the Tokugawa and the renegotiation of the "unequal treaties".
Modernization of Japan and educational exchange (1871 to 1885)
Meiji period
The , also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868 through July 1912. This period represents the first half of the Empire of Japan.- Meiji Restoration and the emperor :...
(1868–1912), many Germans came to work in Japan as advisors to the new government as so-called "oyatoi gaikokujin" and contributed to the modernization
Modernization
In the social sciences, modernization or modernisation refers to a model of an evolutionary transition from a 'pre-modern' or 'traditional' to a 'modern' society. The teleology of modernization is described in social evolutionism theories, existing as a template that has been generally followed by...
of Japan, especially in the fields of medicine (Leopold Mueller, 1824–1894; Julius Scriba
Julius Scriba
Julius Karl Scriba was a German surgeon serving as a foreign advisor in Meiji period Japan, where he was an important contributor to the development of Western medicine in Japan.- Biography :...
, 1848–1905; Erwin Bälz
Erwin Bälz
Erwin Bälz was a German internist, anthropologist, personal physician to the Japanese Imperial Family and cofounder of modern medicine in Japan.- Biography :...
, 1849–1913), law (K. F. Hermann Roesler
Hermann Roesler
Karl Friedrich Hermann Roesler was a German legal scholar, economist, and foreign advisor to the Meiji period Empire of Japan.-Life in Japan:...
, 1834–1894; Albert Mosse
Albert Mosse
Isaac Albert Mosse was a German judge and legal scholar. Mosse's importance lies in the working out of Japan's Meiji Constitution and his continuation of Litthauer's Comments on the German Commercial Code.-Biography:...
, 1846–1925) and military affairs (K. W. Jacob Meckel, 1842–1906). Meckel had been invited by Japan's government in 1885 as an advisor to the Japanese general staff and as teacher at the Army War College
Army War College (Japan)
The ; Short form: of the Empire of Japan was founded in 1882 in Minato, Tokyo to modernize and Westernize the Imperial Japanese Army. Much of the empire's elite including prime ministers during the period of Japanese militarism were graduates of the college....
. He spent three years in Japan, working with influential persons including Katsura Tarō
Katsura Taro
Prince , was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, politician and three-time Prime Minister of Japan.-Early life:Katsura was born into a samurai family from Hagi, Chōshū Domain...
and Kawakami Soroku
Kawakami Soroku
- Notes :...
, thereby decisively contributing to the modernization of the Imperial Japanese Army
Imperial Japanese Army
-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...
. Meckel left behind a loyal group of Japanese admirers, who, after his death, had a bronze statue of him erected in front of his former army college in Tokyo.
In 1889 the ‘Constitution of the Empire of Japan’ was promulgated, greatly influenced by German legal scholars Rudolf von Gneist and Lorenz von Stein
Lorenz von Stein
Lorenz von Stein was a German economist, sociologist, and public administration scholar from Eckernförde. As an advisor to Meiji period Japan, his conservative political views influenced the wording of the Constitution of the Empire of Japan.- Biography :Stein was born in the seaside town of Borby...
, whom the Meiji oligarch
Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...
and future Prime Minister of Japan
Prime Minister of Japan
The is the head of government of Japan. He is appointed by the Emperor of Japan after being designated by the Diet from among its members, and must enjoy the confidence of the House of Representatives to remain in office...
Itō Hirobumi
Ito Hirobumi
Prince was a samurai of Chōshū domain, Japanese statesman, four time Prime Minister of Japan , genrō and Resident-General of Korea. Itō was assassinated by An Jung-geun, a Korean nationalist who was against the annexation of Korea by the Japanese Empire...
(1841–1909) visited in Berlin and Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
in 1882. At the request of the German government, Albert Mosse also met with Hirobumi and his group of government officials and scholars and gave a series of lectures on constitutional law
Constitutional law
Constitutional law is the body of law which defines the relationship of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary....
, which helped to convince Hirobumi that the Prussian-style monarchical constitution was best-suited for Japan. In 1886 Mosse was invited to Japan on a three-year contract as "hired foreigner" to the Japanese government to assist Hirobumi and Inoue Kowashi
Inoue Kowashi
Viscount was a statesman in Meiji period Japan.- Early life :Inoue was born into a samurai family in Higo Province , as the third son of Karō Iida Gongobei. In 1866 Kowashi was adopted by Inoue Shigesaburō, another retainer of the Nagaoka daimyō...
in drafting the Meiji Constitution
Meiji Constitution
The ', known informally as the ', was the organic law of the Japanese empire, in force from November 29, 1890 until May 2, 1947.-Outline:...
. He later worked on other important legal drafts, international agreements, and contracts and served as a cabinet advisor in the Home Ministry
Home Ministry (Japan)
The ' was a Cabinet-level ministry established under the Meiji Constitution that managed the internal affairs of Empire of Japan from 1873-1947...
, assisting Prime Minister Yamagata Aritomo
Yamagata Aritomo
Field Marshal Prince , also known as Yamagata Kyōsuke, was a field marshal in the Imperial Japanese Army and twice Prime Minister of Japan. He is considered one of the architects of the military and political foundations of early modern Japan. Yamagata Aritomo can be seen as the father of Japanese...
in establishing the draft laws and systems for local government. Dozens of Japanese students and military officers also went to Germany in the late 19th century, to study the German military system and receive military training at German army educational facilities and within the ranks of the German, mostly the Prussian army. For example later famous writer Mori Rintarô (Mori Ōgai
Mori Ogai
was a Japanese physician, translator, novelist and poet. is considered his major work.- Early life :Mori was born as Mori Rintarō in Tsuwano, Iwami province . His family were hereditary physicians to the daimyō of the Tsuwano Domain...
), who originally was an army doctor, received tutoring in the German language between 1872 and 1874, which was the primary language for medical education at the time. From 1884 to 1888, Ōgai visited Germany and developed an interest in European literature producing the first translations of the works of Goethe, Schiller, Ibsen, Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet noted for his children's stories. These include "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Snow Queen," "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," and "The Ugly Duckling."...
, and Gerhart Hauptmann
Gerhart Hauptmann
Gerhart Hauptmann was a German dramatist and novelist who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1912.-Life and work:...
.
Cooling of relations and World War I (1885 to 1920)
At the end of the 19th century, Japanese–German relations cooled due to Germany’s, and in general Europe's, imperialist aspirations in East AsiaEast Asia
East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...
. After the conclusion of the First Sino-Japanese War
First Sino-Japanese War
The First Sino-Japanese War was fought between Qing Dynasty China and Meiji Japan, primarily over control of Korea...
in April 1895, the Treaty of Shimonoseki
Treaty of Shimonoseki
The Treaty of Shimonoseki , known as the Treaty of Maguan in China, was signed at the Shunpanrō hall on April 17, 1895, between the Empire of Japan and Qing Empire of China, ending the First Sino-Japanese War. The peace conference took place from March 20 to April 17, 1895...
was signed, which included several territorial cessions from China to Japan, most importantly Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
and the eastern portion of the bay of the Liaodong Peninsula including Port Arthur
Lüshunkou
Lüshunkou is a district in the municipality of Dalian, Liaoning province, China. Also called Lüshun City or Lüshun Port, it was formerly known as both Port Arthur and Ryojun....
. However, Russia
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, France
French Third Republic
The French Third Republic was the republican government of France from 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed due to the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, to 1940, when France was overrun by Nazi Germany during World War II, resulting in the German and Italian occupations of France...
and Germany grew wary of an ever-expanding Japanese sphere of influence and wanted to take advantage of China's bad situation by expanding their own colonial possessions instead. The frictions culminated in the so-called "Triple Intervention
Triple Intervention
The was a diplomatic intervention by Russia, Germany, and France on 23 April 1895 over the terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki signed between Japan and Qing dynasty China that ended the First Sino-Japanese War.-Treaty of Shimonoseki:...
" on 23 April 1895, when the three powers "urged" Japan to refrain from acquiring its awarded possessions on the Liaodong Peninsula. In the following years, Wilhelm II’s nebulous fears of a “Yellow Peril
Yellow Peril
Yellow Peril was a colour metaphor for race that originated in the late nineteenth century with immigration of Chinese laborers to various Western countries, notably the United States, and later associated with the Japanese during the mid 20th century, due to Japanese military expansion.The term...
” – a united Asia under Japanese leadership, led to further Japanese–German estrangement. Wilhelm II also introduced a regulation to limit the number of members of the Japanese army to come to Germany to study the military system.
Another stress test for German–Japanese relations was the Russo-Japanese War
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
of 1904/05, during which Germany strongly supported Russia, e.g. by supplying Russian warships with coal. This circumstance triggered the Japanese foreign ministry to proclaim that any ship delivering coal to Russian vessels within the war zone would be sunk. After the Russo-Japanese War, Germany insisted on reciprocity in the exchange of military officers and students, and in the following years, several German military officers were sent to Japan to study the Japanese military, which, after its victory over the tsarist army became a promising organization to study. However, Japan's growing power and influence also caused increased distrust on the German side.
Kaiserliche Marine
The Imperial German Navy was the German Navy created at the time of the formation of the German Empire. It existed between 1871 and 1919, growing out of the small Prussian Navy and Norddeutsche Bundesmarine, which primarily had the mission of coastal defense. Kaiser Wilhelm II greatly expanded...
in and around Chinese waters. Japan, eager to reduce the presence of European colonial powers in South-East Asia, especially on China's coast, sent Germany an ultimatum
Ultimatum
An ultimatum is a demand whose fulfillment is requested in a specified period of time and which is backed up by a threat to be followed through in case of noncompliance. An ultimatum is generally the final demand in a series of requests...
on 14 August 1914, which was left unanswered. Japan then formally declared war on the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
on 23 August 1914 thereby entering the First World War as an ally of Britain, France and the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
to seize the German colonial territories of South-East Asia
German New Guinea
German New Guinea was the first part of the German colonial empire. It was a protectorate from 1884 until 1914 when it fell to Australia following the outbreak of the First World War. It consisted of the northeastern part of New Guinea and several nearby island groups...
