Figure 1.-- |
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A Japanese carrier taskforce executed a surprise attack on the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941). The Axis Alliance was a defensive alliance. It required the three countries to come to the other's aid in case of attack, but did not require any action if one of the three attacked another country. Thus Hitler was not required to come to Japan's assistance, Foreign Minister Von Ribontrop stressed this in meetings with Hitler. Up to this time Hitler had avoided attacking the United States, even when President Roosevelt launched was in effect an undeclared naval war in the North Atlantic. Thus Hitler's decession to declare war on America (December 11) is largely unexplained. Speaking before an audience of NAZI luminaries, Hitler announced his decession, explaining that America with its mixture of races would not be an important factor in the War. America was in fact the only country on which Hitler declared war. It was like the other important war decessions, a decession he made personally without any kind of staff discussion. He never explained his desission to his inner circle and historians today can only speculate concerning the decesion.
Even more unfathomable, he made the decession just as the Soviets launched their offensive before Moscow,
clearly demonstrationg that Operation Barbarossa had failed to knock the Soviets out of the War in a quick summer campaign. America was unprepared for war
against either Germany or Japan. Hitler's declaration solved a problen for President Rooseveltof how after a Japanese attack to enter the European against NAZI
Germany The Japanese and NAZIs were unaware of the dangers of war with an industrial potential of the United States. They were convinced that America's war
profuction could not be accelerated or a national will to wage war coalese in time to make an effective contribution.
Hitler's concep of America is not precisely known. Some have argued that Hitler and the NAZIs serious underestimated the potential power of the United States. Göring is known to have said that all the Americans know is how to make razor blades. Some historians argue that Hitler himself had a similar simplistic understanding of America. [Remnak] Hitler did not discuss America to any great extent in Mein Kampf. What he did have to say was relatively complimentary. He was impressed with the industrial and technological advances. He also approved of the way which America had solved the Native American problem and the Jim Crow system to isolate and restrict black Americans. He enviously discussed America's continental power base, the kind of continental dominance he desired for Germany. Hitler had much more to say about America in his second book which he decided not to publish. Here he concluded that race mixing nd Jewish influences had eroded the strength of the United States. He saw the failure of America to overcome the Depression as a sign of weakness. He also postulated the theory that the growth of American power would threaten Britain, perhaps compeling her to seek an alliance with Germany. He probably believed much of this, but Hitler was also a practical thinker and understood that America posed a moratal danger to the NAZIs. As a result, he dealt with America cautiously despite the antagonistic policies of the Roosevelt Administration which steadily expanded assistance to the Allies despite a powerful Isolationist movement. Up to this time Hitler had avoided attacking the United States, even when President Roosevelt launched was in effect an undeclared naval war in the North Atlantic. Hitler appears to have understood much better than the Japanese the potential danger that America posed.
Both Germany and Japan had some reservations about an alliance, but the course of events by mid-1940 had convinced both that a formal alliance was in their best interest. The Axis Alliance was a defensive alliance. It required the three countries to come to the other's aid in case of attack, but did not require any action if one of the three attacked another country. Thus Hitler was not required to come to Japan's assistance, Foreign Minister Van Ribontrop stressed this in meetings with Hitler.
Almost from the beginning of war in Europe, President Roosevelt began what was to become an undeclared war with Germany in the North Atlantic. The first tenative step was naval patrols to to prevent belligerent ships from U.S. waters. Also he began to think about bases in Bermuda and the Caribbean only days after the war had begun. [Freidel, p. 323.] While America would not enter the War until December 1941, Britain had an ally in the Atlantic almost from the beginning of the War. At first the American role was limited, but as the situation worsend and the German's expanded the U-boat fleet, the American role expanded. The Royal Navy was ill prepared for the war. Lossess to the u-boats were severe, despite the fact the Keiegsmarine began the War with only a small force. Months before American entered the War, the U.S. Navy was involved in a full-scale shooting war to protect the convoys needed to keep Britin in the War. The American public was not fully aware of the extent to which the Navy was involved. The American effort, however, played a major role in allowing Britain to to survive the NAZI onslaught.
