Why was Japan in WWII?

Question

It just seems so odd that they were in the war at all. And why did the team up with Germany?

Answer 1

Since invading mainland China and French Indochina in 1940, Japan had been subject to increasing economic sanctions by the United States, Great Britain and Netherlands, and was attempting to reduce these sanctions through diplomatic negotiations. In December 1941, however, the war expanded once more when Japan, already in its fifth year of war with China, launched near simultaneous attacks against the United States and British assets in Southeast Asia; four days later, Germany declared war on the United States. This brought the United States and Japan into the greater conflict and turned previously separate Asian and European wars into a single global one.

Answer 2

It is not odd.

1. It was war time. European great powers were also in China continent.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concession_%28territory%29
2. The US was supporting Chiang Kaishek's anti-Japan movement.
3. The relation between UK, US and Japan were aggravated after the Tripartite Pact in 1940.
4. Japan sent military to Indochina in 1941. As a result, the US did asset freeze of Japanese/Japanese American in the US and imposed oil embargo.
5. Japan was negotiating through Ambassador to US, Kichisabur? Nomura, and diplomat Saburo Kurusu. However, Secretary of State Cordell Hull drop the proposal from Japan.
6. On Nov 26 1941, Cordell Hull presented the Japanese ambassador with the "'Hull note". It pressed Japan to give up many things and teritories.
http://www007.upp.so-net.ne.jp/togo/dic/data/hullnote.html
7. Japan took this note as an ultimatum. Papers reported like this too.
Japan thought the teritories which won before the Russo-Japanese War were legal and justified, as other western nations. And thought embargo was unfair. But Hull note didn't admit it.
These are the movement of Japanese government for entering the war.

And also read following articles. Interesting story.
http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=104
http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=951

Answer 3

It's not actually that strange that they were in the war. They had very strong expansionist tendencies and were earlier at war than any other party. Well before WW2 started. They invaded manchuria in 1931 and China in 1937. But that's not yet considered WW2 as Japan had not been declared war by any of the later allied parties.
As to why they teamed up with Germany, I need to read up on that but I believe that was because it was Allied countries it had to defeat to get to the SE oil reserves.

Answer 4

They started the war really. They invaded China and Korea for territory. Their plan was to seize resource rich territories because Japan itself is relatively resource poor. But to gain oil and rubber they needed to take the Phillipines, which was a US possession at the time. So they ended up at war with the US. They also wanted Burma and Hong Kong, which put them at odds with England.

Mostly the Japanese joined the Axis alliance in order to have allies. They really didn't serve any common interests and they never cooperated with Germany in any meaningful way. But it was more a response to the Allies.

Answer 5

it was totally about oil,america used to pump and supply as much oil back then as saudi arabia does today,we stopped trade with practically every country in the world and stopped all immigration to our country as this was law.japan's military leadership bullied their industrial might thru friendship with their emporer,japan had never lost a war in 4,000 years and they were bound and determined to get to oil,steel and other natural resources, even by taking other countries and likewise, germany also, like japan was a very racial state and wanted all of europe and asia, except the fareast, which japan wanted,america's west coast around southern california was in the main focus as los angeles and orange county had thousands of oil well just for the taking.

Answer 6

The pre-emptive attack on the US at Pearl Harbor is what many believe 'officially' brought them into the war.

Answer 7

They teamed up with Germany because Adolf Hitler thought he could rule the world.So Adolf Hitler paid the Japenese money to bomb the United States for Adolf hitler.He promised them that they could help rule the world, if they sucessfully killed us.