.
The only major battle that took place between Japan and Germany was the siege of the German-controlled Chinese port of Tsingtao in Kiautschou Bay. The German forces held out from August until November 1914, under a total Japanese/British blockade, sustained artillery barrages and manpower odds of 6:1 – a fact that gave a morale boost during the siege as well as later in defeat. After Japanese troops stormed the city, the German dead were buried at Tsingtao and the remaining troops were transported to Japan where they were treated with respect at places like the Bandō Prisoner of War camp
Bando Prisoner of War camp
The was a prisoner-of-war camp during World War I in what is now Naruto, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. From April 1917 to January 1920, just under a thousand of the three thousand nine hundred German soldiers captured at Tsingtao in November 1914 were imprisoned at the camp...
. In 1919, when the German Empire formally signed the Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
, all prisoners of war were set free and returned to Europe.
Japan was a signatory of the Treaty of Versailles, which stipulated harsh repercussions for Germany. In the Pacific, Japan gained Germany's islands north of the equator (the Marshall Islands
Marshall Islands
The Republic of the Marshall Islands , , is a Micronesian nation of atolls and islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just west of the International Date Line and just north of the Equator. As of July 2011 the population was 67,182...
, the Carolines, the Marianas, the Palau Islands
Palau
Palau , officially the Republic of Palau , is an island nation in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Philippines and south of Tokyo. In 1978, after three decades as being part of the United Nations trusteeship, Palau chose independence instead of becoming part of the Federated States of Micronesia, a...
) and Kiautschou/Tsingtao
Jiaozhou Bay
The Jiaozhou Bay is a sea gulf located in Qingdao Prefecture of Shandong Province. It was a German colonial concession from 1898 until 1914....
in China. Article 156 of the Treaty also transferred German concessions in Shandong
Shandong
' is a Province located on the eastern coast of the People's Republic of China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese...
to Japan rather than returning sovereign authority to China, an issue soon to be known as Shandong Problem
Shandong Problem
The Shantung Problem refers to the dispute over Article 156 of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, which dealt with the concession of the Shandong peninsula....
. Chinese outrage over this provision led to demonstrations, and a cultural movement known as the May Fourth Movement
May Fourth Movement
The May Fourth Movement was an anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement growing out of student demonstrations in Beijing on May 4, 1919, protesting the Chinese government's weak response to the Treaty of Versailles, especially the Shandong Problem...
influenced China not to sign the treaty. China declared the end of its war against Germany in September 1919 and signed a separate treaty with Germany in 1921. This fact greatly contributed to Germany relying on China, and not Japan, as its strategic partner in East Asia for the coming years.
Rapprochement, Axis and World War II (1920 to 1945)
German New Guinea
German New Guinea was the first part of the German colonial empire. It was a protectorate from 1884 until 1914 when it fell to Australia following the outbreak of the First World War. It consisted of the northeastern part of New Guinea and several nearby island groups...
and Kiautschou/Tsingtao to Japan and with an intensifying Sino-German cooperation, relations between Berlin and Tokyo were nearly dead. Under the initiative of Wilhelm Solf
Wilhelm Solf
Wilhelm Heinrich Solf was a German scholar, diplomat, jurist and statesman.-Early life:Wilhelm Solf was born into a wealthy and liberal family in Berlin. He attended secondary schools in Anklam in western Pomerania and in Mannheim...
, who served as German ambassador to Japan from 1920 to 1928, cultural exchange was strengthened again, culminating in the re-establishment of the "German-Japanese Society" (1926), the founding of the "Japanese-German Cultural Society" (1927), and of the "Japanese-German Research Institute" (1934).
Despite experiencing contrasting fortunes regarding the First World War, both Japan and Germany changed their direction toward democratic systems of government during the 1920s, with German–Japanese relations being limited to cultural exchanges. However, parliamentary government was not deeply rooted in either country and did not withstand the economic and political pressures of the 1930s
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, during which anti-democratic elements became increasingly influential in both countries. These shifts in power were made possible partly by the ambiguity and imprecision of the Meiji Constitution
Meiji Constitution
The ', known informally as the ', was the organic law of the Japanese empire, in force from November 29, 1890 until May 2, 1947.-Outline:...
in Japan and the Weimar Constitution
Weimar constitution
The Constitution of the German Reich , usually known as the Weimar Constitution was the constitution that governed Germany during the Weimar Republic...
in Germany, especially with regard to the positions of the Japanese Emperor and the German Reichspräsident
Reichspräsident
The Reichspräsident was the German head of state under the Weimar constitution, which was officially in force from 1919 to 1945. In English he was usually simply referred to as the President of Germany...
in relation to their respective constitutions. With the rise of militarism in Japan and Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
in Germany in the 1930s, political ties between both countries became closer again, intensifying the existing cultural exchange. On the Japanese side, army officer Hiroshi Ōshima
Hiroshi Ōshima
Baron was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, Japanese ambassador to Nazi Germany before and during World War II — and unknowingly a major source of communications intelligence for the Allies. His role was perhaps best summed up by General George C...
particularly advocated a closer relationship with Germany and, together with German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.-Early life:...
, worked for an alliance when he became military attaché in Berlin in 1934. Over the following decade, Ōshima would serve twice (1938–39 and 1941–45) as ambassador to Berlin, always remaining one of the strongest proponents of Japan's close partnership with Nazi Germany.
A temporary strain was put on German-Japanese rapprochement in June 1935, when the Anglo-German Naval Agreement
Anglo-German Naval Agreement
The Anglo-German Naval Agreement of June 18, 1935 was a bilateral agreement between the United Kingdom and German Reich regulating the size of the Kriegsmarine in relation to the Royal Navy. The A.G.N.A fixed a ratio whereby the total tonnage of the Kriegsmarine was to be 35% of the total tonnage...
was signed between the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany, one of many attempts by Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
to improve relations between the two countries. After all, Hitler had already laid down his plans in Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf
Mein Kampf is a book written by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. It combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitler's political ideology. Volume 1 of Mein Kampf was published in 1925 and Volume 2 in 1926...
, in which he identified England as a promising partner, but also defined Japan as a target of "international jewry", and thus a possible ally:
At the time, many Japanese politicians, including Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
Isoroku Yamamoto
was a Japanese Naval Marshal General and the commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet during World War II, a graduate of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy and a student of Harvard University ....
(who was an outspoken critic of an alliance with Nazi Germany), were shocked by the Anglo-German Naval Agreement. Nevertheless, the leaders of the military clique then in control in Tokyo concluded that it was a ruse designed to buy the Nazis time to match the British navy.
Consolidation of cooperation
Tokyo's military leaders proceeded to devise plans assuring the Empire's supply with resources by eventually creating a "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity SphereGreater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere
The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere was a concept created and promulgated during the Shōwa era by the government and military of the Empire of Japan. It represented the desire to create a self-sufficient "bloc of Asian nations led by the Japanese and free of Western powers"...
". In general, further expansion was envisioned – either northwards, attacking the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, a plan which was called "Hokushin", or by seizing French, Dutch and/or British colonies to the south, a concept dubbed "Nanshin
Nanshin-ron
The was a political doctrine in the pre-WW2 Japan which stated that Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands were Japan's sphere of interest and that the potential value to the Japanese Empire for economic and territorial expansion in those areas was greater than elsewhere.This political doctrine...
". Hitler, on the other hand, never desisted from his plan to conquer new territories in Eastern Europe for Lebensraum
Lebensraum
was one of the major political ideas of Adolf Hitler, and an important component of Nazi ideology. It served as the motivation for the expansionist policies of Nazi Germany, aiming to provide extra space for the growth of the German population, for a Greater Germany...
; thus, conflicts with Poland
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...
and later with the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
seemed inevitable. The first legal consolidation of German-Japanese mutual interests occurred in 1936, when the two countries signed the Anti-Comintern Pact
Anti-Comintern Pact
The Anti-Comintern Pact was an Anti-Communist pact concluded between Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan on November 25, 1936 and was directed against the Communist International ....
, which was directed against the Communist International (Comintern) in general and the Soviet Union in particular. After the signing, Nazi Germany's government also included the Japanese people
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
in their concept of "honorary Aryan
Honorary Aryan
Honorary Aryan is a term from Nazi Germany. It was a status granted by the Nazi Bureau of Race Research to certain individuals and groups of people—who were not generally considered to be biologically part of the Aryan race—which certified them as being part of the Aryan race...
s". Fascist Italy
Kingdom of Italy (1861–1946)
The Kingdom of Italy was a state forged in 1861 by the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which was its legal predecessor state...
, led by Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
joined the pact in 1937, initiating the formation of the so-called Axis between Rome, Berlin and Tokyo.
Originally, Germany had a very close relationship with the Chinese nationalist government, even providing military aid and assistance to the Republic of China
Republic of China
The Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan , is a unitary sovereign state located in East Asia. Originally based in mainland China, the Republic of China currently governs the island of Taiwan , which forms over 99% of its current territory, as well as Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and other minor...
