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THE RISE AND FALL OF THE GREAT POWERS

Le Ba Cuong (G0748292U)

Singapore Management University

Date of submission: 7 April 2011

Word count: 2401 words

9) Second World War

„Though Japan and Germany were unlikely allies during World War 2, they shared similar

strengths and weaknesses.’ Discuss with reference to their rise and fall.
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Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to seek the validities of two hypotheses about World War II. The

first one is that Japan and Germany were unlikely allies during World War II, and the second one

is that they shared similar strengths and weaknesses. As such, my research will try to test each

hypothesis separately with reference to their rise and fall during World War II.

The paper will begin with the background of World War II with more focus on Germany and

Japan. Next, we will test the first hypothesis whether the two powers are truly allies based on not

only the form of their alliance system but also its substance. Afterward, the paper will analyze

the similar strengths and weaknesses of both powers. For this part, their strengths and

weaknesses will be related to their advance in battlefield at the beginning of the war and their

collapse in the end, respectively. Then the paper will be ended with a conclusion and evaluation

of Japan and Germany‟s fall at the end of World War II.

(173 words)
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1. Introduction

On 1 September 1939, the invasion of Poland by Germany initiated the deadliest war

in mankind history resulting in 70 million fatalities and huge economic loss of 1

trillion USD due to the sheer destruction of infrastructures, property and industrial

equipments1.Axis Powers including Germany, Italy and Japan and Allied Powers

including France, Britain, US, USSR and China were two main opposing military

alliances in the war.

Among the Axis members, Japan and Germany were the most prevailing ones. On the

one hand, Germany was forced in to war in 1939 due to not only Hitler‟s long term

ambition of restoring Germany‟s hegemony but also his short term afraid of

“domestic unrest and economic crisis brought about by the excessive cost of

rearmament”2. By possessing a vast and formidable military troops, at her heyday in

World War II, Germany occupied most of Europe continent. On the other hand, the

rise of Japanese nationalism as well as her soaring industrialization growth made her

strongly believe that there would be no country but Japan leading all Asian countries.

Consequently, after conquering most of China in 1941, Japan launched another war

against Western powers‟ possession in Asia with an unexpected attack against US at

her Pearl Harbor naval base, leading to the involvement of US in World War II3,

which made the war become global. Germany and Japan, sharing lots of same

strength, weakness as well as ambition, were officially alliances during World War II,

yet it was not necessarily the fact.

1
World War II (1939-1945)-Britannica Online Encyclopedia.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/648813/World-War-II (accessed February 21, 2011)
2
Overy, R.J. The Origins of the Second World War, 1. Longman, 1998
3
Spector, Ronald.H. Eagle Against the Sun: The American War with Japan, 6-7 . 1st Vintage Books ed. New York :
Vintage Books, 1985
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2. Were Germany and Japan truly allies during World War II?

According to Overy (1989), Germany and Japan were both “have-not” countries by

World War II who lacked natural resources, international wealth and always in threat

of being blocked to new markets and raw materials by the long-established great

powers such as Britain and France (p.7). Sharing a same interest of establishing a new

world order at that time, they signed Tripartite Pact in Berlin, Germany on September

27, 1940 to cooperate and promote their mutual benefit. Thus, Germany and Japan

were officially allies.

Despite signing Tripartite Pact with Germany in September 1940, Japan, however,

still agreed with Russia upon a neutrality treaty in April 1941, hence decided not to

open an eastern front against Russia while Germany besieged Moscow. Accordingly,

USSR had time to mobilize her troops from Siberia to replenish the wounded and

exhausting troops in the western front. Consequently, they could successfully drive

Germany back and began their counter-attack4.

