[Anti-Japanese Predator King] Chapter 947: Japan's Deteriorating External Environment (Ask for Subscription!) , ask for a monthly pass, ask for everything! ）

As for the demands of the Army and Navy Command, both Konoe Fumiro and the Emperor saw very clearly, and their demands were in fact for the government to make an immediate decision to go to war against the United States and Britain. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Needless to say, the sudden factor that prompted the Japanese army base camp to make such a decision was the act of the United States in freezing Japanese assets some time ago. The presence of French Indochina in southern China led to the imposition of an asset freeze by the United States, Britain, and the Netherlands on Japan, which made Japan's external situation increasingly tense and worsened.

The Japanese ambassador to the United States, Murano, had previously reported that the United States considered the Japanese presence in southern French Indochina to be the first step in the invasion of Singapore and the Dutch East Indies. Freezing assets is in essence a complete severance of economic exchanges. Since then, Japan's trade with regions other than the yen bloc has been cut off, and Japan has faced a serious crisis of life and death in the field of national defense.

Because the United States, Britain, and the Netherlands imposed an asset freeze on Japan, Japan completely lost its access to liquid fuel, which is absolutely indispensable for the survival of a modern nation.

Facts have proved that even if we stop the replenishment of armaments and expand other production sectors and go all out to increase the production of artificial oil, it will not be enough after all. Although there have been plans to develop oil fields in the northern half of Sakhalin or to import oil from places such as Iran and Peru, this has been nothing more than a drowning man climbing the grass for help.

If this development continues, the Japanese navy will be completely incapacitated in about two years, and the important industries based on liquid fuels will be paralyzed in less than one year, and it is inevitable that the so-called situation of poverty will continue day by day.

Therefore, for Japan, the severance of economic ties was indeed more painful than the use of force, which also prompted the Japanese base camp to resolve to go to war with the United States.

The war may fail, but compared to the weakening of the national strength day by day, until there is no longer the ability to stand up, or when the national strength weakens to a certain extent and is overtaken by the people of China or Britain, France, the United States and other countries, the Japanese army base camp thinks that the empire is still a good deal to fight to the death.

Moreover, in the eyes of those careerists in the upper echelons of the Japanese army, the chances of the Great Japanese Empire winning were not small. Once the initiative in the war is gained, then the great Japanese Empire will soar into the sky.

The most important thing is that even if the empire fails, it will only retreat from the battlefield of China, and that's it, with the national strength of the United States and Britain and other countries, the empire will not be able to do anything at all. On the face of it, there was no comparison between risk and profit, so the Japanese decided to take a risk.

The Cabinet of the Japanese Government also considered the request put forward by the War Department as a whole, and as the War Department said, the external environment of the Great Japanese Empire was already extremely harsh.

In addition to the deadly pressure of liquid fuels mentioned above, the so-called ABCD (American, British, Chinese, and Dutch) encirclement of Japan in East Asia was becoming stronger and stronger, as can be seen from the encounter of the Imperial Army in the China Theater.

Three years ago, the empire sent troops to China, although the empire only had 250,000 troops at that time, but in the face of more than 200 divisions and more than 1.9 million troops in China, it was still invincible, occupying almost all the large and medium-sized cities along the coast of China in a very short period of time, and even took Nanjing, the capital of China.

Time has passed, and in just three years, the empire has become more and more powerless in this war. Although the total strength of the imperial army increased nearly eightfold in these three years, the war did not end as soon as possible, but became more and more intense, and there was a tendency to continue to expand. The resistance of the government in this country is also getting stronger, which is not what the empire wants to see.

What frightens the empire even more is that the U.S. economy is rapidly recovering, while the economy of the Great Japanese Empire is regressing in great strides due to the drag of the war, and the gap between the empire and the U.S. economy is widening at an accelerated pace.

For the rapid recovery of the US economy, the Japanese are envious, jealous and hateful in their hearts, but they are helpless, who makes the internal and external environment of the United States too unique.

