Did Germany and Japan conspire to launch World War 2 in timely fashion?

Answer 1

Not really. both countries ironically enough didn't want war until 1945, not 1939/41 when the war started.

Answer 2

Well, a tricky question. It is possible that they planned to initially.
Stalin was afraid of war with both Germany and Japan simultaneously. Possibly, this was the primary reason for him for signing the German-Soviet treaty in 1939. As you know Hitler attacked USSR and during 1941 Red army suffered a heavy defeat, but Stalin was able to bring reinforcements from Siberia and improved the situation for him greatly. If both Germany and Japan invaded USSR at the same time, the outcome of the war would be different probably. If USSR capitulated, German troops could crush Britain like they did with France. But Japan didn't do well in China and Mongolia earlier, so it was unable to attack Siberia in 1941. Instead they attacked the USA.

Answer 3

Japan started it's quest for imperial expansion in the Far East in 1931 whereas it was the late 1939 before Germany invaded Poland. It wasn't until 1941 when Japan bombed Pearl Harbour that Germany and Japan had a common enemy.

Answer 4

Certainly not.

Hitler truly believed that after he had been allowed to annex bits of other countries and the whole of Austria without any action by any other European countries, he could just carry on and do the same in Poland, and although various things might be said, nothing would actually be done about it. It was a nasty shock for him when he found that it had got him into a war, which he was better prepared for than anybody else, but nevertheless it had not been his objective.

Likewise, the Japanese thought that after Pearl Harbour, the Americans because of their inadequate sea power would just leave them alone to do whatever they wanted to in Eastern Asia (Burma, Indonesia etcetera). They did not expect to get into a real war over it, just a sort of hostile stand-off.

Answer 5

Definitely. The German offensive in Russia stalled in the first week of December 1941. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. This was more than coincidence. Germany was glad to see a traditional enemy of Russia militarily active. Japan thought they would have little competition in the Pacific.

Answer 6

Not really. The Japanese had invaded China in July 1937, two years before Germany invaded Poland and setting WW2 in motion (and there had been desultory fighting for 6 years prior to that). Them, they did not bomb Pearl harbour, bringing the Americans into the war until 1941. The two countries were allied merely by convenience, rather than any deep seated ideological reasons or desire to achieve the same aims.

Answer 7

Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. the US went to conflict with them through fact of that. Germany and Italy had a mutual protection %. with Japan, so while the US declared conflict on Japan, Germany and Italy immediately declared conflict on the US. We have been already backing Britain and France with help for scuffling with Germany and Italy.

Answer 8

WW2 began when Germany invaded Poland and Britain and France declared war on Germany because of their defensive pacts with Poland.Japan has nothing to do with that.They joined the war in 1941,when they atackted Perl Harbour.

Answer 9

Actually Germany wished Japan didn't attack the US because they preferred to fight England alone.

Answer 10

They didn't want to launch a war, they would have preferred to fight it alone