On December 7, 1941, Japan sneaked into Pearl Harbor in the United States, and when the news of the "victory" reached Japan, the whole country immediately boiled over, and people marched on the streets to celebrate the victory.
And while the Japanese people were celebrating "victory," what was Hideki Tojo, the initiator of the war, doing? According to Tojo Hideki's wife, Tojo Katsuko, on the night of the celebration of the "Pearl Harbor Victory", Tojo Hideki hid in a small darkroom in his house, crying beef cattle all over his face, crying, and saying, "It's over, it's over."
The attack on Pearl Harbor marked that Japan had gone into the madness of war
Pessimism about the prospects of war was a common sentiment among the Japanese hierarchy at the time, such as yamamoto Isoroku, commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, who said that if I went to war with the United States, my ultimate fate would be to die on the Nagato (Nagato was the flagship of the Japanese Combined Fleet before the War in the Pacific).
On the one hand, the cheers of the Japanese people, and on the other hand, the sighs of high-level officials such as Hideki Tojo, this is the scene at the beginning of Japan's launch of the Pacific War. Ordinary people do not understand the situation, and it is the Japanese top level who really understands the situation, so since the Japanese top level knows that once a war is launched against the United States, the prospects are very bleak, why should Japan go to war against the United States? And when Japan started the war against the United States, the whole of Japan not only did not have the slightest nervousness and fear, but fell into the madness of the national war, so why did Japan become crazy in World War II? This article will talk about this matter.
Manchu and Mongolian interests, the stem left by the Russo-Japanese War
After the Sino-Japanese War, Japan invaded Korea and Taiwan on the mainland, and its sphere of influence clashed with Russia, which was expanding in the northeast of the mainland at that time, and Japan also coordinated with Russia, and even said that it would cede the northeast to Russia, as long as Russia recognized Japan's interests in Korea, but even such a request, Russia still refused.
For Japan, if even Korea could not be saved, then the Sino-Japanese War would be tantamount to a white war, Russia would have touched Japan's fundamental interests, and the Russo-Japanese War would inevitably occur.
In the Russo-Japanese War, Japan suffered heavy losses
Throughout the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese army paid a heavy price of 240,000 casualties and 88,000 deaths, Japan not only paid heavy casualties, but also failed to get a penny of reparations from Russia after the war, and the only gain was the South Manchuria Railway. As soon as the news arrived in Japan, the frying pan in Japan was immediately fried, and many Japanese people believed that Japan had paid such a heavy price, how could it have come to such a result? Many Japanese people expressed strong dissatisfaction with this, which also led to incidents such as the Hibiya riots.
The Hibiya riots, in fact, are a group of young people in Japan, gathered in Hibiya Park, not far from the imperial palace, they think that so many people have died in Japan, and they talk about such a result, someone must be a traitor. Later, this group of people also ran to the embassy district to expel all foreigners, and engaged in smashing and burning in the embassy area.
As far as the Japanese high-level is concerned, the Russo-Japanese War is to allow Japan to obtain a strategic security zone, as long as the Russians' power is contained, Japan can occupy Korea with peace of mind, but the add-on of the war is that Japan has obtained Manchu and Mongolian interests, so the Japanese believe that they must protect the interests of Manchuria and Mongolia no matter what.
But in fact, this interest cannot be saved.
When Li Hongzhang signed a Sino-Russian secret treaty with Tsarist Russia, Tsarist Russia said that it would build a Middle East railway in the northeast, which ran through the entire northeast and was built to Vladivostok, of which the South Manchuria Railway was part. The railway has a lease term, a total of 80 years, and after 80 years, these benefits will be returned to China.
After the Gengzi national disaster, Tsarist Russia permanently occupied this railway and would not pay it back at all. But for Japan, they were waging a war internationally on the Chinese pretext of exorcising the Russians on the pretext of exorcising the Russians.