. Relations soured after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...
on 7 July 1937, and when China shortly thereafter concluded the Sino-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact with the Soviet Union. Eventually Hitler concluded that Japan, not China, would be a more reliable geostrategic partner, notwithstanding the superior Sino-German economic relationship and chose to end his alliance with the Chinese as the price of gaining an alignment with the more modern and powerful Japan. In a May 1938 address to the Reichstag, Hitler announced German recognition of Manchukuo
Manchukuo
Manchukuo or Manshū-koku was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia, governed under a form of constitutional monarchy. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Empire in China...
, the Japanese-occupied puppet state in Manchuria
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...
, and renounced the German claims to the former colonies in the Pacific held by Japan. Hitler ordered the end of arm shipments to China, as well as the recall of all German officers attached to the Chinese Army. Despite this move, however, Hitler retained his general perception of neither the Japanese nor the Chinese civilizations being inferior to the German one. In The Political Testament of Adolf Hitler, he wrote:
During the late 1930s, though motivated by political and propaganda reasons, several cultural exchanges between Japan and Germany took place. A focus was put on youth exchanges, and numerous mutual visits were conducted; for instance, in late 1938, the ship Gneisenau
Gneisenau (1935)
The Gneisenau was a passenger ship of the Norddeutscher Lloyd, which began its duty as an East Asia liner in 1935. Like several other German ships, the Gneisenau was named after August Neidhardt von Gneisenau, a Prussian Generalfeldmarschall and military reformer.-Literature:* Claus Rothe: Deutsche...
carried a delegation of 30 members of the Hitlerjugend to Tokyo for a study visit.
In 1938, representative measures for embracing the German-Japanese partnership were sought and the construction of a new Japanese embassy building in Berlin was started. After the preceding embassy had to give way to Hitler's and Albert Speer
Albert Speer
Albert Speer, born Berthold Konrad Hermann Albert Speer, was a German architect who was, for a part of World War II, Minister of Armaments and War Production for the Third Reich. Speer was Adolf Hitler's chief architect before assuming ministerial office...
's plans of re-modeling Berlin to the world capital city of Germania
Welthauptstadt Germania
Welthauptstadt Germania refers to the projected renewal of the German capital Berlin during the Nazi period, part of Adolf Hitler's vision for the future of Germany after the planned victory in World War II...
, a new and more pompous building was erected in a newly established diplomatic district next to the Tiergarten
Tiergarten
Tiergarten is a locality within the borough of Mitte, in central Berlin . Notable for the great and homonymous urban park, before German reunification, it was a part of West Berlin...
. It was conceived by Ludwig Moshamer under the supervision of Speer and was placed opposite the Italian embassy, thereby bestowing an architectural emphasis on the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo axis.
Despite tentative plans for a joint German-Japanese approach against the USSR which were slowly maturing and regardless of the 1936 Anti Comintern Pact, the years 1938 and 1939 were already decisive for Japan's decision to finally expand south, instead of north. The Empire decisively lost two border fights against the Soviets, the Battles of Lake Khasan
Battle of Lake Khasan
The Battle of Lake Khasan and also known as the Changkufeng Incident in China and Japan, was an attempted military incursion of Manchukuo into the territory claimed by the Soviet Union...
and Khalkin Gol
Battle of Khalkhin Gol
The Battles of Khalkhyn Gol was the decisive engagement of the undeclared Soviet–Japanese Border Wars fought among the Soviet Union, Mongolia and the Empire of Japan in 1939. The conflict was named after the river Khalkhyn Gol, which passes through the battlefield...
, thereby convincing itself that the Imperial Japanese Army
Imperial Japanese Army
-Foundation:During the Meiji Restoration, the military forces loyal to the Emperor were samurai drawn primarily from the loyalist feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū...
, lacking heavy tanks and the like, would be in no position to challenge the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
at that time. Nevertheless, Hitler's anti-Soviet sentiment soon led to further rapprochements with Japan, since he still believed that Japan would join Germany in a future war against the Soviet Union, either actively by invading southeast Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
, or passively by binding large parts of the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
, which was fearing an attack of Japan's Kwantung Army in Manchukuo
Manchukuo
Manchukuo or Manshū-koku was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia, governed under a form of constitutional monarchy. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Empire in China...
, numbering ca. 700,000 men as of the late 1930s.
Invasion of Poland (1939)
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
and Great Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany.
Over the following year, Japan also proceeded with its expansion plans. The Invasion of French Indochina on 2 September 1940 (which by then was controlled by the collaborating governmment of Vichy France
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
), and Japan's ongoing bloody conflict with China
Three Alls Policy
The Three Alls Policy was a Japanese scorched earth policy adopted in China during World War II, the three alls being: "Kill All", "Burn All" and "Loot All" . In Japanese documents, the policy was originally referred to as...
, put a severe strain on American-Japanese relations. On 26 July 1940, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
passed the Export Control Act
Export Control Act
The Export Control Act of 1940 was one in a series of legislative efforts by the United States government and initially the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt to accomplish two tasks: to avoid scarcity of critical commodities in a likely pre-war environment and, more notably, to...
, cutting oil, iron and steel exports to Japan. This containment policy was Washington's warning to Japan that any further military expansion would result in further sanctions. However, such US moves were interpreted by Japan's militaristic leaders as signals that they needed to take radical measures to improve the Empire's situation, thereby driving Japan closer to Germany.
Formation of the Axis
With Nazi Germany not only having conquered most of continental EuropeBattle of France
In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...
including France, but also maintaining the impression of a Britain facing imminent defeat
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the World War II air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940...
, Tokyo interpreted the situation in Europe as proof of a fundamental and fatal weakness in western democracies. Japan's leadership concluded that the current state of affairs had to be exploited and subsequently started to seek even closer cooperation with Berlin. Hitler, for his part, not only feared a lasting stalemate with Britain, but also had started planning an invasion of the Soviet Union. These circumstances, together with a shortage in raw materials and food, increased Berlin's interest in a stronger alliance with Japan. German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.-Early life:...
was sent to negotiate a new treaty with Japan, whose relationships with Germany and Italy, the three soon to be called "Axis powers", were cemented with the Tripartite Pact
Tripartite Pact
The Tripartite Pact, also the Three-Power Pact, Axis Pact, Three-way Pact or Tripartite Treaty was a pact signed in Berlin, Germany on September 27, 1940, which established the Axis Powers of World War II...
of 27 September 1940.
The purpose of the Pact, directed against an unnamed power presumed to be the United States, was to deter that power from supporting Britain, thereby not only strengthening Germany's and Italy's cause in the North African Campaign
North African campaign
During the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts and in Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia .The campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers, many of whom had...
and the Mediterranean theatre
Mediterranean Theatre of World War II
The African, Mediterranean and Middle East theatres encompassed the naval, land, and air campaigns fought between the Allied and Axis forces in the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and Africa...
, but also weakening British colonies in South-East Asia in advance of a Japanese invasion. The treaty stated that the three countries would respect each other's "leadership" in their respective spheres of influence
Sphere of influence
In the field of international relations, a sphere of influence is a spatial region or conceptual division over which a state or organization has significant cultural, economic, military or political influence....
, and would assist each other if attacked by an outside party. However, already-ongoing conflicts, as of the signing of the Pact, were explicitly excluded. With this defensive terminology, aggression on the part of a member state toward a non-member state would result in no obligations under the Pact. Relations between Germany and Japan were driven by mutual self-interest, underpinned by the shared militarist, expansionist and nationalistic ideologies of their respective governments.
Another decisive limitation in the German-Japanese alliance were the fundamental differences between the two nation's policies towards Jews. With Nazi Germany's well-known attitude being extreme Antisemitism, Japan refrained from adapting any similar posture. On 31 December 1940, Japanese foreign minister Yōsuke Matsuoka
Yosuke Matsuoka
was a diplomat and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Empire of Japan during the early stages of World War II. He is best known for his defiant speech at the League of Nations in 1933, ending Japan’s participation in that organization...
, a strong proponent of the Tripartite Pact, told a group of Jewish businessmen:
Until 1945, both countries would continue to conceal any war crimes committed by the other side. The Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
was systematically concealed by the leadership in Tokyo, just as Japanese war crimes
Japanese war crimes
Japanese war crimes occurred during the period of Japanese imperialism, primarily during the Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II. Some of the incidents have also been described as an Asian Holocaust and Japanese war atrocities...
, e.g. the situation in China, were kept secret from the German public. Another example is the atrocities committed by the Japanese Army in Nanking in 1937
Nanking Massacre
The Nanking Massacre or Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking, was a mass murder, genocide and war rape that occurred during the six-week period following the Japanese capture of the city of Nanjing , the former capital of the Republic of China, on December 13, 1937 during the Second...
, which were denounced by German industrialist John Rabe
John Rabe
John Rabe was a German businessman who is best known for his efforts to stop the atrocities of the Japanese army during the Nanking Occupation and his work to protect and help the Chinese civilians during the event...
. Subsequently, the German leadership ordered Rabe back to Berlin, confiscating all his reports and prohibiting any further discussion of the topic.
After the signing of the Tripartite Pact, mutual visits of political and military nature increased. After German ace and parachute expert Ernst Udet
Ernst Udet
Colonel General Ernst Udet was the second-highest scoring German flying ace of World War I. He was one of the youngest aces and was the highest scoring German ace to survive the war . His 62 victories were second only to Manfred von Richthofen, his commander in the Flying Circus...
visited Japan in 1939 to inspect the Japanese aerial forces, reporting to Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
that "Japanese flyers, though brave and willing, are no sky-beaters", General Tomoyuki Yamashita
Tomoyuki Yamashita
General was a general of the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. He was most famous for conquering the British colonies of Malaya and Singapore, earning the nickname "The Tiger of Malaya".- Biography :...
was given the job of reorganizing the Japanese Air Arm in late 1940. For this purpose, Yamashita arrived in Berlin in January 1941, staying almost six months. He inspected the broken Maginot Line
Maginot Line
The Maginot Line , named after the French Minister of War André Maginot, was a line of concrete fortifications, tank obstacles, artillery casemates, machine gun posts, and other defences, which France constructed along its borders with Germany and Italy, in light of its experience in World War I,...
and German fortifications on the French coast, watched German flyers in training, and even flew in a raid over Britain
The Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
after decorating Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
, head of the German Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It is also the official name for two of the four historic German air forces, the Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1935 and disbanded in 1946; and the current Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956....
