>England and France declare war on Germany >Italy jumps

They had their ass kicked badly by the USSR in the Battles of Khalkin Gol before WW2 even technically started.

They knew damn well they wouldn't be effecting the European theater in any way.

Backstabbers? They weren't allied with Germany. The tripartite pact was the closest they got in 1940, and it was more directed to deter the US from joining than a promise of military assistance against the other belligerents, and was more defensive in nature.

Japan was already, you'd recall, in a war with China before Hitler invaded Poland.

They did drop the ball with Pearl Harbor, though, I can only imagine Hitler shit himself.

>>1775809
Japan wasn't exactly at war with China. They invaded and killed off villagers.

>Germans supporting the Chinese for decades
>signing a pact with the Soviets despite having an anti comintern pact with japan
>later breaks the pact with the soviets that signing had broken the pact with japan

It's a bit ballsy to talk about 'backstabbers'

>>1775833
>Stalin trusting a one testicle demagogue who didn't finish high school and came to power by murdering his opposition


Color me shocked

>>1775844

Even from Japan's perspective the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was a stab in the back, because it broke a treaty they signed in 1936.

So you've got the Germans pouring resources into China - who the Japanese believed were in their sphere of influence - but saying "but we'll still work together against the Soviets", then signing a fucking deal with the Soviets three years later and breaking the deal. I wouldn't be tripping over myself to travel halfway across the world to help in their war of aggression either.

>>1775820
They were the vikings of Asia

>>1775820
That might not count as war in the middle ages but these are the 1930s we're on about, America went into WW1 originally because of a civilian ship being sunk, and that was on accident.

>>1776112
Why would that be on accident if the ships contained weaponry for Britain?

>>1776112
>America went into WW1 originally because of a civilian ship being sunk
No, America went to war because Germany was making promises to Mexico that they couldn't keep.

>Unrestricted submarine warfare
>an accident
Are you daft or just stupid?

>>1776126
Because they had literally no way of knowing that, and that fact only came out decades later. Them going "T-the Lusitania was a l-legitimate target! I-it was carrying war material!" was them trying very hard to deflect the world's ire off of them; they just happened to be proven right later.

>>1775790
one of the major flaws of the Axis powers was the lack of a grand strategy, that each of the powers was essentially out for themselves, without much coordination between their armies save for North Africa where Germany and Italy did have close coordination/cooperation.

the Japanese could have played a major role in coordinating with Germany in attacking the Soviet Union from 2 sides, but Germany didn't even bother to inform Japan of Operation Barbarossa, so the invasion was just as much a surprise to Japan as it was to the Soviets.

>>1777102

The Japs got their ass kicked by Russia just before WW2 where it became clearly obvious the Japanese did not have the proper equipment to invade Russia. Their tanks were pure shit and got ass raped by obsolete Russia BT-5's, they didnt have enough trucks to travel across the huge distances involved.
At best their invasion would progress to lake Baikal before behing caught in a bottleneck, because although Russia is huge the only infrastructure is the Siberian railway so they would have to attack across a very narrow front with no supplies and it would have been a disaster.

>>1775833
You omitted the part where the Chinese signed a pact with the Soviets first.