Even more unfathomable, Hitler made the decession just as the Soviets launched their offensive before Moscow, clearly demonstrationg that Operation Barbarossa had failed to knock the Soviets out of the War in a quick summer campaign. Hitler changed plans and diverted Army Group Central from Moscow. Great vicories were achieved, but it was not until the end of Summer that the Panzers began the finalk push on Moscow. Autumn rains turned the unpaved Soviet roads into rivers of mud, trapping the Wehrmacht and the Panzers. The beginning of the cold weather was a shock to the Wehrmascht which had made no preparations for winter fighting. Men in great numbers suffered from exposure. Equipment, artillery, vehicjes, and tanks would not function. German commandrs asked for permussion to pause. Hitler ordered them to press on. It was at this time that Zukov reinforced by units transferred from Sibera struck. The result was not only were the Wehrmacht struck, but the losses were so devestting that the German war effort was never able to ully recover.
A Japanese carrier taskforce composed of six front-line carriers executed a surprise attack on the American Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941). American planners had thought the Japanese might strike, but had not expected the attack to come at Pearl Harbor. Most officials had expected the war to come with Hitler and the NAZIs first. The Japanese strike was a shatering success. All eight battle ships of the American Pacific Fleet were sunk, but only two were destoyed (Arizona and Oklahoma). Unexpectantly the American carriers were not at Pearl. It is often said that the Japanese strike imobilized the Pacific fleet. This is only in part true. It was the Japanese superiority in carriers that gave them the ability to dominate the Pacific taking island after island and launch an offensive into Southeast Asia.
Speaking before a rapt Reichstag in Berlin, Reich Führer Adolf Hitler delivered an empashioned 88 minute speech. He provided a NAZI view of how the War came about. He rejected responsibility and predictably blamed the war on the Jews. He personsally wrote the speech himself. He reviewd how the War came about (SEptember 1939) and why he decided to invade the Soviet Union (June 1941). Much of this was either outright lies or delusionary. With Hitler it is often difficult to searate the two. He spoke at length on President Roosevelt's hostile policies. He described the increasingly belligerent actions of the United States. (The United States was supplying Britin arms thrugh Lend Lease and openly waging war against the U-bots in the North Atlantic.) Here Hitler was accurately describing American actions. Following this, he theatrically announced that Germany was declaring war on the United States and joining its Axis ally. The address was broadcast throughout Germany. At the time only a few military men fully understood the disaster unfolding in Russia where the Red Army had launched a winter offensive before Moscow (December 10). Hitler explained that America with its mixture of races would not be an important factor in the War. It is difficult to know what people throughout Germany thought as they heard this address. Their Führer had brought them stunning victories. It is likely that most Germans, especially yonger Germans, had great confidence in him. Many older Germans may have still strong memories of World war I and the impact of America entering the War. One historian reports that an inaccurate and misleading translation of portions of the address appeared in The New York Times (December 12). [Weber]
"... everything which America has not drawn from Europe may well appear worthy of admiration to a juda-ised, mixed race; Europe, on the other hand, sees in it a sign of cultural decay." After a long historical discussion, Hitler proclaimed, "I think you have all found it a relief that now, at last, one State has been the first to take the step of protest against his historically
unique and shameless ill treatment of truth, and of right – which protest this man has desired and about which he cannot complain. The
fact that the Japanese Government, which has been negotiating for years with this man, has at last become tired of being mocked by
him, in such an unworthy way, fills us all, the German people, and I think, all other decent people in the world, with deep satisfaction.
We have seen what the Jews have done to Soviet Russia. We have made the acquaintance of the Jewish Paradise on earth. Millions of
German soldiers have been able to see this country where the international Jews have destroyed people and property. The President of
the U.S.A. ought finally to understand – I say this only because of his limited intellect – that we know that the aim of this struggle is to
destroy one State after another.
But the present German Reich has nothing more in common with the old Germany. And we, for our part, will now do what this
provocateur has been trying to do so much for years. Not only because we are the ally of Japan, but also because Germany and Italy
have enough insight and strength to comprehend that, in these historic times, the existence or non-existence of the nations, is being
decided perhaps for ever.
