Why did the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact take 2 years to sign after the Battle of Khalkin Gol?
score:6
The Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact was not signed because they bloodied each other's noses and were done. It was signed because both sides knew they were about to go to war. The Soviets with Germany and Japan with the US. Both sides were eager to secure their flank from the other.
On the Japanese side there was a debate between a northern and southern strategies. The army backed Hokushin-ron aimed at China, Manchuria, and Siberia. The navy backed Nanshin-ron aimed at Indochina and the South Pacific.
Khalkhin Gol spelled the decline of Hokushin-ron, but it took some time for this to be fully abandoned, for the navy to gain supremacy, and for tensions with the US to reach a boiling point.
The Soviets and Germans had no illusions that the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact would hold. Hitler was very clear about his contempt for the Slavs and plans to expand eastward. The Soviets were eager to delay the coming war with Germany as long as possible to give themselves more time to prepare, something made very acute after their humiliation in the Winter War with Finland. The Germans wanted to secure their Eastern flank while they were stomping around Western Europe and Scandinavia, as well as secure valuable resources that would be cut off in the inevitable Allied blockade.
The Soviets were riding a knife edge with Germany. On the one hand, there were talks of the Soviet Union joining the Axis in late 1940, but these went nowhere. On the other hand, German and Soviet paranoia meant any move could be seen as hostile. A Soviet treaty with Japan could been seen as strengthening ties with the Axis, or it would be seen as securing their flank in preparation for war with Germany.
Once Japan joined the Axis in late 1940 it became more clear that a treaty with Japan would be seen, publicly anyway, as a gesture of goodwill and peace towards the Axis. The Soviets ultimately decided to negotiate a treaty. Meanwhile Germany had already decided to invade.
Upvote:0
I think the answer is how Japan viewed the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Japan was moving toward war with the USSR thinking Germany was doing the same.
After the defeat at Khailkhin Gol, Japan knew it would need a larger commitment. With the pact, Japan also knew it could not count on Germany. That is, had Japan attacked the USSR after Germany invaded, the fear was that Germany would make peace with the USSR. Japan waited to make peace because it wanted to keep the world guessing.
Upvote:1
What I got from War in the Far East volume 1, by Harmsen is that, in mid 1939, Japan was not only wanting to insulate itself from USSR risks, it was hoping for an expanded German-USSR-Japan axis to allow a unified stance against the powers Japan was either at war with or potentially hostile to:
China, USA, UK
In other words, it didn't them 2 years to draw a line under Khalkin Gol and expanding into Russia. It took them 2 years to get to a point where they partially committed to good relations with Russia with the hope of closer relations on an expanded Axis, including Russia, because they were already buddies with Germany.
Apparently, once they knew of Barbarossa, they told Russia they'd not have signed it if they knew Germany's intentions. That can be either because they'd have wanted to participate in that attack. Or because they knew the Japan-Germany-Russia axis was futile.
More post
- 📝 What made the English the dominant power of the British Isles?
- 📝 Where did Vasco Núñez de Balboa first see the South Ocean?
- 📝 Has anyone recently seen Chinese old customary greeting pose?
- 📝 Was there an occasion when nazis turned their backs on a national anthem?
- 📝 In epic migrations, why keep going?
- 📝 Roman armies seem to dislike fighting at night, Livy called it dishonourable. Skulking about. (Ennius, Scaenica, 254-7) Why?
- 📝 When was the first time lower-class people had a reasonable chance of having a fair trial?
- 📝 How much salt did people in agricultural societies eat?
- 📝 What was the last public school to desegregate in the US? And when?
- 📝 What did Hitler say in Mein Kampf about the possibility of other nations allying against Germany in response to her aggression?
- 📝 What was the official position of China during the Sino-Soviet border clashes in the 1960s?
- 📝 Why some countries have more than one name?
- 📝 Hitler's Death: Fact or Fiction
- 📝 Did Mithridates VI ever lead 500,000 soldiers?
- 📝 Why exactly did telegraphs have to use "STOP" instead of a period and "QUOTE" instead of a quotation mark? (Or special codes.)
- 📝 What is the oldest road tunnel in the world?
- 📝 Nymphodorus of Syracuse
- 📝 During segregation and Jim Crow laws in the US what happened if a person was allowed to use white facilities but other users objected?
- 📝 What options were available to MacArthur to prepare for Chinese intervention in the Korean War?
- 📝 When did the Running of the Bulls begin?
- 📝 Did Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, leader of the Awami league win any seats in West Pakistan in the 1971 elections?
- 📝 Why did the Swabian Hohenzollern princes give away their power to the Prussian king in 1850?
- 📝 Did modern soldiers try to miss their shots?
- 📝 Did most pants in the late 1800s have plackets at the ankle?
- 📝 Why was the number of U.S. Representatives limited?
- 📝 What was Libya's form of direct democracy (Jamahiria) like in practice?
- 📝 What did Catesby and crew expect to do after the explosion?
- 📝 Was the Dutch State independent when the Dutch East India Company was founded?
- 📝 Date this Jubilee Day photo
- 📝 History of monogamy
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Why did the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact take 2 years to sign after the Battle of Khalkin Gol?
- 📝 Why did few French and no Dutch pilots (but many Poles and Czechs) take part in the Battle of Britain?
- 📝 How long did it take to repair wooden war ships after battle in the 1600's to 1800's?
- 📝 Why did Charlemagne retreat after the Battle of Pamplona?
- 📝 Why did the Tripartite Pact take so long to sign?
- 📝 Why did the USA revoke the arms embargo or sanction on Turkey only after 3 years of the invasion of Cyprus?
- 📝 Why did the British scuttle the u-boats surrendered after WWII?
- 📝 Why did stock brokers go bankrupt after the crash of 1929?
- 📝 Why did LBJ, a staunch segregationist, champion and sign the 1964 Civil Rights Bill?
- 📝 Why did it take so long to abandon sail after steamships were demonstrated?
- 📝 Why didn't Hannibal attack Rome after the Battle of Cannae?
- 📝 Why did it take so long for Europeans to adopt the moldboard plow?
- 📝 Why did it take over 100 years for Britain to begin seriously colonising America?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union not "grant" Inner Mongolia to Mongolia after World War Two?
- 📝 Did American policymakers seriously consider scaling down Lend Lease Aid to the Soviet Union after the battle of Kursk?
- 📝 Why did it take so long for the Germans to develop the first tank model in World War I?
- 📝 Why did the Turks adopt the Latin alphabet after WWI?
- 📝 Why did Latin disappear so completely in Britain after the Romans left?
- 📝 Why did the Spanish take the island of Annobon in the Treaty of El Pardo in 1778?
- 📝 Why was the last battle of the War of 1812 fought fully half a year after the official end of the war?
- 📝 Why did the French insist on reclaiming Indo-China after WWII?
- 📝 Why did Germany decide not to restore the Hohenzollern dynasty to the throne of a German Empire after the defeat of Hitler in World War Two?
- 📝 Why did the Germans fall behind the Americans in the development of the atomic bomb after an initial lead?
- 📝 Why did the Germans build battle cruisers with a different profile than the British?
- 📝 What actions did the KKK take against miscegenation after 1967?
- 📝 Why did monarchy become common practice after the fall of Rome?
- 📝 Why did the Allies lose the Battle of France (1940)?
- 📝 Why did England and Portugal cheap out on the Battle of Aljubarrota?
- 📝 Why did Gorbachev go to see "Prince Igor" after the August 1991 coup attempt?
- 📝 Why did the attempts to keep Africa colonized after World War II fail?