Why did Japan started their conquest only long after the European war?

Question

I just noticed one thing. On Dec 7 194, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and dragged the United States into the war. At the same time, it also moved down south to attack Shanghai and Canton before invading Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. It also bombed Darwin, Australia.

However, at that very moment, n**i Germany had already long conquered Western Europe. The Battle of Britain had already been fought and lost by the n***s. The war was then concentrated in Africa. In fact, if I am not mistaken, Europe was in a state of lull.

Why did Japan started its conquest only nearly after one and a half years after n**i Germany? Were they really as strong as they had seemed to be?

Answer 1

Japan started its imperial conquest in the 1930's in Manchuria (Korea) and China. in 1941 noticing the weakness of European forces in colonies such as Java, Singapore, Malaysia etc) Japan extended its campaign by attacking Pearl Harbour and invading those resource rich countries.

in part this was because there was no longer any effective support for the colonies of occupied countires such as Holland & France, and Britains dire shortage of resources (men and materials). by destroying the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbur Japan hoped to give themselves enough time to build up a insurmountable lead and then pesuade the US to sue for peace.

and incidentally it was a world war from the very first day in 1939, just becauee America was late (again) didn't mean that it was not a World War. you may care to check on the nations that were fighting on the Allied side (effectively the British side, especailly after the collapse of France). these include: Australia, Canada, Rhodesia, South Africa, New Zealand and a host of other commonwealth nations from the Caribbean, Africa, India and the Far East.

Answer 2

Not to mention that the Allies were slightly weakened and distracted by the war europe, Japan had the best opportunity to strike.

Answer 3

Yes, Japan already had been at war with China, officially since 1937.  The problem was China sked for US diplomatic pressure to end the war for the very reasons you stated, the war had stalled.  Because of this Japan knew taht they needed to secure their own resources.  To do that the needed to head south but also knew that any such invasions would bring them into war with the US and Britian.  Japan knew that the US Navy was the one thing that could stop them, o that was the reason for striking Pearl Habor, destroying the US navy to allow Japan to capture the resoures.

Answer 4

Japan was already at war- in China and in Korea. Korea had been conquered and so was manchuria- but they had problems in China

Japan started early. In 1905 they fought a war with Russia in order to take Manchuria( up to then a Russian colony) because it was a wedge between Japanese Korea and Japanese Manchuria/China

In reality Japan was very weak militarily. Their equipment was definetly sub-standard by European measure- even the Italian tanks (renowned for their poor armour) look impressive when compared to Japanese machines. The success of Japan early in the war was caused by the fact that while the japanese had bad tanks- the Allies had none (in the area)

The reason Japan attacked the US? One theory (and a good one) is the activity of Japanese communists led by the communist german/soviet agent Richard Sorghe. The Japanese army in China - by it's very existence- was blocking the movement of Stalin's siberian divisions. Pushing Japan into war with the US meant Stalin had a free hand and could use these divisions against Germany

very cold blooded and cynical- a typical communist move

Answer 5

They annexed Manchuria and carried out atrocities there.

They were probably encouraged by n**i success in Europe and used the same aggressive tactics to satisfy their own need for raw materials for their imperial ambitions.

Apart from the British fighting in North Africa and the Mediterranean, one of the only ways they could fight the n***s was through aerial bombardment of German Cities. so if you lived in Berlin and there was a Thousand Bomber Raid, you would not agree that there was a "lull".