We clearly see the intention of the rest of the world towards us. They reduced Democratic Germany to hunger. They would
exterminate our social things of today. When Churchill and Roosevelt state that they want to build up a new social order, later one, it is
like a hairdresser with a bald head recommending an unfortunate hair-restorer. These men, who live in the most socially backward states,
have misery and distress enough in their own countries to occupy themselves with the distribution of foodstuffs.
As for the German nation, it needs charity neither from Mr. Churchill nor from Mr. Roosevelt, let alone from Mr. Eden. It wants only
its rights! It will secure for itself this right to life even if thousands of Churchills and Roosevelts conspire against it.
In the whole history of the German nation, of nearly 2,000 years, it has never been so united as today and, thanks to National
Socialism it will remain united in the future. Probably it has never seen so clearly, and rarely been so conscious of its honour. I have
therefore arranged for his passports to be handed to the American Charge d'Affairs today, and the following . . . (drowned in applause).
As a consequence of the further extension of President Roosevelt's policy, which is aimed at unrestricted world domination and
dictatorship the U.S.A. together with England have not hesitated from using any means to dispute the rights of the German, Italian and
Japanese nations to the basis of their natural existence.
The Governments of the U.S.A. and of England have therefore resisted, not only now but also for all time, every just understanding
meant to bring about a better New Order in the world. Since the beginning of the war the American president, Roosevelt, has been guilty
of a series of the worst crimes against international law; illegal seizure of ships and other property of German and Italian nationals were
coupled with the threat to, and looting of, those who were deprived of their liberty by being interned.
Roosevelt's ever increasing attacks finally went so far that he ordered the American navy to attack everywhere ships under the
German and Italian flags, and to sink them – this in gross violation of international law. American ministers boasted of having destroyed
German submarines in this criminal way. German and Italian merchant ships were attacked by American cruisers, captured and their
crews imprisoned.
With no attempt at an official denial there has now been revealed in America President Roosevelt's plan by which, at the latest in
1943, Germany and Italy were to be attacked in Europe by military means. In this way the sincere efforts of Germany and Italy to
prevent an extension of the war and to maintain relations with the U.S.A. in spite of the unbearable provocations which have been
carried on for years by President Roosevelt, have been frustrated.
Germany and Italy have been finally compelled, in view of this, and in loyalty to the Tri-Partite act, to carry on the struggle against
the U.S.A. and England jointly and side by side with Japan for the defense and thus for the maintenance of the liberty and independence
of their nations and empires.
The Three Powers have therefore concluded the following Agreement, which was signed in Berlin today:
"In their unshakable determination not to lay down arms until the joint war against the U.S.A. and England reaches a
successful conclusion, the German, Italian, and Japanese governments have agreed on the following points:
Article 1. Germany, Italy and Japan will wage the common war forced upon them by the U.S.A. and England with all the means of power at their disposal, to a victorious conclusion.
Article II. Germany, Italy and Japan undertake not to conclude an armistice or peace with the U.S.A., or with England without complete mutual understanding.
Article III. Germany, Italy and Japan will continue the closest cooperation even after the victorious conclusion of the war in order to bring about a just new order in the sense of the Tri-Partite Pact concluded by them on the 27th September 1940.
Article IV. This Agreement comes into force immediately after signature and remains in force as long as the Tri-Partite Pact of 27th September 1940. The Signatory Powers will confer in time before this period ends about the future form of the cooperation provided for in Article III of this agreement."