So now that the Japanese have driven the Russians away, should Japan return the land in the northeast to China? Even if it is not repaid, according to the agreement, Japan should pay it back after 80 years, and when the Russo-Japanese War was fought in 1906, there were only 70 years left.
Therefore, the Japanese did not feel much about these interests, and the public opinion in Japan at that time believed that the interests of Manchuria and Mongolia were exchanged by Japan with "blood" and must be preserved. Keeping Manchuria became a meme in Japan's later frenzy.
During the Taisho era, it was possible for Japan to become a normal country
Coincidentally, the political situation in Japan also changed later, and after the death of Emperor Meiji, Emperor Taisho ascended the throne. Because the Japanese imperial family has long engaged in close relatives marriage, so many emperors have some congenital diseases, The Taisho Emperor suffered from cerebral thrombosis at the age of 40, due to insufficient oxygen supply to the brain, it later developed into mental illness.
Emperor Taisho
The Taisho Emperor, on the other hand, was more aware of his son, and during the Taisho period, there was also a certain democratic atmosphere in Japan, and the Japanese government at that time was able to suppress the militarist forces. For example, a well-known politician in Japan at that time, Saienji Gongwang, stopped the military expansion plan when he was prime minister.
At that time, the Japanese military department heard that it could not expand the army, so it did not do it, saying that the military department would not nominate the minister of war and the minister of the navy, that is to say, in the Japanese cabinet, the military department was going to withdraw from the cabinet, if so, then the Saienji Gongwang could not form a cabinet, and the military department used the nomination of the minister of the army and the navy to blackmail the Saienji gongwang to agree to their military expansion plan.
After this matter came out, it was 1912, the democratic atmosphere in Japan was very strong, the Japanese people generally showed resistance to the practice of the military department, a large number of left-wing media in the country openly attacked the practice of the military department, and the Taisho Emperor also came forward at this time to accuse the military department of its behavior, and the military department suddenly became the target of public criticism and had to choose compromise.
Saienji Temple
In this case, the cabinet of Saienji Gongwang was stabilized, and after that, the power of the Japanese military department was greatly constrained, and if Japan continued along this path, It would not be possible to have World War II.
In the Taisho era of Japan, the development of the private media and ideas was very vigorous, and by 1924, Japan had realized a party parliament, and many constitutional figures in Japan, such as Kishiro Motohara, who drafted the "Peace Constitution", was a political figure who grew up during this period, who served as the prime minister of Japan after World War II, and he clearly stipulated in the "Peace Constitution" that Japan should give up the right to choose war, which even MacArthur was very surprised.
Another example is Ishibashi Zhanshan, who also served as the prime minister of Japan after World War II, he put forward a very interesting doctrine, called little Japaneseism, the core idea is that Japan is a small country, limited resources, limited mobilization ability, so we should learn from the Netherlands like the small European countries, to trade as a country, to do business to make money, not to be full of Mongolian interests, is not very good? The Russo-Japanese War was a war of self-defense that we waged in order to defend our country. And if we return Manchuria to China, we can also have good relations with China, and in the future, everyone will be able to do business and jointly resist the West.
Stone bridge Cham Mountain
Petunitism was very popular in Japan at the time, and Ishibashi, including later Prime Minister Inuyasha, was of the same view. Such a concept was once very popular in Japan during the Taisho era.
The right-wing formation of public opinion in Japan during the Showa period
However, after the Showa period in Japan, this idea of democratization was countered and a nationwide consensus was formed.
At the beginning of the First World War, Japan existed as a neutral country, so Japan has ambassadors in European countries, and there are also a large number of military attaches stationed abroad, these military attaches stationed abroad are elites in the military, and they are also the future stars of the Japanese army.
Among these military attachés was a man named Nagata Tetsuyama, who served as Japan's military attaché to many European countries during World War I, and he also had a very good relationship with Hirohito, who was still the crown prince at the time.
