@Funcioneta:
USA entered at war just because Japan attacked them, pure and simple. And Japan attacked USA because Japan needed the Dutch East Indies resources (for their war against China and because Japan only had oild reserves to some months), and they couldn’t take that for safe with yankees in the rear (Philippines). Then, Hitler was enough stupid to DOW USA, but he didn’t need do so (the treaty with Tokyo was if any Axis power was attacked, but this time the attacker was in fact an Axis power)
I always wondered what if Philippines and the former Spanish colonies in the Pacific were independent or Spanish by that time (Cuban war 1898 not happened or Spain won it - probably due alien tech support or something :mrgreen: ). Probably USA would not enter to WWII, because Japan would ignore any Spanish / independent Philippines fleet or simply stomp them without much effort and USA would not care a bit about Franco’s Pacific holdings … Japan could even try Spain join the Axis and use Philippines as allied base to attack India, DEI and Australia
Any case, USA not entering in the war would probably mean or Axis victory or soviet armies in Paris, Madrid and Beijing … a more difficult Cold War
You seem knowledgeable about WWII; and I’d like to add to your post.
In 1940, Germany produced 10,000 military aircraft, and Britain produced 15,000. The U.S. sent large numbers of aircraft and aircraft engines to Britain. Together, British and American military planners had agreed that in several years’ time, the U.S. would produce over 70,000 military aircraft per year; with half that production being sent to Britain for use against Germany. In addition to all those U.S.-produced military aircraft, Germany also had to worry about the large quantities of other Lend-Lease aid the U.S. provided Britain and, later, the Soviet Union.
As you correctly pointed out, Germany was under no treaty obligation to declare war on the United States. But Hitler reasoned that the most threatening aspect of the U.S.–its industrial might–was being turned against Germany anyway. A declaration of war would allow him to wage a full-scale submarine war against American shipping at a time when the U.S. Navy was occupied in the Pacific. Germany would sink the ships carrying tanks and artillery before they reached the Soviet Union.
Hitler’s long-range plan for the war was to achieve a large-scale victory over the Soviet Union in 1942. Access to Soviet manpower, industrial capacity, and raw materials would allow Germany to keep pace with Britain and the U.S. in the air war. Victory over the Soviet Union would also go a long way towards securing Germany from land invasion, by eliminating its eastern front. While the German Army won a number of victories in the summer of 1942, and gained access to important food supplies and raw materials, the full-scale victory for which Hitler had hoped did not occur. The problem was the sheer size of the Red Army (which outnumbered its German counterpart nearly 4:1 in the fall of '41), and the fact that the Soviets outproduced Germany by 3:1 or more in most major land categories during 1942. Germany had largely solved the latter problem by 1944, but by then it was too late.
Shortly after Germany invaded the Soviet Union, the U.S. imposed an oil embargo on Japan. Allegedly this was in response to Japan’s aggression in China. However, that latest round of aggression had begun in 1937; so the American response seemed a bit slow in the coming. That oil embargo, in combination with the U.S.'s plans to double the strength of its Pacific fleet and move that fleet’s center of operations from California to Hawaii, served to turn Japan’s focus away from potential conflicts with the Soviet Union. While Japan lacked the logistical capacity to be an immediate threat to conquer a large percentage of the Soviet Union’s population or industrial capacity; it could have taken Vladivostock; and generally denied the Soviets access to the Pacific. The desire to take pressure off the Soviets was one of several factors which led FDR to seek a war with Japan.
Prior to the war, the U.S. had cracked the code Japanese diplomatic code. As such, the U.S. government knew more about the goings-on in Tokyo than did the Japanese ambassador to the U.S.! Specifically, FDR’s administration knew, in November of 1941, that if the U.S. asked for moderate concessions to have the oil embargo lifted, Japan would accept them. But if the U.S. asked for something far-reaching, Japan would go to war within a matter of weeks. Knowing this, FDR’s administration asked for very, very significant concessions from Japan indeed.
Shortly after Pearl Harbor, Stalin shipped 100 divisions west–away from his eastern front and toward the German front. He knew that Japan would be too occupied with its war against the U.S. to launch a very powerful attack from Manchuria; so those 100 divisions were no longer needed in the east. Those 100 divisions arrived in the dead of winter, and had a devastating effect on Germany’s war effort. Germany had initially used only 100 divisions to invade the Soviet Union; so for the Soviets to have 100 extra divisions at such a key time proved critical.