Deputies, Members of the German Reichstag: Ever since my last peace proposal of July 1940 was rejected, we have realized that this struggle has to be fought out to its last implications. That the Anglo-Saxon-Jewish-Capitalist World finds itself now in one and the same Front with Bolshevism does
not surprise us National Socialists: we have always found them in company. " [BBC]
Thus Hitler's decesion to declare war on America (December 11) is largely unexplained. America was in fact the only country on which Hitler declared war. It was like the other important German war decessions, a decession he made personally without any kind of staff discussion. He never explained his desision to his inner circle and historians today can only speculate about it. It seems virtual madness. Why would Hitler who had first failed to defeat Britain and then clearly failed to defeat the Soviet Union, declare war on the other remaining great power, the United states. One of the advantages of the Axis Alliance was to pressure Britain and to detract America. But now Hitler acted to bring America into the European war. Unfortunately there is no clear record of what he was thinking. Here we can only speculate. There are several factors which may exolain his rash action. 1) We believe the primary action was psychological. Hitler proved himself to be a gifted and calculating politican. He made deals and attacked wakness, temporizing when he found strength. While successful he hated having to make arrangements with people he loathed. If you review his career up through the fall of France, Hitler's calculations and political steps wee invariably accurate. After the fall of France, he was invairably wrong. This is because he shifted from political calculation to military command. It was what he alkways wanted, go be a great military commander. With the declaration of war he tired of political steps to keep American isolationist as long as possible and did what he really wanted, make war. In his declaration war, Hilter called Roosevelt a man of low intelect. In effect it was Roosevelt who had outmaneuvered Hitler. 2) Hitler saw himself a leader of bold action. He saw that Roosevelt would eventully gain a declaration of war from Congress and decided he wanted to take the bold action. 3) He had promised the Japanese just such an action and did not want to appear to be a reluctant ally. [Rich] 4) Having filed to destroy the Red rmy with Operation Barbarosa, he must have begun to see a Japanese attack in the east as needed assistance.
America was unprepared for war against either Germany or Japan, but preparations were already being ecalated before the Japanese struck. Hitler's declaration conveniently solved a problem for President Roosevelt. It would have been difficult for even a president noted for his persuavive abilities to explain how after a Japanese attack in the Pacific that America should focus its energies on entering the European war against NAZI Germany. Both Roosevelt and Churchill assessed NAZI Germany as the greatest danger and saw a need to concentrate resources on defeating the NAZIs as the highest priority. We think that the President could have managed it, but it would have been awkward and taken alittle time.
The Japanese and NAZIs were unaware of the full dimension of the danger posed by war with the United States and its huge industrial capacity. For that matter even America and its allies were not fully aware of what American industry would actually achieve. Here it is difficult to assess the statements of Axis officials. we often are left wondering if their statements are prpagabnda or what they really believed.
Hitler appears to have been more aware of the dangers posed by the United Stsates than the Japanese Army clique that dominated the government. The exact nature of his assessment is not precisely known. Whike he speaks highly of America in Mein Kampf, his appears to have convinced himself in his second book that the "mongerilization" of America had sapped its omce formidable energies. Even so, his policies until the declaration of war suggest a healthy regard for the potential strength of the United states. His attempted to avoid conflict with the United States, even when President Roosevelt ordered the U.S. Navy to engage U-boats in the North Atlantic.
The eternally optimistic Goebels wrote in his diary, " An American newspaper [sic], The Reader's Digest, with a circukatiin of 5,800,000, has published a sensatioinal article which asserts that the United States in the last analysis is unable to undertake anything against the armed forces of the Axis. Amweica's war was a hopeless undertaking and could only result in bleeding the nation white. At least ine voice in the wilderness! It remains to be seen, however, whether this viewpoint will make headway." [Goebels, p. 35.] It is unclear where Goebbels got this information as there is no known artice in the Reader's Digest that made this asertion. Goebbels confidence seem to be based on the difficulty America would have in transporting an army to a location where it could attack Axis forces. Within months he would be proved wrong. American offenses would begin in the Pacific at Guadacana (august 1942) and North Africa (November 1942). This was the first in a series of misjudgenents Goebels would make about America.
Göring seems to have been unaware of America's potential. He assured the German people that the Americans "only know how to make razor blades". This of course came from the head of the Luftwaffe tasked with defending German cities. Germany's production of airplanes was dwarfed by that of the United Ststes. And result would be that German cities were to be reduced to rubble. Such nonsence did not come from from the competent military commanders that would be tasked with fighting the United States.
The Japanese appear to have convinced themselves that their Bushido spirit was the critical factor in the War. They also believed that America's war production could not be accelerated or a national will to wage war coalese in time to prevent Japan from seizing its Asian empire. And America would not have the will challenge that empire once seized. As a result of Pearl Harbor, however, American isolationism instantly evaporated. The nation was aroused with an almost crusading zeal. A massive army, navy, and air forces had to be trained an equipped. The economy had to be reorganized for war. But President Roosevelt against a determied resistance from the Isolations had already set in motion the construction of a Two Ocean Navy, a 50,000 plane air force, a 6 million man army, and the secret ptogram to build an atomic bomb. All of this now faced Hitler and he had failed to subdue Britain and the Red Army had just launched a massive offensive before Moscow. The Japanese miscalulation about America appears to have been the fundamental error of the War.