Nagata Iron Mountain
After observing the war situation in Europe carefully, Nagata Tetsuyama felt that things were not good, because the entire form of war in Europe had undergone tremendous changes at that time.
We know that before the First World War, the war in the whole world was a limited war, such as the Sino-Japanese War, the Qing Dynasty did not consume all its national strength, and then such as the Russo-Japanese War, Japan and Russia did not fight all their national strength, this is a limited war.
In the case of limited war, Japan was profitable, because neither the Qing Dynasty nor Russia would do their best to fight Japan.
But in the First World War, the situation changed completely, in the First World War, all the countries did their best to produce the form of the war of the whole war, that is, all the countries hollowed out their homes to fight until one side was completely defeated.
Nagata Tetsuyama and others felt that if it was the form of a general war, Japan would not be able to win the war at all, after all, Japan is a small country, if it is a neighboring country, such as a general war with a big country like China, if China's mobilization ability comes up, and Japan's national strength cannot support the overall war, it will eventually lose.
So Nagata Tetsuyama put forward the idea of the overall war and made a report. At that time, Emperor Taisho was no longer in good health, and the regency was made by Crown Prince Hirohito, and this report was seen by Hirohito, who saw this report and felt that Nagata Tetsuyama was a talent. When Hirohito visited Europe after World War I, he met with Nagata Iron Mountain and expressed his support for Nagata Iron Mountain.
Therefore, in the Japanese military headquarters, Nagata Tetsuyama was the leader, and gradually developed a militarist organization, Futabakai, ishihara Guan'er, Sakahara Seishiro, Tojo Hideki and others all joined this organization. The idea of these people was to unite the country's strength and wage a national war, which was the case with the Japanese military at that time.
For Hirohito, he must not only achieve national unity in the military department, but also in the whole country, and he first targets the Japanese media.
Hirohito
In 1926, Hirohito began regency, and until 1937, there were more than 350 left-wing newspapers in Japan that had been ordered to shut down by the government, and the country suddenly changed from a high state in the Taisho era to a state of ten thousand horses in the Showa era.
In Hirohito's view, these media are all adding to the chaos, you better not speak up, the whole country is best to have one voice, this voice is Hirohito's voice, and Hirohito also joined forces with nagata Tetsuyama in the army to control the Japanese media.
After the Meiji Restoration, Various Ideas emerged in Japan, both militarism and liberalism, and in the late Meiji period, the liberal ideology gradually grew old and withdrew from the mainstream of Japanese public opinion during the Showa period.
On the contrary, Japan's young zhuang faction is a group of people who appeared in the Taisho era, these people in childhood, Japan won the Sino-Japanese War, to the juvenile period, Japan won the Russo-Japanese War, during this time Japan has been constantly winning, in their eyes, Japan is an invincible existence, so for them, as long as they can integrate all of Japan's resources, Japan is a god to block the killing of god, Buddha to block the existence of Killing Buddha.
This has formed a great public opinion in Japan.
And to what extent was the public opinion of the Japanese right at that time? In the 1930s, japan conducted a major air defense exercise in the showa 8, that is, in the mid-1930s, and they believed that in future wars, Japan might be subjected to air strikes. But the Japanese media, there is a newspaper called The Shindo Mainichi Shimbun, published an article, the article held that Japan's houses are all wooden structures, and the Americans were developing incendiary bombs at that time, if you really fight with the United States, the Americans dropped incendiary bombs, a burning is a large piece, this kind of prevention and control exercise you are engaged in is actually useless.
Later facts also proved the newspaper's claims, but as soon as the article was published, it caused a huge reaction in Japan, and many people in the private sector directly hit the newspaper and demanded that the editor-in-chief resign and the reporter who published the article also resign. The newspaper said that we are saying this for the good of the country. As a result, this matter went to the court, and the court did not care about this matter, and as a result, under the influence of a large number of angry youth in Japan, the newspaper had to succumb to this trend.
