Question

What do you think might have been some of the events in Europe that motivated Japan to enter the war on the side of the Axis Powers?

Answer 1

Hate to break it to you but the start of WW Two is considered by some as when Japan attacked the Asian mainland in July 1937, over two years BEFORE WW Two started in Europe.

WW Two is considered by some as another war of the HAVE nations vs the HAVE NOTs. (This discussion was first used to describe the First World War as to why the nations divided up as they did.)

Germany, Italy and Japan all sought after more land and empires. They were the "HAVE NOT" nations. On the other side were the nations with lots of land or large empires. England, France, USSR, USA, the "HAVE" nations. So it was kind of natural that Japan would join Italy and Germany.

You also have, in general, the type of governments. Dictatorships vs Democracies. Japan, Germany and Italy all had very strong centralized governments with one guy at the top calling the shots. (The Emperor of Japan does not count, he was just a figurehead. Same as the King of England.) You have to remember, when Poland was invaded in WW TWO, it was invaded by both Germany AND Russia. Both dictator nations. They even had a treaty with each other not to fight. So from a government standpoint, except for the USSR, it was a war of Dictators vs Democracies.

Lastly, each had something the other wanted. Japan needed better technology and Germany had it. Germany on the other hand needed some of the resources that Japan had available, such as rubber. And the distance make it unlikely they would ever fight each other. It kind of fell into that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" kind of situation.