, with the Japanese "Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun". General Yamashita also met and talked with Hitler, on whom he commented,
According to Yamashita, Hitler promised to remember Japan in his will, by instructing the Germans "to bind themselves eternally to the Japanese spirit." In fact, General Yamashita was so excited that he said: "In a short time, something great will happen. You just watch and wait." Returning home, the Japanese delegation was accompanied by more than 250 German technicians, engineers and instructors. Soon, Japan's Air Force was among the most powerful in the world.
On 11 November 1940, German–Japanese relations, as well as Japan's plans to expand southwards into South-East Asia, were decisively bolstered when the crew of the German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis
German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis
The German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis , known to the Kriegsmarine as Schiff 16 and to the Royal Navy as Raider-C, was a converted German Hilfskreuzer of the Kriegsmarine, which, during World War II, travelled more than in 602 days, and sank or captured 22 ships totaling...
boarded the British cargo ship . Fifteen bags of Top Secret
Top Secret
Top Secret generally refers to the highest acknowledged level of classified information.Top Secret may also refer to:- Film and television :* Top Secret , a British comedy directed by Mario Zampi...
mail for the British Far East Command
British Far East Command
The Far East Command was a British military command which had 2 distinct periods. These were firstly, 18 November 1940 – 7 January 1942 succeeded by the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command , and secondly, 1963 – 1971 succeeded by Australia, New Zealand, and United Kingdom Force...
were found, including naval intelligence reports containing the latest assessment of the Japanese Empire's military strength in the Far East, along with details of Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
units, naval strength, and notes on Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
's defences. It painted a gloomy picture of British land and naval capabilities in the Far East, and declared that Britain was too weak to risk war with Japan. The mail reached the German embassy in Tokyo on 5 December, and was then hand-carried to Berlin via the Trans-Siberian railway
Trans-Siberian Railway
The Trans-Siberian Railway is a network of railways connecting Moscow with the Russian Far East and the Sea of Japan. It is the longest railway in the world...
. A copy was given to the Japanese; it provided valuable intelligence prior to their commencing hostilities against the Western Powers. The captain of the Atlantis, Bernhard Rogge
Bernhard Rogge
Bernhard Rogge was a Captain of the German Navy who, during World War II, commanded a merchant raider....
, was rewarded for this with an ornate katana
Katana
A Japanese sword, or , is one of the traditional bladed weapons of Japan. There are several types of Japanese swords, according to size, field of application and method of manufacture.-Description:...
Samurai sword; the only other Germans so honored were Hermann Göring
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring, was a German politician, military leader, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. He was a veteran of World War I as an ace fighter pilot, and a recipient of the coveted Pour le Mérite, also known as "The Blue Max"...
and Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
Erwin Rommel
Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel , popularly known as the Desert Fox , was a German Field Marshal of World War II. He won the respect of both his own troops and the enemies he fought....
.
After reading the captured documents, on 7 January 1941 Japanese Admiral Yamamoto wrote to the Naval Minister asking whether, if Japan knocked out America, the remaining British and Dutch forces would be suitably weakened for the Japanese to deliver a deathblow. Thereby, Nanshin-ron
Nanshin-ron
The was a political doctrine in the pre-WW2 Japan which stated that Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands were Japan's sphere of interest and that the potential value to the Japanese Empire for economic and territorial expansion in those areas was greater than elsewhere.This political doctrine...
, the concept of the Japanese Navy conducting a southern campaign quickly matured and gained further proponents.
Stalling coordination of joint war plans
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
", the invasion of the Soviet Union. In order to directly or indirectly support his imminent eastward strike, the Führer had repeatedly suggested to Japan that it reconsider plans for an attack on the Soviet Far East throughout 1940 and 1941. In February 1941, as a result of Hitler's insistence, General Oshima returned to Berlin as Ambassador. On 5 March 1941, Wilhelm Keitel
Wilhelm Keitel
Wilhelm Bodewin Gustav Keitel was a German field marshal . As head of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht and de facto war minister, he was one of Germany's most senior military leaders during World War II...
, chief of OKW issued "Basic Order Number 24 regarding Collaboration with Japan":
On 18 March 1941, at a conference attended by Hitler, Alfred Jodl
Alfred Jodl
Alfred Josef Ferdinand Jodl was a German military commander, attaining the position of Chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command during World War II, acting as deputy to Wilhelm Keitel...
, Wilhelm Keitel
Wilhelm Keitel
Wilhelm Bodewin Gustav Keitel was a German field marshal . As head of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht and de facto war minister, he was one of Germany's most senior military leaders during World War II...
and Erich Raeder
Erich Raeder
Erich Johann Albert Raeder was a naval leader in Germany before and during World War II. Raeder attained the highest possible naval rank—that of Großadmiral — in 1939, becoming the first person to hold that rank since Alfred von Tirpitz...
, Admiral Raeder stated:
In talks involving Hitler, his foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop
Joachim von Ribbentrop
Ulrich Friedrich Wilhelm Joachim von Ribbentrop was Foreign Minister of Germany from 1938 until 1945. He was later hanged for war crimes after the Nuremberg Trials.-Early life:...
, his Japanese counterpart at that time, Yōsuke Matsuoka
Yosuke Matsuoka
was a diplomat and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Empire of Japan during the early stages of World War II. He is best known for his defiant speech at the League of Nations in 1933, ending Japan’s participation in that organization...
, as well as Berlin's and Tokyo's respective ambassadors, Eugen Ott
Eugen Ott
Eugen Ott was the German ambassador to Japan during the early years of World War II, he is most famously known for having worked with Soviet spy Richard Sorge....
and Hiroshi Ōshima
Hiroshi Ōshima
Baron was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, Japanese ambassador to Nazi Germany before and during World War II — and unknowingly a major source of communications intelligence for the Allies. His role was perhaps best summed up by General George C...
, the German side then broadly hinted at, but never openly asked for, either invading the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
from the east or attacking Britain's colonies in South-East Asia, thereby preoccupying and diverting the British Empire away from Europe and thus somewhat covering Germany's back. Although Germany would have clearly favored Japan's attacking the USSR, exchanges between the two allies were always kept overly formal and indirect, as shown in the following statement by Hitler to ambassador Ōshima (2 June 1941):
Matsuoka, Ōshima and parts of the Japanese Imperial Army were proponents of "Hokushin", Japan's go-north strategy aiming for a coordinated attack with Germany against the USSR and seizing East Siberia. But the Japanese army-dominated military leadership, namely persons like minister of war
Ministry of War of Japan
The , more popularly known as the Ministry of War of Japan, was cabinet-level ministry in the Empire of Japan charged with the administrative affairs of the Imperial Japanese Army...
Hideki Tōjō
Hideki Tōjō
Hideki Tōjō was a general of the Imperial Japanese Army , the leader of the Taisei Yokusankai, and the 40th Prime Minister of Japan during most of World War II, from 17 October 1941 to 22 July 1944...
, were constantly pressured by the Japanese Imperial Navy and, thus, a strong tendency towards "Nanshin
Nanshin-ron
The was a political doctrine in the pre-WW2 Japan which stated that Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands were Japan's sphere of interest and that the potential value to the Japanese Empire for economic and territorial expansion in those areas was greater than elsewhere.This political doctrine...
" existed already in 1940, meaning to go south and exploit the weakened European powers by occupying their resource-rich colonies in South-East Asia. In order to secure Japan's back while expanding southwards and as a Soviet effort to demonstrate peaceful intentions toward Germany, the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact was signed in Moscow on 13 April 1941 by Matsuoka on his return trip from a visit to Berlin. Hitler, who was not informed in advance by the Japanese and considering the pact a ruse to stall, misinterpreted the diplomatic situation and thought that his attack on the USSR would bring a tremendous relief for Japan in East Asia and thereby a much stronger threat to American activities through Japanese interventions. As a consequence, Nazi Germany pressed forward with Operation Barbarossa, its attack on the Soviet Union, which started two months later on 22 June without any specific warning to its Axis partners.
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
had little faith in Japan's commitment to neutrality even before the German attack, but he felt that the pact was important for its political symbolism, to reinforce a public affection for Germany. From Japan's point of view the attack on Russia very nearly ruptured the Tripartite Pact on which the Empire was depending for Germany's aid in maintaining good relations with Moscow so as to preclude any threat from Siberia. Prime Minister Fumimaro Konoe
Fumimaro Konoe
Prince was a politician in the Empire of Japan who served as the 34th, 38th and 39th Prime Minister of Japan and founder/leader of the Taisei Yokusankai.- Early life :...
felt betrayed because the Germans clearly trusted their Axis allies too little to warn them of Barbarossa, even though he had feared the worst since receiving an April report from Ōshima in Berlin that "Germany is confident she can defeat Russia and she is preparing to fight at any moment." Foreign minister Matsuoka on the other hand vividly tried to convince the Emperor, the cabinet as well as the army staff of an immediate attack on the Soviet Union. However, his colleagues rejected any such proposal, even regarding him as "Hitler's office boy" by now and pointed out to the fact that the Japanese army, with its light and medium tanks, had no intention of taking on Soviet tanks and aircraft until they could be certain that the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
had smashed the Red Army to the brink of defeat.