Later, the angry youth in Japan launched a campaign not to buy, that is, not to buy newspapers of the left-wing media, and this movement also formed a force, and finally the left-wing media was silent and did not dare to publish articles on leftist views.
Corresponding to this is the gain of the right-wing media. For example, today's Yomiuri Shimbun, one of the three major media in Japan, actually entered the state of smashing pots and selling iron in the 1930s, with a circulation of only a few hundred copies.
But in 1931, the Yomiuri Shimbun came across an opportunity.
Promoting right-wing ideas, Yomiuri Shimbun became the most successful newspaper in Japan at that time
When the 918 Incident was launched, many of the media in Japan at that time could still remain calm, and they believed that the 918 Incident was not necessarily a good thing, because after the 918 Incident, this kind of hard-fought behavior would be criticized in the international community, and this kind of blatant occupation of a country's territory was not right in the eyes of many highly educated people in Japan, but no one dared to speak about this matter at that time.
But the Yomiuri Shimbun came out and said it, took the lead in breaking the silence, applauded the behavior of the Kwantung Army, stood for Japan's aggressive behavior, and when the Japanese right-wingers saw it, finally someone spoke for them, so they frantically bought the Yomiuri News, and the Yomiuri News suddenly went from a tabloid on the verge of bankruptcy to the largest newspaper in Japan in just a few years, and by the time the war was launched in 1941, it had become a large newspaper with a circulation of tens of millions of copies.
So from a non-governmental point of view, Japan is equivalent to shielding the voice of reason. In fact, at that time, there were also rational people in Japan, and the role of these rational people was that every time Japan took a step forward, it could reflect on whether it would work in the end, whether it was good or not. But when only one voice is allowed to exist in Japan, when only right-wing voices are allowed to exist in Japan, Japan has erected a left wall, then Japan can only go to the right, and the voices of the right wing are more and more crazy.
Right-wing ideologies have plunged Japan's diplomacy into an unprecedented isolation
This right-wing force in Japan was established in the early Showa period and quickly reacted to diplomacy.
Today, Japan has been seeking permanent membership in the United Nations, but Japan's hopes of becoming a permanent member have always been very slim. However, none of us may have thought that Japan was once a permanent member, and in the era of the League of Nations, Japan, as the representative of Asia, occupied a seat in the five permanent members of the League of Nations, and it had great influence in the international community.
After the September 18 Incident, Gu Weijun was tasked with filing a complaint against Japan in the League of Nations, and at that time Japan was one of the five permanent members of the League of Nations, and China did not have much political status in the League of Nations.
However, Gu Weijun grasped the point accurately, that is, the wounds of the First World War in The European-led Britain, France and other countries have not healed, and if the war is allowed to develop, it will drag Britain and France into the pattern before the First World War, and Britain and France are likely to face the big war again, so Britain and France must take care of this matter.
Gu Weijun, a famous diplomat on the mainland
After Gu Weijun's efforts, Britain and France gradually abandoned the initial neutral attitude and began to support China diplomatically, and this kind of thing was later placed in front of Japan, and when Britain and France supported China, the delegation of the League of Nations to Northeast China also believed that it did not support Japan's behavior in the September 18 Incident, did not think that Japan was out of self-defense, but that Japan took the initiative to launch a war of aggression, and at the same time did not support the puppet Manchukuo supported by Japan. After the report of the delegation was issued, this report also showed the attitude of the League of Nations, and the news spread to Japan, because Japan had completely fallen into a right-wing atmosphere at this time, so the Japanese believed that this was the League of Nations bullying them, and Japan wanted to fight to the end, and the people wrote joint letters everywhere, and even some radicals directly cut off their thumbs and sent them to the Japanese delegation in the League of Nations.
