Were Japan and Germany actual allies during the second world war, or did they just have the common enemy of the USA, and a similar plan of imperialism?
I mean they both wanted to take over the world, so wouldn't that have lead to them eventually going at war against each other?
or am i missing something, making this a stupid question?
Germany wanted an Aryan Europe. Hitler called it
lebensraum "living space" in which inferior populations would be exploited, marginalised, or simply removed.
Japan wanted an empire to supply its ambitions toward becoming a dominant industrial nation. Lacking the resources they needed, and ruled by a military junta that thought in terms of conquest, then achieving this by force was interpreted as a form of destiny.
Both nations were co-signees of a treaty (along with Italy) before the war. Germany supplied Japan with technology and late in the war U-boats travelled there carrying consignments of ore. I'm not sure what Japan did for Germany but I wouldn't doubt there were political advantages.
In any case both nations were enemies of the Soviet Union and thus co-operating to contain Russia was desirable for both states. Had both nations achieved their desires their strengths would have balanced the temptation to attack each other, but then, you would have to argue whether such ambition was practicable. After all, Japan was well aware that America would defeat them in a drawn out war due to their size and economic strengths, and only attacked Pearl Harbor to push them out of contention in one hit - a gamble they lost.
It is true that Germany had plans to invade America, both for their own ends and also to exploit the pacific war to their own advantage, but you have to view those with some caution. It was, like many ideas mooted in nazi circles, a pipe dream.
