The defeat at the front caused a cloud of sorrow in Japan, and even at the beginning of the new year in the Western calendar, there was no joy in Japan, and the atmosphere in Japan was extremely tense. While the government was deliberately trying to clean up the situation through diplomatic means, the army and navy, the headquarters of the Japanese army, gradually reached a consensus on the countermeasures to open up the situation.

To be honest, it is really a very strange thing that the Japanese Navy and Army can reach an agreement, because the contradictions between the Japanese Navy and Army have been going on for a long time, and this is also a matter that is well known to the Japanese high-level. The disharmony caused by this contradiction stems from the origins of their origins, when after the Meiji Restoration, a large number of samurai from the four great feudal clans, who were the heroes of the downfall, became important ministers in the early Meiji period.

Among them, the originator of the army, Yama Prefecture Aritomo and others, were all feudal warriors from the Choshu Domain; The main force of the navy was the feudal lords of the Satsuma Domain. Originally, there were some factional factors vying for power and profit, but later the "Southwest War" in which the central government forcibly dissolved the Satsuma Domain, the two sides were even more troubled.

With the exception of the Taisho era, the Japanese government was largely influenced by the military. And in order to compete for influence on state power, the military will naturally divide the spoils unevenly.

Let's talk about something hidden, the Japanese army learned from Germany, and the navy learned from Britain. This is the result of two different cultural differences, and Japan has put both of them in its own pocket. The result is inevitable disharmony. One plans to engage in militaristic expansion in the blatant, and the other intends to learn from the Western powers to engage in "civilizational expansion". The difference between the two sides can also be understood as "urgent" and "slow", and one advocates absolute violence. Another is relative violence.

In the end, because Hirohito did not like the Meiji senator's control of the army, he privately supported the Shaozhuang faction of officers to plot to seize power, so that the army's expansion plots continued to succeed, and the army's ambitions were extremely inflated and tried to drag the country into the war immediately; However, because the navy knew more about the strength of Britain and the United States, and realized the fragility of Japan, it never advocated such action. However, both sides are constantly expanding their armaments and warfare, so that Japan's limited resources are really overwhelmed, and the struggle for power and profit will become even more intensified.

Prior to this, the base camp of the War Department believed. At present, we have made a great determination to decide that the national policy for dealing with the United States should be dominated by the navy. Therefore, until the Navy has not expressed its attitude, the Army has deliberately avoided expressing its opinion. Of course, the army is only in a hurry, and they simply cannot formulate the most effective countermeasures to deal with Britain and the United States.

As everyone knows. Drafting the original bill for the decision of the national policy. Historically, most of the work has been carried out by the army. But this time it's different. At the beginning of the new year, a meeting of the army and navy departments and bureau chiefs was held at the headquarters of the Japanese army, which was attended by the directors of the two military affairs bureaus and the chief of operations. will be there. For the first time, the Navy put forward the "Guidelines for the Implementation of the Imperial National Policy".

The main content of the document reads: "The Imperial Japanese Empire was limited to late May 1941, and preparations for war and diplomatic negotiations were carried out at the same time; By mid-May, when diplomatic negotiations could not reach a compromise, force was used. ”

This was indeed an unprecedented sign of the Japanese Navy's determination. However, as mentioned earlier, Japan's very existence is threatened by the embargo imposed by the United States, Britain, and the Netherlands, and the use of force if no solution can be found is the basic attitude that has been brewing in the army and navy since the spring. Since then, discussions and consultations have been held between the army and navy on the basis of this naval plan.

The navy and army have always been antagonistic, and this time is no exception. The above-mentioned naval plan still retains the determination to start a war and prepares for war, and to put it bluntly, the navy still does not want to fight, or it does not dare to fight. The Japanese Army, on the other hand, was embarrassed to make formal preparations for war without making up its mind for war, and the Japanese Army was confident of sweeping through the islands of the South Pacific.

Because of the four countries that dominate the South Pacific, except for the United States, the other three countries are all involved in the European war, while France and the Netherlands have been defeated, and the previous government has already existed in name only, these two countries are completely negligible.

Although Britain has not yet been defeated, but according to the relevant intelligence collected by the Japanese Empire, Britain has now suffered heavy losses, although Hitler's "Sea Lion Plan" did not destroy Britain, but it has caused great damage to Britain's industry and agriculture, especially industry, major industrial cities along the coast have been bombed by the Luftwaffe, and the losses are extremely heavy. Even if Britain could recover in a short time, in order to keep the British Isles, it was impossible for the main British force to move to the east, and they had to leave enough troops to guard against the Germans.

Speaking of the United States, although the economic strength of this country is indeed very strong, it is so strong that the Great Japanese Empire must look up to it. However, the military strength of the United States did not make the Japanese have too many scruples, according to the intelligence collected by the empire in 39 years, the total strength of the US army is only 100,000, and the navy is even less, less than 20,000.