In addition to a lack of military cooperation between them, the anti-Semitic view of

Nazi Germany was totally refused by Japan when her foreign minister Yosuke

Matsuoka stated that “Nowhere have I promised that we would carry out his [Hitler‟s]

anti-Semitic policies in Japan. This is not simply my personal opinion, it is the

opinion of Japan, and I have no compunction about announcing it to the world”5. On

top of that, according to Overy (1998), while Japan just wanted to set up a Great East

Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere stretching from China to Dutch East Indies under its

4
Kennedy, Paul M. The Rise and Fall of Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000,
342. London: Fontana Press , 1989
5
Showa Period. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8Dwa_period (accessed March 24, 2011)
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hegemony, German‟s ambition was not just about a geographically defined influence

but about the world power, including Asia (p. 23).

Besides, given that the Nazi Germany worldview at that time was racism against so-

called “subhuman” races such as Jews, Slavs, and Asian, her Axis alliance with Asian

Japan seemed to be more in political form rather than in substance6. Hence, even if

military and economic cooperation between Japan and Germany had occurred during

World War II, the Fascist alliance system was flawed and contradicts to itself, and we

could firmly confirm that Germany and Japan were unlikely allies during World War

II.

So how did the alliance between Japan and Germany affect the outcome of World

War II? When Soviet‟s Red Army invaded Berlin in April 1945 and Japan-held

Manchuria to defeat the Kwantung Army in August 1945, it seemed like the

supremacy of Soviet‟s power was without doubt. However, from a military

perspective, a close military cooperation between Japan and Germany, even though

impossible in reality, could have turned around the situation during 1942-1943

periods. It was quite impossible for USSR to deal with both western and eastern

fronts at once. In fact, a defeat of Soviet would not only mean the eradicating of their

most dangerous enemy but also give both Japan and Germany the biggest resources

pool in Eurasia continent, so that they could advance against other allied powers like

US or Britain in the later stage of World War II.

3. Their similar strength and weakness

a. Strength

i. Their difference strengths

6
Sodaro, Michael J. Comparative Politics: A Global Introduction. 3rd ed, 512-513. New York: Henry Holt, 2008
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Coming from two different culture and economies, German and Japan owned some

different strength. On the one hand, German military strategy was considered the best

out of World War II. The whole idea of its main strategy, Blitzkrieg, was to

concentrate its armored forces with substantial air supports to inflict tremendous

damages to enemies, cause chaos and panic, and destroy all obstacles7. On the other

hand, Japan also had her own military strength which is the moral of troops. In fact,

Japanese military strategists often put emphasis on the “superiority of spiritual

factors-loyalty, faith in victory, aggressiveness and fighting spirit over material ones

in warfare”8.

ii. Their similar strengths

Domestic support

Despite the different strengths mentioned above, both Germany and Japan shared lots

of similar strengths. Japan and Germany governments attained lots of supports from

the mass public prior to and even during the most part of the war. In addition to her

excellent, non-comparable propaganda consisting of marches, rallies, posters, fliers,

newspapers, radio and movies, Germany also stimulated economic growth and soaked

up unemployment by spending large sums of money in public works projects and

services to earn supports from her people9. Regarding Japan, her government was

naturally supported by the whole population due to Japanese long rooted ideology and

political cultures. The popularity of Confucianism in Japan made Japanese people to

think of themselves as inferior to those above them in the social hierarchy.

7
Uri, Noy. 2 World War 2. 2002. http://www.2worldwar2.com/principles-of-war.htm (accessed February 21 2011)
8
Spector, Ronald.H. Eagle Against the Sun: The American War with Japan . 1st Vintage Books ed, 37. New York :
Vintage Books, 1985
9
Sodaro, Michael J. Comparative Politics: A Global Introduction. 3rd ed, 235. New York: Henry Holt, 2008
7|Page

Furthermore, the Japanese Emperor was historically believed to be granted the

celestial authority ruling Japan. Hence, once the Emperor decided to stand on the

same side with the government, it would have the absolute support from the whole

population10.