Of all the unanswered questions about Hitler's declaration of war on America, perhaps none is so puzzeling as to why he did not insist on reciprosity and demand that Japan declare war on the Soviet Union. But the situation was even worse for the NAZIs. The Japanese were even allowing American Lend Lease shipments to transit Japanese-controlled waters to reach Soviet Pacific ports. Hitler did not demand a Japanese declaration of war or the interdiction of American war material. There had been no consultations between the two countries before Hitler invaded the Soviet Unin and the Japanese did not confer with Hitler before attacking Pearl Harbor. Hitler's falure to insist on reciprosity seems a major diplomatic gaffe.
Surely one reason Hitler declared war on America was to induce Japan to attack the Soviet Union. Notice the wording above of Htler's declaration of war and the phrase "loyalty to the Tri-Partite act". The Axis Pact did not require Japan to declare war on the Soviet Union, but clearly Hitler hoped that "loyalty" to the pact would draw them in. The Japanese with most of their army mired in China had just declared war in America and Britain. They decided that the Soviet Union was beyond their capabiities, at least in 1941-42. Japanese diplomats let Hitler to believe that a declaration of war would becoming. Unfortunately for Hitler and the NAZIs. with the American victory at Midway (June 1942), the war began to go against Japan and with it th likelihood that the Japanese would declare war on the Soiviet Union.
Many German military commanders were astonished that Hitler would declare war on America at a time that the British weee still undefeated, but that the Soviets had launched a major offensive. Many senior commanders remember the impact of the American infantry on the Western front. Even many non-professionals were aware of the potential strngth of the United States. Committed NAZIs, however, scoffed at the stength of America. Propaganda Minister Goebbels seemed impressed that a month had past and the United States had not yet launched any attacks. He wrote in his diary, "Roosevelt has nothing positive to report in the way of victories. His loud-mouth speeches befire the war are still remembered by everybody. The discrepancy between what he prophesized and what has actually happened is so obvious that he can get out of this dangerous scrape only by lies and rumors." [January 26, 1942--Goebbels, p. 49.]
Converting the American industrial economy for war was a massive undertaking. A range of problems were encountered. Not the least was the fact that many American corportation experiencing real profits after the lean deression years were not anxious to convert. But convert they did. American war production was was underway in an amazingly short period, astounding not only the Germans and Japanese but the British and Russians and Americans themselves. The industrial capacity of the United States soon created an outpouring of ships, planes, tanks, and war material of virtually every discription that was unprecedented in history. It culminated in the building of the atomic bomb. In a steadily rising wave, the force of the American war production was visited on the Axis countries. The nature of the Japanese attack and the Batan death march galvanized the Americam people to wage a total war in both Europe and Asia. Allied War propaganda, however, did not begin to fully depict the horrors taking place in the occupied countries--especially Eastern Europe. American military production steadily expanded making possible the launching of a second front in Europe with the D-Day invasion of June 1944 and the destruction of industrial Germany and the Luftwaffe through a massive air campaign.
BBC. Monitoring Service.
Fridel, Frank. Franklin D. Roosevelt: Rendezuous with Destiny (Little Brown: Boston, 1990), 710p.
Goebbels, Jeseph. ed, Louis B. Lochner, The Goebbels Diaries, 1942-1943 (Doubleday: New York, 1948), 566p.
Remak, Joachim. "Hitlera Amerikapolitik, " Aussenpolitik VI (1955), pp. 706-14.
Rich, Norman. Hitler';s War Aims: Idelogu, the Nazi State, and the Course of Expansion (The Norton Library: New York, 1973), 352p.
Weber, Mark. "Germany’s Declaration of War Against the United States: Hitler’s Reichstag Speech of December 11, 1941," Journal of Historical Review (Winter 1988-89) (Vol. 8, No. 4), pages 389-416.
(Revised: October 2007).
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