In the past two years, although the United States has consciously expanded its armaments and increased its national defense capability, it has only been two years, and even if the Americans work hard, they will not be able to make much progress, and besides, the United States is different from the Japanese Empire, and their national system limits the power of the president. Even if Roosevelt recognized the threat of empire, as long as Congress did not approve of their military expansion, the United States would not be able to increase its military strength much.

In addition, according to Ambassador Murano, the vast majority of Americans have no interest in participating in the war, and the isolationist Americans only want to defend their acres and thirds of land, so the Japanese Army is confident that it will crush all the American forces in the South Pacific.

As a result, there is a conflict of opinion between the Navy, which is preparing without determination, and the Army, which believes that it will be difficult to prepare without determination. The Navy is indeed already making solid preparations for war on a large scale, which are scheduled to be completed by the end of April. And the Admiralty notified the Army of the following matters, much to the astonishment of the War Office.

"1. Complete preparations for war against Britain and the United States by April 15. 2. In May and June, another 300,000 tons of ships were requisitioned. 3. The Army-Navy Operational Agreement will be implemented on 20 June. 4. In early June, three battalions of the Marine Corps were transferred from China. 5. It is planned to requisition another 500,000 tons of ships from mid-June. ”

The Army believes that in the absence of war determination, such preparations for war should not be carried out and cannot be implemented.

In fact, this difference is only caused by the difference in the troops, and it is not a big problem. From an operational point of view, the navy's war preparations are mainly aimed at maintaining only a certain number of troops and a full supply of strategic materials at the bases, so it is relatively easy to withdraw even those that were once ready for war, so the navy has a tendency to regard war preparations as relatively simple.

The army's preparation is to first mobilize a large number of troops, and then assemble them near the intended battlefield and deploy them. At the same time, it is necessary to closely monitor the enemy's movements, so as to draw up a detailed operational plan, which is an extremely cumbersome process. In addition, it requires the support of His Majesty the Emperor and the entire public, which is far more complicated and laborious than the navy. Therefore, in terms of procedures, it is necessary to first determine the national policy and then obtain the consent of the government.

In addition, based on historical experience, the Army is very worried about the possibility that the Navy may withdraw from the war without making up its mind at the last moment of a diplomatic break. Therefore, the Army advocates that it should now make up its mind to fight a war against the United States and Britain, and that war preparations and diplomatic work should be carried out at the same time under this determination, and that it should be determined to go to war once diplomatic negotiations break down.

On January 2 and 3, 1941, the Army and Navy Directors and others continued to hold meetings to discuss the issue of the determination to go to war. As the War Office had anticipated, the Chief of Military of the Navy strongly disagreed with the decision to go to war, and said that even in the event of a split in foreign talks, the decision to go to war would have to be taken into account in Europe.

Therefore, although the Admiralty has put forward a plan for the use of force against the South Pacific region and has also proposed five ways to implement it, the War Department is still very skeptical about whether the Navy leaders are determined to fight the United States in the first war. Therefore, the Army proposes to revise the phrase "determined to go to war" to "under the determination of war". However, the director of the Oka Military Affairs Bureau refused to accept even this, and it was only on January 4 that he said that it would be acceptable if it was revised to "with the determination to fight at all costs."

In this way, the Japanese Navy and the War Department tended to agree on the question of whether or not to go to war, and agreed on a specific time, and on the question of when to start a war with Britain and the United States, the Navy and Army were very unanimous, and they all agreed that it must be around the beginning of August.

However, in order to complete this war preparation, it was necessary to have a large air force stationed in the southern part of French Indochina, and a large convoy of transport ships to be assembled in the South China Sea. The Army believes that these measures should be implemented after the determination to go to war and that preparations for the determination to go to war should be limited to the extent that they do not impede diplomatic negotiations. That is, the Army advocated that the determination to go to war should be determined at an appropriate time before the exercise of force, and then the transition to formal combat readiness should be set for early May. At this time, there was a consensus between the army and the navy.

On 5 January, the Army and Navy of the base camp were completely unanimous, and the Navy and Army agreed that they could continue to engage with the United States on whether or not to continue negotiations with the United States. With regard to the conditions for diplomatic talks, the Navy and Army have taken a much tougher stance on the principle that the purpose of the conventional Japan-US understanding should be respected.

At the same time, the navy and army also demanded that the government immediately start preparations for the expansion of the war, and ensure that the Japanese Empire would wage war against Britain, the United States, France, and the Netherlands "as a last resort." It also provided the government with a list of required materials, and asked the government to prepare all the materials on the list by the end of May! (To be continued......)