At that time, the Japanese representative to the League of Nations was Yosuke Matsuoka, who also became a war criminal after the war and was tried. In fact, Matsuoka came to the United States when he was a teenager, lived in the United States for a long time, is one of the few Japanese people in Japan who speaks English more than Japanese, and is also a very sophisticated diplomatic talent, he knows that Japan stays in the League of Nations, and if it goes to argue with those countries in Britain and the United States, it is actually the best for Japan's interests.
But there was strong pressure in Japan for Matsuoka to resist the mission's report, retain Manchurian interests while retaining his permanent membership, and respond with a tough stance.
Matsuoka could not laugh after reading the instructions at home, he knew that Japan could not retain both Manchu and Mongolian interests and the status of a permanent member, so he could only talk to Britain through the friendship of the former Anglo-Japanese alliance, but in the end it was still impossible to talk.
For Matsuoka, if Japan wants to stay in the League of Nations and retain its status as a permanent member, it must promise to rectify the Manchu-Mongolian issue, and if this is also beneficial to Japan, it will not fall into unprecedented diplomatic isolation, and there is still a huge voice in the League of Nations.
But Matsuoka also has his own calculations, if he agrees to rectify the League of Nations, then he will become a Japanese traitor at home, at that time there have been a large number of assassinations of officials in Japan, such as the May 15 Incident, even Prime Minister Inuyasha was killed, so Matsuoka also knew that if he did not get it, he would also be killed by the right-wing elements in Japan.
Therefore, Matsuoka, as a typical British-American faction, as a person who opened his eyes to the world in Japan, made a particularly extreme speech, and in 1933 he delivered a speech entitled "Japan on the Cross" at the League of Nations Congress.
Matsuoka's speech at the League of Nations made the international community feel inexplicable
What does his speech mean? This means that Japan is Jesus, crucified and suffering for the world, and although we in Japan are suffering now, in a few years, the international community will understand us.
Of course, today we look at Songgang's speech again, it is completely funny and nonsense. After Matsuoka finished speaking, he announced that Japan had withdrawn from the League of Nations, and then he left directly. Matsuoka's speech shocked the entire international community at that time, which was very surprising in the international community at that time. Will the Japanese be diplomatic?
So why did Songgang do this? When he returned to China, you will understand that after Matsuoka returned to China, he was immediately treated like an emperor, and the people welcomed him and buried him directly. At that time, American newspapers also said that even if the emperor went on tour, he would not be treated like this.
According to the requirements of the Japanese Military Department, Matsuoka was not humble in the international arena and passionately defended Japan's interests, but Matsuoka told the truth in private, saying, We have obviously suffered a major diplomatic failure, but we have received such a great welcome at home.
Right-wing ideologies led Japan to go further and further down the road of war
Unfortunately, these words were not heard by anyone in Japan at that time, and Japan had fallen into the madness of the right wing.
At that time, any media in Japan, with a little leftist view, would be considered to be what kind of intention? The newspapers would be shut down immediately, so the entire Japanese media would only be shouting and shouting.
So after 9/18, Japan began to ride the road of war.
After the Lugou Bridge Incident in 1937, Japan was caught in a full-scale war with China, and Emperor Hirohito at the time knew that things were getting bigger, so how should it end?
According to Konoe Fumimaro's recollection, after the Lugou Bridge Incident, Hirohito summoned Rikusho Yamamoto, and the Emperor also knew that this matter was mainly done by the Army, because the Minister of War was only responsible to the Emperor, not to the Prime Minister, Hirohito asked Yoshiyamamoto, now that things are so big, how do you end it?
Yi Shanyuan patted his chest and promised that the Chinese incident would be resolved within three months, and our side's theory of "destroying China within three months" actually came from here. It is very interesting that at the end of 1941, when Japan decided to go to war against the United States, after the cabinet made a decision, someone had to report to the emperor, and the result was that Moto Ikuyama went to make a report with Hirohito.
