Chapter 838: "Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Treaty" (Subscription Requested!) , ask for a monthly pass, ask for everything! ）

Fortunately, although the French side dragged on, it did not want a large-scale war with Thailand at this time, after all, France was engaged in a national war with Nazi Germany at that time, so the Japanese mediation finally succeeded. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

With the success of the mediation, an agreement was reached between Japan and France and between Japan and Thailand that neither French Indochina nor Thailand could sign any form of political and military cooperation with a third country. However, the Japan-Thailand Agreement and the Japan-French Indochina Agreement, whose main purpose was military cooperation, decided not to hold talks because Foreign Minister Matsuoka decided not to hold talks because he felt that the time was not yet right, and he had to wait for the situation to develop in the future.

As a result of Matsuoka's maintenance, the French General Anli had a favorable opinion of Japan, and then signed the so-called Matsuoka-Anli Agreement with Japan, and although Japan and France had a dispute when they were stationed in northern French Indochina, the apparent intimacy between them seemed to be growing.

This time he went to Hanoi, Matsuoka mainly to obtain rice, rubber and other important materials, especially rice. The food crisis in Japan is deepening, and the standard of living of the Japanese people is declining rapidly, especially rice, which is a necessity of life.

In the past, the main food of the Japanese people was rice, but now rice is evolving into a high-end food, and in the past, Japanese people used to eat rice at least 6 days a week, but now it is a good life to eat fragrant rice two days a week, and most of the time Japanese live on coarse grains.

Regarding the economic negotiations with French Indochina, Matsuoka did not have much confidence. After all, within French Indochina, the Vichy regime and the De Gaulle regime were intrigued, and the Gaullist faction was behind the scenes to instigate anti-Japanese activities.

Although it is said that the French general in charge of French Indochina, Anri, had a good impression of Matsuoka Yosuke, but in his bones, Anri was a member of De Gaulle's faction, so the attitude of French Indochina towards Japan can actually be said to be inseparable.

Sure enough, the negotiations were extremely unsmooth from the beginning, and the French did not seem to be at all interested in the series of requests made with Japan, and Anri only entertained Matsuoka Yosuke in Hanoi for a few days out of friendship between friends, and then went into hiding, which made Matsuoka extremely depressed and had to take people back to Japan.

After returning to Japan, Matsuoka Yosuke reported the relevant situation of the negotiations to Emperor Hirohito, and at the same time suggested that the navy and army could prepare for action, and he judged that Britain, France, the Netherlands, and even the United States had reached a tacit understanding, whether it was to negotiate with the Netherlands or France alone, it was just a matter of Japan's wishes, and the above-mentioned countries only wanted to maintain the current situation in Southeast Asia, and if Japan had to intervene, it would definitely be boycotted by these countries.

After the conclusion of negotiations with the Netherlands and France, the Japanese upper echelons already knew that war against Britain, France, the Netherlands, and other countries was inevitable, so the base camp demanded an accurate judgment of the country's material strength, so the General Staff Headquarters instructed the War Readiness Section of the War Ministry to study the possible changes in Japan's national material strength if the empire went to war with the United States and Britain in the spring of Showa 16 (1941), or if war was absolutely avoided, and on May 15, the War Readiness Section of the War Ministry reported the results to the head of the General Staff Headquarters.

According to a report by the War Readiness Section of the Ministry of the Army, in the event of a war, Japan's national material forces would be worrisome if they were to wage a protracted war against the United States and Britain. That is, the war will go on until about the end of the second year, and there will probably still be enough potential to destroy the enemy's offensive. But by then, liquid fuels may have temporary difficulties, and as the war drags on, the economic support for the war will be shaken.

As long as there is no large amount of wear and tear on ships, iron and steel and light metals are expected to grow by leaps and bounds year by year, but rare metals and non-ferrous metals cannot make up for the losses caused by the cut-off of imports by relying only on their small domestic production capacity.

It can be perfunctory for two years to gradually deplete reserves, but after the third year, it will gradually fall into the dilemma of a significant reduction in supply. Liquid combustions will be worrying, and there will be a period of uncertainty between progress in restoring and exploiting the resources of the occupied territories and the depletion of reserves.

In addition, the problem of ships will also become serious, especially as this will lead to a general contraction of industry due to the reduction of coal transportation, and the dilemma of light industrial resources will also add to the problems of domestic problems.

In the event that war had to be waged as a result of the evolution of the situation, it was necessary to do everything possible not to destroy the resources of the Dutch East Indies, in addition to striving for a speedy end to the war against the south. In addition, with regard to the issue of ships, it is necessary to give in-depth consideration to the coordination between operations and economics.

At the same time, the War Readiness Section of the Ministry of War also studied Japan's material strength if it could avoid war with Britain, France, the United States, and the Netherlands. And a written document was formed and reported to the base camp. If Japan does not sever diplomatic relations with the United States and Britain economically, if it continues to maintain a certain degree of trade with its colonies in East Asia, and if it can make gradual progress in economic negotiations with the southern regions, Japan's material strength will decline in the first two years, but it will recover to a certain extent year after year.

If diplomatic relations with the United States and Britain are severed economically, the country's material strength will decline sharply, and its recovery will be very difficult. In particular, oil reserves will decrease year by year. The power of the state and the power of war will be reduced by attrition. In either case, it will be difficult to achieve a rapid development of Japan's national power and a real expansion of its armaments after several years.

Most importantly, Japan should strive to establish a Greater East Asia Self-Sufficiency Sphere, and at the same time, it should avoid unproductively provoking the United States and Britain, and should rely on the resources of the U.S.-British bloc as much as possible to cultivate national strength, and be prepared to be able to deal with any situation immediately.

The report of the War Readiness Section of the Ministry of War greatly stimulated the Japanese army and navy, and even more stimulated the Japanese government, and this report fully took into account Japan's material reserves and available forces under various circumstances, including human, financial, and material resources, but the conclusion made the Japanese side extremely frustrated.

For this reason, Japan's top brass felt that it was necessary to conduct deeper communication with the US government to ensure Japan's supply and reserves of war materials, so Japan and the United States secretly began to contact and prepare for negotiations.

However, before the negotiations between the United States and Japan began, there was good news from Moscow that the Soviet Union had agreed to an understanding with the Japanese Empire and was willing to sign a neutrality treaty.

After more than a month of secret negotiations, the Soviet Union and Japan finally formally signed the "Soviet-Japanese Treaty" on May 13, 1940.

According to the content of the treaty, the signatory parties promise to maintain peaceful and friendly relations and respect each other's territorial integrity and inviolability. In the event of a hostile conflict between a signatory party and one or more third powers, the other party to the treaty will remain in standing for the entire duration of the conflict. This Treaty shall enter into force on the date of ratification by both parties and shall remain in force for a period of five years. If neither of the parties to the treaty fails to declare the treaty invalid one year before its expiration, it is deemed to be automatically extended for a further five years.

The Soviet Union went so far as to negotiate peace with Japan, which shattered the glasses of many countries waiting for the Soviet Union and Japan to collide to the death, including Germany and Britain.

At this time, the air war of Great Britain had entered the most intense stage, and although Germany had devoted all its air power to the bombing of the British Isles, the British resistance continued, which greatly annoyed Hitler and at the same time had no choice but to do so.

Therefore, Hitler thought that there was little hope of forcing Britain to submit by force, and it was unlikely that troops would be sent from Europe to attack the British mainland, and the German Navy was not the opponent of the British Navy in the first place, so Hitler believed that Germany's attack on Western Europe should come to an end, and it was time to reconsider the relationship between Germany and the Soviet Union. (To be continued.) )