Since the end of the American Civil War, the North American continent has been at peace. This was preceded by nearly a century from 1780, and from the end of the Civil War to the beginning of the 20th century, the United States experienced the Industrial Revolution, and the rapid expansion of capital was like other capitalist masters, but shortly thereafter, from 1870 to 1914, in the second phase of the Industrial Revolution, the United States was ahead in technology, just as Germany was in the lead in science at that time.

The United States has abundant resources, cheap labor, a huge domestic market, the supply of capital in Europe, and so on. However, like the most developed Britain, it was unwilling to invest money to change the production equipment at that time, and gradually fell behind. By the outbreak of World War I, the old capitalist powers were competing with each other. By consuming its own strength, the United States has gained tremendous benefits from it, which is more conducive to its development.

The worldwide economic crisis of 1929 set the U.S. economy back decades overnight, but the U.S. responded quickly. In particular, after Roosevelt came to power, he vigorously promoted the New Deal to promote employment through engineering construction to get rid of the economic crisis.

The effect of Roosevelt's New Deal was obvious: in just a few years, the US GDP soared, and by the end of 1939, the US government's fiscal revenue had reached $124.9 billion. However, Japan's fiscal revenue for the same period was less than $16 billion, and the gap between the two sides was simply miserable.

In addition, according to a secret document provided by the War Department, due to the constraints of the upper thinking mode, the Japanese Empire did not have enough understanding of the mechanization of the army, and could not see the impact of tank tactics on the war, so the mechanization process was far inferior to that of European countries.

The tanks of the Imperial Army were all light tanks, and it was only after the crushing defeat of the Imperial Army in North China that a real medium tank was developed. Prior to this, the Imperial Army was equipped with Type 89, Type 94, 95, and 97 light tanks (known as medium tanks only). The 94 light reconnaissance tank, Type 95, and Type 97 were the main tank equipment of the Imperial Army. The best Type 97 of the Imperial Army still stayed on the basis of riveted hulls and small-caliber 47mm short guns.

Compared with the mainstream equipment of mainstream European countries. The Imperial Army is still far from completing mechanization, and it doesn't just count the presence of chariots, but also depends on the attachment of other vehicles. The Imperial forces don't even have many trucks in general, let alone other wheeled or tracked vehicles. The current Imperial tank guns cannot penetrate the frontal armor of the American M3 light tank, even with several salvo shots as close as 100 meters, and the difference in firepower can be seen from this.

Due to the weakness of the country, especially the low production of steel, the empire was simply unable to develop heavy tanks. Comparing the 20 million tons of steel production in the United States and the 18 million tons in Germany, the empire could only produce a meagre 4 million tons of low-quality steel per year, and most of the steel and military expenses were used to build the navy, so that the so-called armored forces of the empire flaunted their might in front of the poorly equipped infantry of China.

But at Nomenkan, in the face of the well-equipped Soviet armored forces, it was simply vulnerable.

All this has caused panic in the Japanese government, especially since the Philippines under the control of the United States is very close to the Japanese mainland and even closer to the Japanese-controlled island of Taiwan, and in addition, the United States is not yet pursuing a very friendly policy, and is even full of hostility towards the Japanese Empire, so the Japanese Government must reconsider its relationship with the US Government and must also face up to the opinions put forward by the Army.

In addition, with the increase in US armaments, especially the Air Force, the gap between Japan and US armaments has widened at an accelerated pace.

Not long ago, US Secretary of the Navy Knox said in a speech in Boston: "Now is the time to use the US Navy," and then openly said: "In order to pursue the US Far East policy, the US Navy can resolutely take the necessary measures." ”

Subsequently, the United States established the U.S. Far East Army Command in the Philippines, under the command of General MacArthur. Immediately afterwards, the Malay administration announced that British reinforcements had arrived in Singapore.

What the Japanese side could not tolerate the most was that a few days ago there was news from the United States that President Roosevelt had announced that he would send a military envoy headed by Brigadier General Magruth to Chongqing.

At that time, the army and navy consumed about 12,000 tons of oil a day on standby, and with Japan's economic strength at this time, it simply could not compete with the United States and Britain for a long time, let alone Ma Zheng's headquarters on the Chinese battlefield. (To be continued.) )