Chapter 248: Japan's Attack on Pearl Harbor
After analysis, the Japanese base camp felt that with the strong strength shown by Germany and the strong support of Wei Qidong, the probability of the final winner of this war was more than 70 percent. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. biquge。 info And if you add to this the fact that China is completely tilted towards Germany, then the possibility is even greater.
That being the case, it's easier to pick sides.
During World War I, Japan saw that Germany was gone, and quickly seized German interests in Asia, such as Jiaozhou Bay in China. Now that World War II is on, how can Japan, seeing that Britain and the United States will not be Germany's opponents, not knowing to take the opportunity to encroach on some interests.
Immediately, without much thought, the Japanese base camp decided to enter Southeast Asia, because Siberia no longer had much to gain, and further westward expansion directly infringed on the interests of the Germans, which was not what they wanted to see.
At the end of February, the Japanese troops withdrew from Chinese territory one after another, and the Chinese troops were stationed immediately, and the two sides demarcated a 30-kilometer demilitarized zone at the junction, and only stationed troops and police to maintain law and order.
At the beginning of March, the Japanese army could not wait to send two divisions to Vietnam. At this time, the French colonial army could not even fight with less than 10,000 troops, and the rest were troops formed by the locals they recruited, and there was a serious shortage of heavy weapons.
Under the powerful Japanese offensive, the French army retreated, and Hanoi was broken by the Japanese in less than ten days. In less than a month, the French army was completely defeated, except for a few who fled into the primeval forest to escape for a while, the rest surrendered to the Japanese, and Vietnam was immediately occupied by the Japanese.
Japan's ambitions for Southeast Asia have made Britain and the United States very worried and unhappy, and the identity of Japan's role at this time is very complicated, although it has temporarily ceased war with China, but the hatred between the two countries cannot be eliminated in a short time.
China, a backward country, is very close to Germany for various reasons, and although the two countries have not formally formed an alliance, it is better than an alliance. Japan wanted to get close to Germany, but Germany never looked down on Japan because of its relationship with China, and did not have a deep relationship with Japan.
However, the Japanese occupation of Vietnam, which was a French colonial power, and France was occupied by Germany, it can be said that this harmed Germany's interests, but Germany did not express any objections.
Now, Japan is directly invading Southeast Asia by force, and it can be seen from this that Japan's hostility towards Britain and the United States is definitely greater than goodwill.
The United States felt that it was time to give Japan some warning, after all, they had been grasping the lifeblood of the Japanese people, that is, oil, and 80 percent of the oil that Japan now uses every year is imported from the United States.
The sudden embargo imposed by the United States on Japan has hit the sore spot of the Japanese all of a sudden, and without oil, nothing can be done, unless they honestly retract it, but this is not the result that the Japanese want, unless the Yamato nation is ruined, otherwise, it is impossible to stop their road of aggression.
Japan is already full of hatred for the United States, and they also know that the United States is not directly involved in the war now, but they will be involved sooner or later.
Rather than waiting for the United States to do it itself, it is better to give them a ruthless blow first, take them by surprise, take advantage of their unpreparedness, grab their interests in Southeast Asia, and save more capital for the Japanese Empire to resist the United States in the future.
Immediately, Japan began to discuss and practice plans to attack the United States, and last year's new commander of Japan's Combined Fleet, Isoroku Yamamoto, put forward the idea that he had already had in mind to simulate it.
Germany continued to bomb Britain and at the same time made preparations for the Sea Lion Project, while the United States did not directly participate in the war, but provided various assistance to Britain, and Japan expressed to the United States through various means that Japan had no ill will towards the United States and hoped that they would lift the embargo on Japan, but secretly, they began to prepare plans to attack the United States.
For a time, all parties were doing all kinds of things openly and secretly, but only China was a little calmer, and the Chinese people cherished this hard-won opportunity for peace, and the oppressed people saw that the motherland was slowly becoming stronger, and under the call of the whole country, their enthusiasm became very high, so the development was very rapid.
Taking advantage of Germany's conquest of Europe during these times, coupled with the previous Sino-German relations, China has undoubtedly become Germany's number one resource supplier.
Fearing the blockade of the waterways by the British Navy, the Chinese merchant ships were responsible for supplying the resources to Germany by waterway.
Britain still has a lot of interests in China, especially since China is no longer what it used to be, China has not taken the initiative to attack Britain, and the British know that the destination of the resources supplied by China is Germany, and the British can only turn a blind eye and close one eye under the premise that it is difficult to protect themselves.
Of course, from China to Germany, not only can you go by water, but also by land, from Xinjiang, through the Soviet Union, Poland directly into Germany. China is not only trading with Germany, but also in the German occupation zone, as long as China can provide resources, it is the object of trade.
It is no wonder that the United States rose so quickly after World War I, and sure enough, the war wealth was a huge profit, and China also made a lot of money during this time.
After making money, on the one hand, China has vigorously built infrastructure, and on the other hand, it has opened various industries, vigorously developed education, science and technology, and so on, vowing to take advantage of this opportunity to leapfrog and catch up.
In October 39, the Japanese finally couldn't bear it anymore, because their oil reserves were already running out, and if they didn't do anything, they would be unable to continue. So, on October 21, the Japanese Combined Fleet quietly rushed to Pearl Harbor after various preparations.
In the early morning of the 22nd, Japan's six aircraft carrier battle groups and several hundred carrier-based planes rushed to Pearl Harbor in several waves with full loads.
It was a Sunday on the 22nd, and most of the American troops in Hawaii were resting, apparently unaware of the arrival of the Japanese army.
Many people saw planes flying in the sky, and even thought they were their own planes, until one aerial bomb after another was ferociously dropped. Suddenly, the beautiful Pearl Harbor was plunged into a sea of fire, especially the ships anchored in the harbor and the planes on the airfield became the first targets.
In the face of such a ferocious surprise attack by the Japanese army, the ill-prepared American army was completely in passivity.
Although many U.S. ships were moored at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese did not find the three U.S. aircraft carriers in the intelligence, but the operation had already begun, and they had no choice but to vent their anger on other ships.
After the attack, the US military in Hawaii immediately reported to the US headquarters, which was thousands of kilometers away, and almost at the same time, several messages were sent to China.
Wei Qidong knew that although the situation had changed a lot, since Japan had decided to go south, it would probably be difficult to avoid the incident of a sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, so early on, Wei Qidong sent people to be stationed in Hawaii to pay attention to the development of the situation.
At the same time, Wei Qidong asked Tang Xinyi to increase the intelligence monitoring of Japan, and when it was discovered that various intelligence in Japan contained a large number of hidden communications, the experienced Tang Xinyi knew that the Japanese army's operation was about to begin.
Wei Qidong, who got the news, immediately returned to China from Germany in a low-key manner, joined in the detection of the Japanese army's plan, and finally calculated that the Japanese army would act on October 22.
Immediately, Wei Qidong began to formulate his own plan, and before the Japanese Combined Fleet set off, he and Tang Xinyi took a submarine to dive into the vast Pacific Ocean one step earlier, and the target: Hawaii.