Subsequently, Konoe removed Matsuoka from his cabinet and stepped up Japan's negotiations with the US again, which still failed over the China and Indochina issues, however, and the American demand to Japan to withdraw from the Tripartite Pact in anticipation of any settlement. Without any perspective with respect to Washington, Matsuoka felt that his government had to reassure Germany of its loyalty to the pact. In Berlin, Ōshima was ordered to convey to the German foreign minister Ribbentrop that the "Japanese government have decided to secure 'points d'appui' in French Indochina to enable further to strengthen her pressure on Great Britain and the United States of America," and to present this as a "valuable contribution to the common front" by promising that "We Japanese are not going to sit on the fence while you Germans fight the Russians."
Battle of Moscow
The Battle of Moscow is the name given by Soviet historians to two periods of strategically significant fighting on a sector of the Eastern Front during World War II. It took place between October 1941 and January 1942. The Soviet defensive effort frustrated Hitler's attack on Moscow, capital of...
grew. Japan's Kwantung Army in Manchuria was constantly kept in manoeuvres and, in talks with German foreign minister Ribbentrop, ambassador Oshima in Berlin repeatedly hinted at an "imminent Japanese attack" against the USSR. In fact, however, the leadership in Tokyo at this time had in no way changed its mind and these actions were merely concerted to create the illusion of an eastern threat to the Soviet Union in an effort to bind its Siberian divisions. Unknown to Japan and Germany, however, Richard Sorge
Richard Sorge
Richard Sorge was a German communist and spy who worked for the Soviet Union. He has gained great fame among espionage enthusiasts for his intelligence gathering during World War II. He worked as a journalist in both Germany and Japan, where he was imprisoned for spying and eventually hanged....
, a Soviet spy disguised as a German journalist working for Eugen Ott, the German ambassador in Tokyo, advised the Red Army on 14 September 1941, that the Japanese were not going to attack the Soviet Union until:
- Moscow was captured
- the size of the Kwantung Army was three times that of the Soviet Union's Far Eastern forces
- a civil war had started in Siberia.
Toward the end of September 1941, Sorge transmitted information that Japan would not initiate hostilities against the USSR in the East, thereby freeing Red Army divisions stationed in Siberia for the defence of Moscow. In October 1941 Sorge was unmasked and arrested by the Japanese. Apparently, he was entirely trusted by the German ambassador Eugen Ott, and was allowed access to top secret cables from Berlin in the embassy in Tokyo. Eventually, this involvement would lead to Heinrich Georg Stahmer
Heinrich Georg Stahmer
Heinrich Georg Stahmer , economist by training, served as an aide to German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop , special envoy to Japan and German Ambassador to Japan .A native of Hamburg, Germany, Stahmer fought during World War I and earned both classes of Iron...
replacing Ott in January 1943. Sorge on the other hand would be executed in November 1944 and elevated to a national hero in the Soviet Union.
Japan enters World War II
In September 1941 Japan began its southward expansion by expanding its military presence in Indochina ("securing 'points d'appui'") and decisively increased the number of stationed personnel and planes. This provoked the United States, the United Kingdom, and other Western governments to freeze Japanese assets, while the US (which supplied 80 percent of Japan's oil) responded by placing a complete oil embargo on the Japanese Empire. As a result, Japan was essentially forced to choose between abandoning its ambitions in South-East Asia and its prosecution of the war against China, or seizing the natural resources it needed by force. The Japanese military did not consider the former an option as attacking Soviet Russia instead of expanding into South Asia had become a more and more unpopular choice since Japan's humiliating defeat at the Battle of Khalkin Gol in 1939 and the final rejection of any near-term action in Siberia shortly after Germany began its invasion of the USSR. Moreover, many officers considered America's oil embargo an unspoken declaration of war. With the harsh oil sanctions imposed by the United States, the Japanese leadership was now even more determined to prevent its industry, including its mighty navy, from starving by capturing the oil fields of the Netherlands Indies. As such a course of action was guaranteed to provoke an American declaration of war, the decision for a pre-emptive strike to deprive the US of their only means of pressure against Japan, the United States Pacific FleetUnited States Pacific Fleet
The United States Pacific Fleet is a Pacific Ocean theater-level component command of the United States Navy that provides naval resources under the operational control of the United States Pacific Command. Its home port is at Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii. It is commanded by Admiral Patrick M...
, was settled.
On 25 November, Germany tried to further solidify the alliance against Soviet Russia by officially reviving the Anti-Comintern Pact of 1936, now joined by additional signatories, Hungary
Hungary during World War II
Hungary during World War II was a member of the Axis powers. In the 1930s, the Kingdom of Hungary relied on increased trade with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany to pull itself out of the Great Depression. By 1938, Hungarian politics and foreign policy had become increasingly pro-Fascist Italian and...
and Romania
Romania during World War II
Following the outbreak of World War II on 1 September 1939, the Kingdom of Romania officially adopted a position of neutrality. However, the rapidly changing situation in Europe during 1940, as well as domestic political upheaval, undermined this stance. Fascist political forces such as the Iron...
. However, with the Soviet troops around Moscow now being reinforced by East Siberian divisions, Germany's offensive substantially slowed with the onset of the Russian winter in November and December 1941. In the face of his failing Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg
For other uses of the word, see: Blitzkrieg Blitzkrieg is an anglicized word describing all-motorised force concentration of tanks, infantry, artillery, combat engineers and air power, concentrating overwhelming force at high speed to break through enemy lines, and, once the lines are broken,...
tactics, Hitler's confidence in a successful and swift conclusion of the war diminished, especially with a US-supported Britain being a constant threat in the Reich's western front. Furthermore, it was evident that the "neutrality" which the US had superficially maintained to that point would soon change to an open and unlimited support of Britain against Germany. Hitler thus welcomed Japan's sudden entry into the war with its air raid on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
on 7 December 1941 and its subsequent declaration of war on the United States and Britain
Japanese declaration of war on the United States and Britain
The declaration of war by the Empire of Japan on the United States and the British Empire document was released on December 8, 1941 after the attack on Pearl Harbor was executed pre-emptively. The declaration of war was printed on the front page of all newspapers in Japan in the evening edition on...
, just as the German army suffered its first military defeat at the gates of Moscow
Battle of Moscow
The Battle of Moscow is the name given by Soviet historians to two periods of strategically significant fighting on a sector of the Eastern Front during World War II. It took place between October 1941 and January 1942. The Soviet defensive effort frustrated Hitler's attack on Moscow, capital of...
. Upon learning of Japan's successful attack, Hitler even became euphoric, stating: "With such a capable ally we cannot lose this war." Preceding Japan's attack were numerous communiqués between Berlin and Tokyo. The respective ambassadors Ott and Ōshima tried to draft an amendment to the Tripartite Pact, in which Germany, Japan and Italy should pledge each other's allegiance in the case one signatory is attacked by – or attacks – the United States. Although the protocol was finished in time, it would not be formally signed by Germany until four days after the raid on Pearl Harbor. Also among the communiqués was another definitive Japanese rejection of any war plans against Russia:
Nevertheless, publicly the German leadership applauded their new ally and ambassador Ōshima became one of only eight recipients of the Grand Cross of the Order of the German Eagle in Gold
Order of the German Eagle
The Order of the German Eagle was an award of the German Nazi regime, predominantly to foreign diplomats. The Order was instituted on 1 May 1937 by Adolf Hitler.It ceased to be awarded following the collapse of the Nazi Government at the end of World War II....
, which was awarded by Hitler himself, who reportedly said:
Reichstag (Weimar Republic)
The Reichstag was the parliament of Weimar Republic .German constitution commentators consider only the Reichstag and now the Bundestag the German parliament. Another organ deals with legislation too: in 1867-1918 the Bundesrat, in 1919–1933 the Reichsrat and from 1949 on the Bundesrat...
, along with Italy, to do so on 11 December 1941, three days after the United States' declaration of war
Infamy Speech
The Presidential Address to Congress of December 8, 1941 was delivered at 12:30 p.m. that day to a Joint Session of Congress by United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt, one day after the Empire of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor Naval Base, Hawaii...
on the Empire of Japan
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
. His hopes that, despite the previous rejections, Japan would reciprocally attack the Soviet Union, were not realized, as Japan stuck to its Nanshin strategy of going south, not north, and would continue to maintain an uneasy peace with the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, Germany's declaration of war
Declaration of war
A declaration of war is a formal act by which one nation goes to war against another. The declaration is a performative speech act by an authorized party of a national government in order to create a state of war between two or more states.The legality of who is competent to declare war varies...
further solidified German–Japanese relations and showed Germany's solidarity with Japan, which was now encouraged to cooperate against the British. To some degree, Japan's actions in South-East Asia and the Pacific in the months after Pearl Harbor, including the sinking of the HMS Prince of Wales and the HMS Repulse
Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse
The sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse was a Second World War naval engagement that took place north of Singapore, off the east coast of Malaya, near Kuantan, Pahang where the British Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse were sunk by land-based bombers and...
, the occupation of the Crown Colonies of Singapore
Battle of Singapore
The Battle of Singapore was fought in the South-East Asian theatre of the Second World War when the Empire of Japan invaded the Allied stronghold of Singapore. Singapore was the major British military base in Southeast Asia and nicknamed the "Gibraltar of the East"...
, Hong Kong
Battle of Hong Kong
The Battle of Hong Kong took place during the Pacific campaign of World War II. It began on 8 December 1941 and ended on 25 December 1941 with Hong Kong, then a Crown colony, surrendering to the Empire of Japan.-Background:...