Shirt Mountain Yuan
As soon as Hirohito saw that you were here again, he asked how long you were going to go to war with the United States? At this time, I was a little cautious, saying that we are confident that the South Sea side will be resolved in three months, and the Pacific side, we may need half a year, and defeat the United States within half a year.
As soon as Hirohito heard this, he knew that what Akiyama Moto said was also too ridiculous, so he asked, when the war with China was waged, you said that it was solved in three months, and now it has been fighting for four years, why has it not been solved? Yi Shanyuan said with a hard scalp, which is because China's hinterland is too vast. As soon as the emperor heard this, he was angry, saying that China's hinterland is vast, but the Pacific hinterland is not large? China's hinterland is huge, but the U.S. hinterland is not huge?
At this time, Akiyama Moto had nothing to say, and the minister of the Navy, Nagano Shuji, said that the problem now is that the patient has a sick and can't move the operation, if the operation is still saved, if it does not operate, it will not be saved.
At this time, Hirohito also understood, so he asked, is this the legendary dead horse as a living horse doctor? Moto nodded and said yes.
This was the case in Japan at that time.
Only one voice exists, leading to the limitations of Japanese thinking
The reason why Japan has come to this point is that when the reflection in Japan fades, the Japanese people are caught in their own thinking.
In fact, the three-month solution to the Chinese problem and the half-year solution to the American problem mentioned by Motoyasa Do not mean that China or the United States should be defeated in three months, and at that time, the Japanese people's thinking was still stuck in the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, and what was carried out was a limited war.
In the Taisho era of Japan, ishibashi Zhanshan and these people clearly put forward that if there is another war, it will not be a limited war, and half of the peace talks between the two sides will be fought, and then Japan will gain some benefits, and the two sides will strike, and such a good thing will not be seen after that. The ensuing war was basically two countries mobilizing all their resources to fight until one side completely defeated the other.
After Nagata Tetsuyama and others achieved national unity, the voices of ishibashi's people were blocked, and there was no such idea in Japan, and the Japanese at that time believed that we should fight a war or a local war.
Under the thinking of this kind of local war, Motoyama believed that Japan could fight in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, in three months, and then the Republic of China would negotiate peace with Japan, and Japan could force China to recognize the legitimacy of the puppet state of Manchukuo, pay some compensation, and preferably cede some land in North China.
However, Ikuyama Moto did not expect that at that time, the world had entered the stage of the overall war, and many other countries except Japan had already entered the thinking of the overall war, including China.
At that time, China implemented the policy of resisting the war to the end, in short, unless Japan withdrew from all the territory occupied since July 1937, there was no possibility of peace talks.
Japan's idea, on the other hand, was that it could knock China down within three months, as it did when war on the United States began in 1941.
When we look at the historical data at that time, Japan's thinking at that time was still stuck in the Russo-Japanese War, and at the time of the Russo-Japanese War, Japan's naval strength was 60% of Russia's, and Because Russia's territory was too large, it not only had a navy in the Pacific Ocean, but also a fleet in the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, so it was impossible to concentrate all the navies in one place, so Japan could form a military superiority over the Russian navy in Asia. In the Russo-Japanese War, Japan first eliminated the Russian Pacific Fleet, and then eliminated the Baltic Fleet (second Pacific Fleet) from Russia, thus winning the naval battle.
Although the United States' naval strength far exceeds that of Japan, the Japanese naval strength is equivalent to sixty percent of the U.S. Navy when the war begins, but Japan believes that the United States has two oceans, the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, so in the Pacific, the Japanese Navy still has an advantage over the U.S. Navy.
So why was Japan in a hurry to go to war against the United States in late 1941? It's actually such a way of thinking.
At that time, Japan's domestic public opinion was already extremely right-wing, and Japan repeatedly publicized that the imminent outbreak of the Pacific War was a copy of the Russo-Japanese War, and the Americans were nothing remarkable, they were also two oceans, we first eliminated the Pacific Fleet, and then eliminated the Atlantic Fleet that came from afar, and then the United States would negotiate peace with us like Russia at that time, so that Japan could achieve the final victory.
