Japanese (threat of) expansion and appeasement of Germany

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paulri
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Japanese (threat of) expansion and appeasement of Germany

#1

Post by paulri » 24 Sep 2014, 02:26

How much of an impact do people think that Japanese expansion (into Manchuria in 1931, throughout eastern China in 37) had on British and French appeasement of Germany before 1939? I'm aware of more immediate reasons for wanting to wait to fight Hitler until after 1938, but I'm wondering if a concern about Japanese expansion towards French and British colonies also made them hesitant? Or were Japanese forces in China seen as too far away from their colonies, to constitute anything worth worrying about?

Carl Schwamberger
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Re: Japanese (threat of) expansion and appeasement of German

#2

Post by Carl Schwamberger » 24 Sep 2014, 13:34

The foreign concessions in China were part of the colonial empires. I dont know how small a part, lacking information of their economic value.

Your core question is a interesting one. I dont know about recent scholarship, but the historical analysis I read back in the 1970s & 1980s had little reference to considerations of the Japanese factor by Britain, France, or any others when dealing with Hitlers government. There seems to have been consideration, but I dont recall much depth on that aspect.


cstunts
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Re: Japanese (threat of) expansion and appeasement of German

#3

Post by cstunts » 25 Sep 2014, 20:40

The British situation would have been a far different matter compared with the French. GB had considerable economic ties to China--not so much Manchuria--but the French did not...It would have been daunting, I suppose, for the British & French to see the Japanese cosying up to the Hitlerites throughout the second half of the Thirties.

On the other hand there can be little question GB and France wanted no part of confronting the Japanese over those remote, godforsaken plains of Manchuria or the Five Provinces. But I'm certain they cared about their own Concessions.

However, the entire Western world had cold feet--putting it nicely--in the Far East for a decade prior to Dai Toa Senso.

Perhaps a more significant event was the Tripartite Pact (Sept. 1940) which formalized mutual defense arrangements among the Nazis, Japanese, & Italian Fascists.

If you are seriously researching this issue--and not merely cyberplaying--then the BDFA volumes would be the most helpful. And, indeed, you could not possibly begin to get a clear answer without researching them rather intensively.

FWIW

paulri
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Re: Japanese (threat of) expansion and appeasement of German

#4

Post by paulri » 26 Sep 2014, 01:39

cstunts wrote: If you are seriously researching this issue--and not merely cyberplaying--then the BDFA volumes would be the most helpful. And, indeed, you could not possibly begin to get a clear answer without researching them rather intensively.

FWIW
Fair enough. Do know of any particular document that would be a good place to start (if not a good second-hand account of this question from someone who has read them intensively)?

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