, and British Burma
Japanese occupation of Burma
The Japanese occupation of Burma refers to the period between 1942 and 1945 during World War II, when Burma was a part of the Empire of Japan. The Japanese had assisted formation of the Burma Independence Army, and trained the Thirty Comrades, who were the founders of the modern Armed Forces...
, and the air raids on Australia, were a tremendous blow to the United Kingdom's war effort and preoccupied the Allies, shifting British (including Australian) and American assets away from the Battle of the Atlantic and the North African Campaign
North African campaign
During the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts and in Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia .The campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers, many of whom had...
against Germany to Asia and the Pacific against Japan. In this context, sizeable forces of the British Empire were withdrawn from North Africa to the Pacific theatre with their replacements being only relatively inexperienced and thinly spread divisions. Taking advantage of this situation, Erwin Rommel
Erwin Rommel
Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel , popularly known as the Desert Fox , was a German Field Marshal of World War II. He won the respect of both his own troops and the enemies he fought....
's Afrika Korps
Afrika Korps
The German Africa Corps , or the Afrika Korps as it was popularly called, was the German expeditionary force in Libya and Tunisia during the North African Campaign of World War II...
successfully attacked only six weeks after Pearl Harbor, eventually pushing the allied lines as far east as El Alamein. In the long run, Germany and Japan envisioned a partnered linkage running across the British-held Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
that would allow for the transfer of weaponry, resources as well as other possibilities. After all, the choice of potential trading partners was very limited during the war and Germany was anxious for rubber
Rubber
Natural rubber, also called India rubber or caoutchouc, is an elastomer that was originally derived from latex, a milky colloid produced by some plants. The plants would be ‘tapped’, that is, an incision made into the bark of the tree and the sticky, milk colored latex sap collected and refined...
and precious metals, while the Japanese sought industrial products, technical equipment, and chemical goods.
Until Germany attacked the Soviet Union, the two countries were able to exchange these materials using the Trans-Siberian Railway
Trans-Siberian Railway
The Trans-Siberian Railway is a network of railways connecting Moscow with the Russian Far East and the Sea of Japan. It is the longest railway in the world...
, but after the attack submarines had to be sent on so-called "Yanagi" (Willow) – missions, since the American and British navies rendered the high seas too dangerous for Axis cargo ships. However, given the limited capacities of submarines, eyes were soon focused directly on the Mediterranean
Mediterranean Theatre of World War II
The African, Mediterranean and Middle East theatres encompassed the naval, land, and air campaigns fought between the Allied and Axis forces in the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and Africa...
, the Middle East and British India, all vital to the British war effort. Most importantly, though, these regions offered a direct land- and/or sea-linkage between the Third Reich and Japan, which would improve trade possibilities and enable potential joint military operations. By August 1942 the German advances in North Africa rendered an offensive against Alexandria and the Suez Canal
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal , also known by the nickname "The Highway to India", is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869 after 10 years of construction work, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigation...
feasible, which, in turn, had the potential of enabling maritime trade between Europe and Japan through the Indian Ocean. On the other hand, in the face of its defeat at the Battle of Midway
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea and six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy decisively defeated...
in June 1942 with the loss of four aircraft carriers, the Japanese Navy decided to pursue all possibilities of gaining additional resources to quickly rebuild its forces. As a consequence, ambassador Ōshima in Berlin was ordered to submit an extensive "wish list" requesting the purchase of vast amounts of steel and aluminium to be shipped from Germany to Japan. German foreign minister Ribbentrop quickly dismissed Tokyo's proposal, since those resources were vital for Germany's own industry. However, in order to gain Japanese backing for a new German-Japanese trade treaty, which should also secure the rights of German companies in South-East Asia, he asked Hitler to at least partially agree upon the Japanese demands. It took another five months of arguing over the Reichsmark-Yen-exchange rate and additional talks with the third signatory, the Italian government, until the "Treaty on Economic Cooperation" was signed on 20 January 1943.
Erwin Rommel
Erwin Johannes Eugen Rommel , popularly known as the Desert Fox , was a German Field Marshal of World War II. He won the respect of both his own troops and the enemies he fought....
's positions near El Alamein
Second Battle of El Alamein
The Second Battle of El Alamein marked a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. The battle took place over 20 days from 23 October – 11 November 1942. The First Battle of El Alamein had stalled the Axis advance. Thereafter, Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery...
, 2) the American-British landings in Morocco
Operation Torch
Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign, started on 8 November 1942....
and 3) the Soviet offensive
Operation Uranus
Operation Uranus was the codename of the Soviet strategic operation in World War II which led to the encirclement of the German Sixth Army, the Third and Fourth Romanian armies, and portions of the German Fourth Panzer Army. The operation formed part of the ongoing Battle of Stalingrad, and was...
at Stalingrad
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...
. By early 1943 Germany's strategic situation had drastically worsened, thereby putting an end to Hitler's advances towards the Middle East, especially the oil fields of Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, as the Wehrmacht's operations would never pass Egypt
North African campaign
During the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts and in Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia .The campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers, many of whom had...
and the Caucasus. Additionally, Japan would not be able to recover from its naval losses at Midway and the imperial alternative plan of conquering the Solomons
Solomon Islands campaign
The Solomon Islands campaign was a major campaign of the Pacific War of World War II. The campaign began with Japanese landings and occupation of several areas in the British Solomon Islands and Bougainville, in the Territory of New Guinea, during the first six months of 1942...
at Australia's doorstep turned into a continuous retreat for the Japanese of which the defeat on Guadalcanal marked the beginning. Subsequently Japan's invasion of India, already halted in Burma
Burma Campaign
The Burma Campaign in the South-East Asian Theatre of World War II was fought primarily between British Commonwealth, Chinese and United States forces against the forces of the Empire of Japan, Thailand, and the Indian National Army. British Commonwealth land forces were drawn primarily from...
, rendered any decisive joint operations aimed at a convergence on the Indian subcontinent, aside from the German U-boat flotilla "Monsun Gruppe
Monsun Gruppe
The Monsun Gruppe or Monsoon Group was a force of German U-boats that operated in the Pacific and Indian Oceans during World War II...
" cooperating with the Japanese Navy in the Indian Ocean, impossible. With submarines remaining the only link between Nazi-controlled Europe and Japan, trade was soon focused on strategic goods such as technical plans and weapon templates. Only 20-40% of goods managed to reach either destination and merely 96 persons travelled by submarine from Europe to Japan and 89 vice versa during the war as only six submarines succeeded in their attempts of the trans-oceanic voyage: (April 1942), (June 1943), (October 1943), (November 1943), (March 1944), and the German submarine U-511
Unterseeboot 511
German submarine U-511 was a Type IXC U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. The submarine was laid down on 21 February 1941 at the Deutsche Werft yard at Hamburg, launched on 22 September 1941, and commissioned on 8 December 1941 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Friedrich...
(August 1943). U-234
Unterseeboot 234
German submarine U-234 was a Type XB U-boat of the German Kriegsmarine during World War II.Her first and only mission into enemy territory consisted of the attempted delivery of uranium oxide and other German advanced weapons technology to the Empire of Japan...
on the other hand is one of the most popular examples of an aborted Yanagi mission in May 1945.
Alfred Jodl
Alfred Josef Ferdinand Jodl was a German military commander, attaining the position of Chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces High Command during World War II, acting as deputy to Wilhelm Keitel...
and the Japanese naval attaché
Military attaché
A military attaché is a military expert who is attached to a diplomatic mission . This post is normally filled by a high-ranking military officer who retains the commission while serving in an embassy...
in Berlin, Vice Admiral
Vice Admiral
Vice admiral is a senior naval rank of a three-star flag officer, which is equivalent to lieutenant general in the other uniformed services. A vice admiral is typically senior to a rear admiral and junior to an admiral...
Naokuni Nomura
Naokuni Nomura
was an admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy, and briefly served as Navy Minister in the 1940s.-Biography:Nomura was born in Hioki, Kagoshima prefecture. He graduated from the 35th class of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy, ranked 43rd out of 172 cadets. He served his midshipman tour on the...
, Jodl downplayed the afore described defeats of the German Army, e.g. by claiming the Soviet offensive would soon run out of steam and that "anywhere the Wehrmacht can be sent on land, it is sure of its untertaking, but where it has to be taken over sea, it becomes somewhat more difficult." Japan, on the other hand, not only evaded any disclosure of its true strategic position in the Pacific, but also declined any interference in American shipments being unloaded at Vladivostok
Vladivostok
The city is located in the southern extremity of Muravyov-Amursky Peninsula, which is about 30 km long and approximately 12 km wide.The highest point is Mount Kholodilnik, the height of which is 257 m...
and large amounts of men and material being transported from East Siberia to the German front in the west. Being forced to watch the continued reinforcement of Soviet troops from the east without any Japanese intervention was a thorn in Hitler's flesh, especially considering Japan's apparent ignorance with respect to the recent Casablanca Conference at which the Allies declared only to accept the unconditional surrenders of the Axis nations. During a private briefing on 5 March 1943, the "Führer" got a rage attack and gave remarks on the Japanese like
As the war progressed and Germany began to retreat further, Japanese ambassador Ōshima never wavered in his confidence that Germany would emerge victorious. However, in March 1945 he reported to Tokyo on the "danger of Berlin becoming a battlefield
Battle of Berlin
The Battle of Berlin, designated the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, was the final major offensive of the European Theatre of World War II....