In fact, if we are a little more rational, we all know that this is just a kind of unrequited love for the Japanese. Because other countries will not follow the Japanese routine at all, if other countries do not follow this routine, what do you do?
As for why the Japanese Navy rushed to war in 1941, it was actually a plan made by the Japanese Navy. At the time of the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese Navy was about 60% of Russia's strength, so the six achievements became a criterion for the Japanese Navy, that is, if the other side had two oceans, Japan could win with 60% of the troops.
But at that time, because of the war in Europe, the War Machine of the United States had actually been activated, the United States had aided Britain through a large number of aid bills, and factories had begun to mass-produce military products. By the end of 1941, Japan believed that the Japanese naval strength at that time could only barely maintain about 60% of the United States, and could barely defeat the United States, but if this opportunity was missed, and the American war machine continued to move, the Japanese Navy would have no chance of victory.
Therefore, the navy originally avoided war, but at this juncture, it was eager to start fighting, and the Japanese navy believed that if it missed this point, it would not have the confidence to fight.
Ishihara Guan'er
Another reason for Japan's war was industrial products such as oil and steel. Japan is a country with scarce resources, Ishihara Guan'er and others launched the 918 Incident, the purpose is also for resources, according to Ishihara Guan'er's idea, Japan after September 18, it is necessary to stop, develop the economy in the northeast, run the northeast well, have rich resources and then make the next plan.
Originally, this was a train of thought, but by 1941, the rational right wing of Ishihara Guan'er could no longer speak out, and among the Japanese army with the right wing, there was no rationality at all.
Many people in the Japanese military department saw that Ishihara Guan'er and others had soared because they launched the 918 Incident, and they could not hold back and wanted to continue to expand abroad and make meritorious achievements.
Therefore, at that time, the impulse to expand within the Japanese Army was very large, but to expand it was necessary to start the war machine, and to start the war machine, it was necessary to have the support of industrial products such as oil and steel, which Japan did not have, and could only be provided by the United States. At that time, 80% of Japan's scrap steel and 90% of its oil were supplied by the United States.
At that time, the madness of the Japanese right-wing was also unfounded, as long as the Americans squeezed the oil scrap, Japan would have no rut. But the United States did not expect that Japan had become so crazy that it wanted to fight a war with the United States.
This trend of thought, in turn, forced Japan to launch a war against the United States, which had already begun to warn Japan in 1939 that if Japan continued to wage a war of aggression against China, the United States would impose trade sanctions on Japan.
As far as US-Japan relations are concerned, in fact, it is still possible to ease up at that time. The United States implemented a policy of appeasement, and in July 1941 the United States only demanded that Japan withdraw from its Chinese headquarters and the Vietnamese region, which was a very favorable condition, and the United States also implied that Japan would recognize the puppet state of Manchukuo if Japan did so. If Japan had stopped the war in time, it would have at least ended it with the result of taking away tohoku. But in this case, we in China will be unlucky.
Because if Japan had made such a choice at that time, then Japan would not only have Northeast China, Korea, and Taiwan, but also occupy one of the five permanent members of the United Nations in the post-war world pattern presided over by the United States, then today, Japan would have become a political and economic power.
Fortunately, however, different voices can no longer be heard in Japan.
Hideki Tojo had a little brother named Ken Sato at that time, and this man was also one of the main war criminals after the war, and he said to Tojo, the Americans are soft, after we hit the northeast, the Americans will recognize North Korea, after we break into the hinterland of China, they will talk to us about the northeast, we will enter Vietnam, they will recognize the puppet state of Manchukuo, so if we fight another war, will we get more?
