Why did Japan Join the Axis? (Short Animated Documentary)

Ever wondered why Japan joined the Axis powers? No? Well tough. In hindsight it seemed like a bad idea to tie itself to Germany and Italy during the greatest conflict in human history. They're not as foolhardy as you may think. Find out exactly why they did so in this short and simple animated history documentary.

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Sources:
Into the Tiger's Den: Japan and the Tripartite Pact, 1940 by Jeremy A. Yellen

[TightsGamingTTV]

"outsourced a naval war to Japan" that line is absolutely fantastic. This channel is so great.

[odysseusrex]

I have always enjoyed the deep irony of the fact that, when Japan sponsored a meeting of leaders from the nations of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, in 1943, deep in to the war, its sessions had to conducted in English because that was the only language everybody spoke.

[weskerkings]

Japan : *fights to not become american puppet*

1945 : *gets puppeted*

[dhruvdatta]

Britain was condemning Japan on building an empire while sitting on top of India

[simpleasliam]

The GEACPS comment nearly killed me. The change in tone and how it came out of nowhere.... This channel is ridiculously hilarious.

[Janny]

"Japan thought that the UK and US were working on a Anglo-American cultural hegemony"

Glad that didn't happen ha ha

[ctastrophe]

Just gonna say it: "Axis" is far more easy to pronounce than "Allies" when you have a Japanese accent. They joined the Axis for linguistic reasons

[weldin]

Germany: Trying to take over the world, need friends.

Italy: Trying to take over the world, need friends.

Japan: Trying to take over the world, need friends.



EDIT: These responses really don't understand the Bill Wurtz reference, huh?

[justanotherbaptistjew]

The amount of foreshadowing in this episode is great. From “they didn’t want to be under American control” to “lest they become a mere puppet.”

[AliRadicali]

Japan, Germany and Italy had common ground in that they were (semi) great powers that lacked any significant colonies. The fact that most of the western powers had repeatedly sided against Japan whenever they tried to gain colonial territories of their own made the axis obvious bedfellows for the militarists in Tokyo. I don't think there was a real concern about Germany occupying the various asian colonies as the armies were needed in europe, not to mention the fact that the axis navies were trapped in the Baltic and Mediterranean seas respectively, so sending troops and supplies to that region was logistically infeasible.
From a German perspective, ceding these potential territories to Japan made sense because they couldn't project their power there at the time anyway, while having Japan take British Malaya and Burma while threatening India and Australia created a second front against the British, not to mention the potential for a future joint invasion of Russia.

[NativePride]

Japan: *doesnt want to become an American puppet*
*joins axis*
*loses war and becomes American puppet*

Well... shit.

[harryjackson]

0:08 you had to do my boi Mussolini like that

[simonmay]

Shows Tibet as independent: -150 Social Credit

[tommo]

I've always wanted to see Hitler crowned "Miss War Winner 1940" with such a gorgeous sash. Thanks HM!

[Snowfox]

"Miss War Winner 1940". A classic.

[triumphantking]

Japan was also affected by the treaty of Versailles where they were kind of deceived by the Allies in the fact that they were not able to get what they wanted and they were left aside. That is also something to take in consideration

[litfurher]

Well, good that a global anglo-american cultural hegemony *didn't* happen

[theavantgardener]

The thing I love about this is it gets straight into action. Just the facts. No meandering introductions, build up, adverts or tangents.

[EIbows]

"There was a strong belief that Britain and America were trying to build an Anglo-American hegemony across the world"

Yeah good thing we never tried to do that, right? Right?

[someguy]

Adviser: "Germany is a threat to our plans. We need to deal with them."


Japanese leader: "Hmm... I have an idea. We could... _ally_ with them."


Japan sure is great at excelling in novelty.