" and revealing a fear "that the abandonment of Berlin may take place another month". On 13 April, he met with Ribbentrop — for the last time, it turned out — and vowed to stand with the leaders of the Third Reich in their hour of crisis but had to leave Berlin at once by Hitler's direct order. On 7 and 8 May 1945, as the German government surrendered
Victory in Europe Day
Victory in Europe Day commemorates 8 May 1945 , the date when the World War II Allies formally accepted the unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. The formal surrender of the occupying German forces in the Channel Islands was not...
to the Allied powers, Ōshima and his staff were taken into custody and brought to the United States. Now fighting an even more hopeless war, the Japanese government immediately denounced the German surrender as an act of treason and interned the few German individuals as well as confiscated all German property (such as submarines) in Japanese territory at the time. Four months later, on 2 September, Japan had to sign its own surrender documents
Japanese Instrument of Surrender
The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was the written agreement that enabled the Surrender of Japan, marking the end of World War II. It was signed by representatives from the Empire of Japan, the United States of America, the Republic of China, the United Kingdom, the Union of Soviet Socialist...
.
Alleged German-Japanese long-term conspiracy
After the Second World War was officially concluded with the capitulation of the Empire of Japan, plans for trying the major German and Japanese war criminals were quickly implemented in 1946. While Japanese officials had to face the Tokyo Trials, major German war crimes were dealt with at the Nuremberg TrialsNuremberg Trials
The Nuremberg Trials were a series of military tribunals, held by the victorious Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the defeated Nazi Germany....
. Here it was the goal of the Allied prosecutors to portray the limited cooperation between the Third Reich and Imperial Japan as a long-planned conspiracy to divide the world among the two Axis-partners and thereby delivering just another demonstration of the common viciousness expressed by alleged joint long-term war plans. According to modern historic research, however, such a consipracy did not exist and is considered Allied propaganda. Although there was a limited and cautious military cooperation between Japan and Germany during the Second World War, no documents corroborating any long-term planning or real coordination of military operations of both powers exist.
Rebuilding relations and new common interests
After their defeat in World War II, both Japan and Germany were occupied. While Japan could regain its sovereignty with the Treaty of San FranciscoTreaty of San Francisco
The Treaty of Peace with Japan , between Japan and part of the Allied Powers, was officially signed by 48 nations on September 8, 1951, at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, California...
in 1952 and joined the United Nations in 1956, Germany was split into two states, which were both founded in 1949. The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) restored diplomatic ties with Japan in 1955, the German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
as late as 1973, the year both German states became UN-members.
Quickly, academic and scientific exchange was strengthened, and in 1974, West Germany and Japan signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in science and technology, re-intensifying joint scientific endeavours and technological exchange. The accord resulted in numerous bilateral cooperations since then, generally focused on marine research and geosciences, life sciences
Life sciences
The life sciences comprise the fields of science that involve the scientific study of living organisms, like plants, animals, and human beings. While biology remains the centerpiece of the life sciences, technological advances in molecular biology and biotechnology have led to a burgeoning of...
and environmental research. Additionally, youth exchange programs were launched, including a "Youth Summit" held annually since 1974.
1973 oil crisis
The 1973 oil crisis started in October 1973, when the members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries or the OAPEC proclaimed an oil embargo. This was "in response to the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military" during the Yom Kippur war. It lasted until March 1974. With the...
. The G6 was soon expanded by Canada and later the Russian Federation, with G6-, G7-, and later G8-, summits being held annually since then.
Over the following years, institutions, such as in 1985 the "Japanese–German Center" (JDZB) in Berlin and in 1988 the "German Institute for Japanese Studies" (DIJ) in Tokyo, were founded to further contribute to the academic and scientific exchange between Japan and Germany.
Around the mid-80s, German and Japanese representatives decided to rebuild the old Japanese embassy in Berlin from 1938. Its remains had remained unused after the building was largely destroyed during World War II. In addition to the original complex, several changes and additions were made until 2000, like moving the main entrance to the Hiroshima Street, which was named in honour of the homonymous Japanese city, and the creation of a traditional Japanese Garden
Japanese garden
, that is, gardens in traditional Japanese style, can be found at private homes, in neighborhood or city parks, and at historical landmarks such as Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines and old castles....
.
Nevertheless, however, post-war relations between Japan and both halves of Germany, as well as with unified Germany since 1990, have generally been focused on economic questions, and as such, Germany, dedicated to free trade, continues to be Japan’s largest trading partner within Europe until today. This general posture is also reflected in the so called "7 pillars of cooperation" agreed on by Foreign Minister of Japan Yōhei Kōno
Yohei Kono
is a Japanese politician and a member of the Liberal Democratic Party. He served as Speaker of the House of Representatives from November 2003 until August 2009, when the LDP lost its majority in the 2009 election...
and Foreign Minister of Germany Joschka Fischer
Joschka Fischer
Joseph Martin "Joschka" Fischer is a German politician of the Alliance '90/The Greens. He served as Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor of Germany in the cabinet of Gerhard Schröder from 1998 to 2005...
on 30 October 2000:
- Pillar 1: Contribution for peace and stability of the international community
- Pillar 2: Consolidation of economical and trade relationships, under benefit of globalization impulses.
- Pillar 3: Contribution for a solution of global problems and social duties and responsibilities.
- Pillar 4: Contribution for the stability in the regions (Korean Peninsula, People's Republic of China, former Yugoslavia, Russia, South Asia, new independent states, Middle East and Gulf region, Middle and South America, East Timor, Africa)
- Pillar 5: Further constitution of faithful political relations between Japan and Germany
- Pillar 6: Promotion of economical relations
- Pillar 7: Promotion of mutual understanding and the cultural relations
In 2000, bilateral cultural exchange culminated in the "Japan in Germany" year, which was then followed by the "Germany in Japan" year in 2005/2006. Also in 2005, the annual German Film Festival in Tokyo was brought into being.
In 2004, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder
Gerhard Schröder
Gerhard Fritz Kurt Schröder is a German politician, and was Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany , he led a coalition government of the SPD and the Greens. Before becoming a full-time politician, he was a lawyer, and before becoming Chancellor...
and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi
Junichiro Koizumi
is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 2001 to 2006. He retired from politics when his term in parliament ended.Widely seen as a maverick leader of the Liberal Democratic Party , he became known as an economic reformer, focusing on Japan's government debt and the...
agreed upon cooperations in the assistance for reconstruction of Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, the promotion of economic exchange activities, youth and sports exchanges as well as exchanges and cooperation in science, technology and academic fields.
Current relations
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Germany and Japan, being the United Nations' second and third largest funders respectively, demanded a reform of the United Nations Security CouncilReform of the United Nations Security Council
Reform of the United Nations Security Council encompasses five key issues: categories of membership, the question of the veto held by the five permanent members, regional representation, the size of an enlarged Council and its working methods, and the Security Council-General Assembly relationship...
and an increase of the number of its permanent members. For this purpose both nations organized themselves together with Brazil and India to form the so called "G4 nations
G4 nations
The G4 is an alliance among Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan for the purpose of supporting each other’s bids for permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council. Unlike the G8 , where the common denominator is the economy and long-term political motives, the G4's primary aim is the...
". On 21 September 2004, the G4 issued a joint statement mutually backing each other's claim to permanent seats, together with two African countries. This proposal has found opposition in a group of countries called Uniting for Consensus. In January 2006, Japan announced that it would not support putting the G4 resolution back on the table and was working on a resolution of its own.
Certain inefficiencies with respect to the bilateral cooperation between Germany and Japan were also reflected in 2005, when former Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa
Kiichi Miyazawa
was a Japanese politician and the 78th Prime Minister from November 5, 1991 to August 9, 1993.-Early life and career:Miyazawa was born in Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, and graduated from Tokyo Imperial University with a degree in law. In 1942 he joined the Ministry of Finance...
wrote in a commemoration to the 20th anniversary of the Japanese-German Center in Berlin that
Nevertheless, as of 2008, Japan still was Germany's second largest trading partner in Asia after China. In 2006, German imports from Japan totaled €15.6 billion and German exports to Japan €14.2 billion (15.4% and 9% more than the previous year, respectively). In 2008, however, Japanese exports and imports to and from the European Union fell by 7.8 and 4.8% after growing by 5.8% in 2007 due to the global financial crisis. Bilateral trade between Germany and Japan also shrank in 2008, with imports from Japan having dropped by 6.6% and German exports to Japan having declined by 5.5%. Despite Japan having remained Germany's principal trading partner in Asia after China in 2008, measured in terms of total German foreign trade, Japan’s share of both exports and imports is relatively low and falls well short of the potential between the world’s third- and fourth-largest economies.
On 14 and 15 January 2010, German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle
Guido Westerwelle
Guido Westerwelle [] is a German liberal politician, who, since 28 October 2009, has been serving as the Foreign Minister in the second cabinet of Chancellor Angela Merkel, and who was Vice Chancellor of Germany from 2009 to 2011. He is the first openly gay person to hold either of those positions...
conducted his personal inaugural visit to Japan, focusing the talks with his Japanese counterpart, Katsuya Okada
Katsuya Okada
is a Japanese politician. A member of the House of Representatives of Japan, he is Secretary-General of the Democratic Party of Japan and was previously its President. From September 2009 to September 2010, he was Foreign Minister of Japan....
, on both nation's bilateral relations and global issues. Westerwelle emphasized, that and both ministers instructed their Ministries to draw up disarmament initiatives and strategies which Berlin and Tokyo can present to the international community together. Especially with regard to Iran's nuclear program, it was also stressed that Japan and Germany, both technically capable of and yet refraining from possessing any ABC weapons, should assume a leading role in realizing a world free of nuclear weapons and that international sanctions
International sanctions
International sanctions are actions taken by countries against others for political reasons, either unilaterally or multilaterally.There are several types of sanctions....
are considered to be an appropriate instrument of pressure. Furthermore, Westerwelle and Okada agreed to enhance cooperation in Afghanistan and to step up the stagnating bilateral trade between both countries. The visit was concluded in talks with Japan's Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama
Yukio Hatoyama
is a Japanese politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan between 16 September 2009 and 2 June 2010, and was the first ever Prime Minister from the modern Democratic Party of Japan....