Ken Sato was still very young at the time, a Showa youth of the Eight Classics, in that environment, he had no normal thinking, in his opinion, a war with the United States is nothing, many problems will be solved in a war. And the Americans are very soft, even if Japan gains inches, the Americans will not do anything. Sato also had a remark, he said that the Americans are walking unevenly, and they still chew gum when they go out, while the Japanese soldiers are walking in unison, and the Japanese soldiers are very patriotic, so one Japanese soldier can defeat three American soldiers.
And Hideki Tojo's side is full of people who think abnormally.
So what is the situation with Hideki Tojo? In fact, Hideki Tojo is a stupid existence in Japan. When he applied for the Army University, he did not pass the exam three times in a row, and later because his father was a bully of the Army University, he was only allowed to go to the Army University for his father's sake.
It can be said that Tojo himself has a low IQ, and he is surrounded by such a group of brain-dead people, who are influenced by the people around him and believe that Japan can confront Britain and the United States.
Exhausted, Japan finally chose to carry out the war to the end
Therefore, by the end of 1941, the Konoe Fumimaro government had reached the point of exhaustion, on the one hand, the Navy submitted a report, saying that there would be no chance of no more war, on the other hand, the US Secretary of State Hull also warned Japan at this time, demanding that Japan not only withdraw from the hinterland of China, but also withdraw from the northeast. If Japan does not do so, the United States will freeze Japan's assets and interrupt any trade with Japan. Once the United States interrupts Japan's trade, Japan will not be able to obtain such industrial products as oil and steel, and without these industrial products as oil and steel, Japan will not be able to go to war in military production, and without military products, Japan's war of aggression against China will not be able to continue.
Under such circumstances, Japan is faced with the choice of war or peace, and if it chooses peace talks, will the public opinion that has been instigated in Japan allow such peace talks? I am afraid that before the peace talks, the Guards will be unloaded by the radicals in the country.
If he chose to start fighting, Konoe Fumimaro also knew that Japan could not defeat the United States at all, and when Japan was defeated, it would hold the war criminals responsible, and he would not be able to run, so the situation at that time was really a dilemma for Konoe Fumimaro.
Official old fritter Konoe Fumimaro
For this reason, Fumimaro Konoe also held a cabinet meeting at that time, and no one dared to speak at the cabinet meeting. Everybody you look at me, I look at you, don't know what to do. In the end, Hideki Tojo stood up and said that the situation was already in this situation, there was no way, only a war against Britain and the United States could have a glimmer of life.
And Konoe Fumimaro, an old oilman in the official field, as soon as he saw Hideki Tojo take the initiative to stand up and speak, he immediately grabbed the life-saving straw, since you Tojo said so, that's very good, this prime minister you come to be, you come to bear the responsibility of starting a war against the United States.
The Konoe Cabinet soon offered the resignation of the General, and Hideki Tojo formed a new cabinet to take responsibility for the war against the United States.
Soon after Tojo took office, he soon received many petitions for war, and Tojo preached the war, which was originally a slogan he shouted, in order to kidnap the entire country of Japan and open the way for his political future, but at this time, he was kidnapped by the slogan he put forward.
So we see the scene at the beginning of this article, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, while all the Japanese were cheering, Tojo was crying alone in a small dark room.
From this, we can also see that at this time, Tojo also understood that Japan could not fight this war, and Japan had no possibility of winning at all.
But what could he do? He originally wanted to kidnap the people with a nationally unanimous slogan, but in the end he was kidnapped by his own slogan and kidnapped by the emotions of the Japanese people, and could only go to the road of no return of war.
Therefore, Japan's road to war is actually a process of mutual hypnosis and mutual encouragement between the people and the government, and at the beginning it was Hirohito, and it was Nagata Tetsuyama who pulled the people in their own direction through the unanimous means of the whole country to enhance their political status, but the result was that public opinion in turn forced the Japanese government to go to the road of no return to war.
In this way, when there is no voice of opposition in Japan, when there is no voice of reason in Japanese society, Japan can only go farther and farther down the road of war, and finally go to the end of the day of destruction.