Enormous defense expenditures

Additionally, one main reason behind the advance of both Germany and Japan at the

beginning of World War II was that they invested a lot on defense industry during the

prewar period, compared to other status quo powers. Here is the figure for defense

expenditures of the Great Powers, 1930-1938 (in USD million):

Japan Italy Germany USSR U.K France U.S

1930 218 266 162 722 512 498 699

1933 183 351 452 707 333 524 570

1934 292 455 709 3479 540 707 803

1935 300 966 1670 5517 646 867 806

1936 313 1149 2332 2933 892 995 932

1937 940 1235 3298 3446 1245 890 1032

1938 1740 746 7415 5429 1863 919 1131

Table: Defense expenditures from 1930 to 1938

Source: Kennedy,1989, p.297.

From this table above, we can see Germany‟s defense expenditure was the highest

among all powers‟ by the edge of World War II. Japan‟s figure was lower than

10
Sodaro, Michael J. Comparative Politics: A Global Introduction. 3rd ed, 255. New York: Henry Holt, 2008
8|Page

expenditure of USSR and UK who weren‟t her direct opponents during 1930s but

higher than US and France in 1938.

Formidable military force

Both Germany and Japan owned a lot of advanced military weapon technology. In

1930s, there was no doubt that Japan possessed the most highly developed torpedoes,

torpedo carriers, cruisers and destroyers in the world11, whereas Germany was famous

for her fearsome tanks, brand new portable machine guns and missiles12. Moreover,

regarding their military training, both Japan and Germany had disciplined and well-

trained troops. According to Kennedy (1989), the Japanese navy was famous for their

night fighting skills as well as their adept pilot, while their army counterparts were

also excellent in both defensive and offensive warfare. The same was true for

Germany. Owning one of the best education systems in the world at that time,

Germany could build up a first-rate military troop with high discipline and efficiency

(p. 298-311).

b. Weakness

i. Their different weaknesses.

While German Blitzkrieg tactic was an excellent example of the cooperation between

her advanced armored units and powerful aircrafts ones, lack of the cooperation

within its units and branches seemed to be Japan‟s weakness. In fact, her Navy and

Military, with different views, tactics and doctrines, almost fought two singular wars.

While the Army stayed focused in China mainland, the Navy concentrated more on

the Pacific front. Ironically, when US began their invasion of Japan, millions of

11
Spector, Ronald.H. Eagle Against the Sun: The American War with Japan . 1st Vintage Books ed, 45. New York :
Vintage Books, 1985
12
World War II . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II (accessed February 21, 2011)
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Japan‟s infantries got stuck in China due to the lack of cooperation with their navy

counterpart, and incapable of going back and defending their own country13.

On the other hand, whereas Japan enjoyed the same geopolitical advantages as Britain

who was separated from the Eurasia continent and could avoid an encirclement

during a war, Germany faced a geopolitical disadvantages of being encircled by other

Allied powers, for example Russia in the east and France in the west. In fact, at the

end of World War II, the Allied powers could open two fronts against Germany from

both west and east while in Pacific front, Japan had only to deal with the US Navy

forces.

ii. Their similar weaknesses

In addition to the lack of cooperation between them as mentioned above, in fact, both

German and Japan shared a lot of critical weaknesses which caused them to lose

World War II, despite their victories early in the war.

The wealth gap between them and Allied powers

According to Maiolo (2010), “The decisive wealth gap between Germany and its

enemies was even wider than most temporary expert believed.” (p.5). More

specifically, Harrison (1998) stated that if the respective colonies are taken into

account, the Anglo-French alliance system had approximately 700 million people,

while the Axis powers had only 190.6 million (p. 7). Also, the joining of USSR and

USA in later stages gave a gain of about 300 more million people to the Allied side

exaggerated the gap between the two alliance systems. Consequently, the vast

difference between the population of Allied and Axis‟ powers resulted firstly in the

number of troops each side could deploy during World War II. According to Harrison
13
Uri, Noy. 2 World War 2. 2002. http://www.2worldwar2.com/principles-of-war.htm (accessed February 21 2011).
10 | P a g e

(1998), the Allied powers‟ advantage of number of troops stood at almost 2:1 on the

eastern front as in the west and the Pacific (p.10). Furthermore, the quantitative

shortcoming of Axis powers was even greater in arms and munitions than in number

of men.