, before which the German foreign minister visited the famous Meiji Shrine
Meiji Shrine
', located in Shibuya, Tokyo, is the Shinto shrine that is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken.-History:...
in the heart of Tokyo.
On Friday 11 March 2011, the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami
The 2011 earthquake off the Pacific coast of Tohoku, also known as the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, or the Great East Japan Earthquake, was a magnitude 9.0 undersea megathrust earthquake off the coast of Japan that occurred at 14:46 JST on Friday, 11 March 2011, with the epicenter approximately east...
, the most powerful known earthquake to hit Japan at the time, and one of the five most powerful recorded earthquakes of which Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan
Naoto Kan
is a Japanese politician, and former Prime Minister of Japan. In June 2010, then-Finance Minister Kan was elected as the leader of the Democratic Party of Japan and designated Prime Minister by the Diet to succeed Yukio Hatoyama. On 26 August 2011, Kan announced his resignation...
said, "In the 65 years after the end of World War II, this is the toughest and the most difficult crisis for Japan." hit Honshu
Honshu
is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...
. The earthquake and the resulting tsunami
Tsunami
A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...
not only devastated wide coastal areas in Miyagi Prefecture
Miyagi Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku Region on Honshu island. The capital is Sendai.- History :Miyagi Prefecture was formerly part of the province of Mutsu. Mutsu Province, on northern Honshu, was one of the last provinces to be formed as land was taken from the indigenous Emishi, and became the...
but also caused the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
The is a series of equipment failures, nuclear meltdowns, and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, following the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011. The plant comprises six separate boiling water reactors originally designed by General Electric ,...
triggering a widespread permanent evacuation surrounding the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant
Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant
The , also known as Fukushima Dai-ichi , is a disabled nuclear power plant located on a site in the towns of Okuma and Futaba in the Futaba District of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. First commissioned in 1971, the plant consists of six boiling water reactors...
. German chancellor Angela Merkel
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel is the current Chancellor of Germany . Merkel, elected to the Bundestag from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union since 2000, and chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary coalition from 2002 to 2005.From 2005 to 2009 she led a...
immediately expressed her deepest sympathy to all those affected and promised Japan any assistance it would call for. As a consequence rescue specialists from the Technisches Hilfswerk
Technisches Hilfswerk
The Bundesanstalt Technisches Hilfswerk is a civil protection organisation controlled by the German federal government...
as well as a scout team of I.S.A.R. Germany (International Search and Rescue) were sent to Japan, however parts of the German personnel had to be recalled due to radiation danger near the damaged power plant. Furthermore, the German Aerospace Center
German Aerospace Center
The German Aerospace Center is the national centre for aerospace, energy and transportation research of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has multiple locations throughout Germany. Its headquarters are located in Cologne. It is engaged in a wide range of research and development projects in...
provided TerraSAR-X
TerraSAR-X
TerraSAR-X, a German Earth observation satellite, is a joint venture being carried out under a public-private-partnership between the German Aerospace Center DLR and EADS Astrium GmbH; the exclusive commercial exploitation rights are held by the geo-information service provider Infoterra GmbH....
- and RapidEye
RapidEye
RapidEye AG is a German geospatial information provider focused on assisting in management decision-making through services based on their own Earth observation imagery. The company owns a five satellite constellation producing 5 meter resolution imagery that was designed and implemented by ...
-satellite imagery of the affected area. In the days after the disaster, numerous flowers, candles and paper cranes were placed in front of the Japanese embassy in Berlin by compassionates, including leading German politicians. Though never materialised, additional proposals for aid included sending special units of the German Bundeswehr
Bundeswehr
The Bundeswehr consists of the unified armed forces of Germany and their civil administration and procurement authorities...
to Japan, as the German Armed Forces' decontamination equipment belongs to the most sophisticated in the world.
On 2 April 2011, German Foreign Minister Westerwelle visited Tokyo on an Asia voyage, again offering Japan "all help, where it is needed" to recover from the tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster of the previous month. Westerwelle also emphasised the importance of making progress with a free trade agreement between Japan and the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
in order to accelerate the recovery of the Japanese economy. Together with his German counterpart, Japanese foreign minister Takeaki Matsumoto
Takeaki Matsumoto
is a Japanese politician of the Democratic Party of Japan, who is currently serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs. A native of Tokyo and graduate of the University of Tokyo, he was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in 2000 after running unsuccessfully as an independent...
also addressed potential new fields of cooperation between Tokyo and Berlin with respect to a reform of the United Nations Security Council
Reform of the United Nations Security Council
Reform of the United Nations Security Council encompasses five key issues: categories of membership, the question of the veto held by the five permanent members, regional representation, the size of an enlarged Council and its working methods, and the Security Council-General Assembly relationship...
.
See also
- History of JapanHistory of JapanThe history of Japan encompasses the history of the islands of Japan and the Japanese people, spanning the ancient history of the region to the modern history of Japan as a nation state. Following the last ice age, around 12,000 BC, the rich ecosystem of the Japanese Archipelago fostered human...
- History of GermanyHistory of GermanyThe concept of Germany as a distinct region in central Europe can be traced to Roman commander Julius Caesar, who referred to the unconquered area east of the Rhine as Germania, thus distinguishing it from Gaul , which he had conquered. The victory of the Germanic tribes in the Battle of the...
- British–Japanese relations
- French–Japanese relations
- Sino-German relationsSino-German relationsSino-German relations were formally established in 1861, when Prussia and the Qing Empire concluded the first Sino-German treaty during the Eulenburg Expedition. Ten years later, the German empire was founded and the new state inherited the old Prussian treaty...
- List of German ministers, envoys and ambassadors to Japan
- List of Japanese ministers, envoys and ambassadors to Germany
- Baruto no GakuenBaruto no Gakuenis a Japanese film released in 2006 and based on the true story of the Bandō Prisoner of War camp in World War I. It depicts the friendship of the German POWs with the director of the camp and local residents at the stage of Naruto, Tokushima Prefecture in Japan....
- Category:Foreign relations of the Empire of Japan (Japanese version)
- Category:Foreign relations of the State of Japan (Japanese version)
English
- Akira, Kudo. Japanese-German Business Relations: Co-operation and Rivalry in the Interwar Period (Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies) (1998)
- Brice, Martin. (1981) Axis Blockade Runners (ISBN 0713426861). Naval Inst.
- Katada, Saori N., Hanns Maull and Takashi Inoguchi, eds. Global Governance: Germany and Japan in the International System (2004)
- Presseisen, Ernst L. (1958) Germany and Japan – A Study in Totalitarian Diplomacy 1933–1941. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
- Spang, Christian W. and Rolf-Harald Wippich (eds.). (2006) Japanese–German Relations, 1895–1945. War, Diplomacy and Public Opinion (ISBN 0-415-34248-1). London: Routledge. excerpt and text search
- Warner, Geoffrey. "From Pearl Harbour to Stalingrad: Germany and its Allies in 1942," International Affairs, April 1978, Vol. 54 Issue 2, pp 282–92
Other languages
- Hübner, Stefan (2009) Hitler und Ostasien, 1904 bis 1933. Die Entwicklung von Hitlers Japan- und Chinabild vom Russisch-Japanischen Krieg bis zur "Machtergreifung" [Hitler and East Asia, 1904 to 1933. The Development of Hitler’s Image of Japan and China from the Russo-Japanese War to the "Coming to Power"], in OAG-Notizen 9/2009, 22–41.
- Ishii, Shiro et al. (ed.): Fast wie mein eigen Vaterland: Briefe aus Japan 1886–1889. [Almost as my own Motherland: Letters from Japan]. München: Iudicium 1995.
- Kreiner, Josef (ed.). (1984) Deutschland – Japan. Historische Kontakte [Germany – Japan. Historical Contacts]. Bonn: Bouvier.
- Kreiner, Josef (ed.). (1986) Japan und die Mittelmächte im Ersten Weltkrieg und in den zwanziger Jahren [Japan and the Central Powers in World War I and the 1920s]. Bonn: Bouvier.
- Kreiner, Josef and Regine Mathias (ed.). (1990) Deutschland–Japan in der Zwischenkriegszeit [Germany – Japan in the inter-war period]. Bonn: Bouvier.
- Pantzer, Peter und Saaler, Sven: Japanische Impressionen eines Kaiserlichen Gesandten. Karl von Eisendecher im Japan der Meiji-Zeit/明治初期の日本 － ドイツ外交官アイゼンデッヒャー公使の写真帖より (A German Diplomat in Meiji Japan: Karl von Eisendecher. German/Japanese). München: Iudicium, 2007.
- Martin, Bernd and Gerhard Krebs (eds.). (1994) Formierung und Fall der Achse Berlin–Tôkyô [Construction and Fall of the Berlin–Tôkyô Axis]. Munich: iudicium.
- Martin, Bernd. (2001) Deutschland und Japan im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1940–1945, Vom Angriff auf Pearl Harbor bis zu deutschen Kapitulation Nikol Verlagsgesellschaft mdH & Co. KG,Hamburg.
External links
- OAG (German East Asiatic Society)
- German Institute for Japanese Studies, Tōkyō
- Japanese–German Center, Berlin
- The Kaiser's 'Hun' Speech
- The Knackfuss Painting
