Deterrent diplomacy: Russia and US
Relations with the Soviets had taken a down-turn in November 1936, after Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact (a pact to thwart international communism) with Germany. They reached their lowest ebb when Japanese and Soviet forces clashed in the Nomonhan sector of the Manchurian-Mongolian border in 1939. To defuse the threat of war with Russia, on 13 April 1941, discretion proved the better part of valour, and Japan signed a neutrality pact with the Soviets.
'... the emperor himself was becoming concerned about the hawkish tone of the military ...'
In June 1941 negotiations with the Netherlands East Indies broke down and on 2 July the Japanese endorsed a further push forward for their 'southward advance' while secretly preparing for war with the Soviets. When Japan occupied southern Indochina that same month, the United States imposed a de facto oil embargo.
By early September the emperor himself was becoming concerned about the hawkish tone of the military vis-à-vis negotiations with the United States. But a memorandum issued by US Secretary of State Cordell Hull, on 26 November, demanding that Japan withdraw completely from China and Indochina, played into the hands of Japanese hardliners. On that day the Japanese fleet sailed for Pearl Harbor.
Published: 2004-06-09
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