Country Total (in thousands

of units)

Germany

- Rifles, carbines 10,328

- Guns 320

- Mortars 78.8

- Tanks 46.3

- Combat aircraft 89.5

Japan

- Rifles, carbines 3,570

- Guns 160

- Mortars 7.8

- Tanks 4.8

- Combat aircraft 55.1

USA

- Rifles, carbines 12,330

- Guns 549

- Mortars 102.1

- Tanks 99.5
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- Combat aircraft 192

UK

- Rifles, carbines 2457

- Guns 390

- Mortars 100.9

- Tanks 29.3

- Combat aircraft 94.6

USSR

- Rifles, carbines 12,139

- Guns 482

- Mortars 351.8

- Tanks 102.8

- Combat aircraft 112.1

Table: The total arms production during 1939-1945 period.

Source: Harrison, 1998, p.17.

Regarding other natural resources, only possessing sufficient coal, German heavily

relied on other imported raw material such as iron ore, cooper, bauxite, nickel and

especially petroleum14. Similarly, Japan‟s economy was also vulnerable. According to

Maiolo (2010), Japan didn‟t supply herself enough vital commodities for a total war.

She lacked all food, raw materials as well as fuel needed (p. 27). Moreover, the lack

of natural resources was exaggerated by the overstretching of both Japan and

Germany over many territories. Japan has conquered a vast area consisting of

14
Kennedy, Paul M. The Rise and Fall of Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to
2000, 342. London: Fontana Press , 1989
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Manchuria, part of mainland China and South East Asia, while Germany occupied

almost the whole Europe continent. Consequently, it was even more difficult for them

to mobilize its insufficient resources to all their fronts. In short, if taking in account

all other types of resources such as labors, capitals, degrees of skills and training,

technology…to calculate the relative war potential of each power, it goes without

saying that both Japan and Germany actually went to a war without any chance to

win.

United States 41.7%

Germany 14.4%

USSR 14.0%

UK 10.2%

France 4.2%

Japan 3.5%

Table: Relative War Potential of the Powers in 1937

Source: Kennedy, 1989, p.332

Their atrocities and its consequences

Apart from economic perspective, born out of their fascist ideology, atrocity toward

civilians was very popular in any country occupied by both Japan and Germany.

While between 3 to more than 10 million civilian, mostly Chinese, were killed by the

Japanese troops, Germany was responsible for the Holocaust, the slaughter of about 6

million Jews, as well as 2 million Poles, and 4 million others including Romani,
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Soviet prisoners…15. Furthermore, millions of Axis powers-occupied countries‟

citizens were forced to work in many concentration and labor camps. As such, it

endangered the civilian, bolstered them to stand up resisting against the occupied

troops stubbornly instead of cooperating with them, and gave the Allied power the

alleged raison d'être to eradicate the occupation of Axis powers over those countries.

4. Conclusion and evaluation

The fall of Germany and Japan in the end of World War II as well as their advances

during the beginning were both closely associated with their fundamental strengths

and weaknesses. Surprisingly, even though they were unlikely allies, Japan and

Germany shared very similar strengths and weaknesses. Owning fearsome military

troops compared to their direct foes but having relatively small economies, both

Japan and Germany walked the same path during World War II. Even economic

foundation including population, raw materials or capital were a very crucial factor in

any war, the battle outcome was also determined by military effectiveness, troops‟

morale or combat techniques. The advance of German‟s Blitzkrieg strategy over

French formidable army or the collapse of Pearl Harbor naval base at the beginning of

World War II was the excellent example. However, in a prolonged and total war,

economic factors seemed to be more important than military ones. Once running out

of all economic resources, it was hardly anything for a country to do to keep

maintaining her military advances. Conclusively, the defeat of the Axis powers was

inevitable given their limitation in economic resources.

15
World War II . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II (accessed February 21, 2011)
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