Were there any loan officers or other direct cooperation between

Very little. They were shit allies to each other.

Germany basically needed Japan to invade the USSR from the East in order for Barbarossa to succeed. Japan kept up its non-aggression pact with the Soviets and instead started a war against the US and its allies. To show solidarity Hitler declared war on the US after Pearl Harbor, hoping it would convince Japan to declare war on the USSR, but they never did.

Nazi Germany was a JUST cuck.

Germany threw some weapons plans at Japan late in the war. They even loaded up submarines with heavy water and other nuclear materials. the nuclear weapon subs surrendered to the USA or were sunk.

Japan tried to war the Soviets in 39 and got stomped. So they just focused on China and the SEAsians.

>>2519358
Nips made a horrible mistake. Should've installed figureheads in China and actually make an East Asian cooperative instead of raping people and stealing resources.

>>2519380
Their biggest mistake was attacking the US instead of Russia.

Fun fact: Japan is the only country on earth to have been with the 3 current/former superpowers USA, Russia and China at a war simultaneously. Kind of cool.

>>2519380
Japan's control of China was limited to the Han plain and even then they only occupied the cities and major transport lines. Plenty of the Chinese countryside never saw a Japanese solider. Despite this it quickly developed into a quagmire from which there was little chance of escape; turning their backs on China would mean certain defeat in the war but at the same time it had become an untenable position. The only choice they really had was to keep throwing resources into the bleeding ulcer on the mainland, Japan had vastly more troops deployed in China than ever saw action in the Pacific.

The Russian Far East held no better prospects. They could easily seize the coast, but then what? The area quickly becomes sparsely populated wilderness through which supply lines can't be guaranteed. Japan had actually occupied the region as far west as Lake Biakal as recently as 1921 due to the Russian Civil War, but the situation became difficult politically and militarily and they just didn't have the political acumen to hold on to the territory, as much as the expansionist factions may have wished it so.

Japan in WW2 is very interesting because while the appear strong the reality is that they're sinking on almost every front in the long term, even Pearl Harbour was a desperate attempt to take the US Navy out of commission and break an ongoing blockade.

File: 1487219690727.png (50KB, 761x608px) Image search: [Google]

50KB, 761x608px

>>2519939
Is this bait? Your making it sound like nips were having a hard time. The reality is that japan was running out of resources while the USA, britain even the soviet union steadily supplied the chinese. If it not were for the help of the allies to china, it would have been invaded easily by nips.

>>2519939
Why was China so important in the first place? They should have focused on either China or the Pacific, (Or Russia) not both fucking simultaneously.

>>2519975
This doesn't contradict my point, they succeeded in their invasion and won the battles, but failed in the occupation, as has happened many in countless other wars. China had become a resource sink that the Japanese could ill afford but to pull out would mean the Allies holding the mainland and the end of Japan's imperial ambitions.

>>2519976
They bit off vastly more than they could chew, but you also have to consider that the 2nd Sino-Japanese war started in 1937, they were already in control when WW2 arrived and presented new opportunities.

>>2519976
Because they live on barren island with no resources.

>>2519975
>Using PRC flag for China
Reeee

>>2519358
Not Japan's fault that Hitler was a retard who declare war on the USSR for no reason. He made the alliance with Japan when both of them had a non-aggression pact with the Soviets and never told them they were going to break it later.

>>2519341
Japan also killed all the German missionaries, priests and nuns, found in the DEI.

>>2520346
The Japanese empire before the invasion of mainland china was pretty big. They had korea, manchuria and several islands. There might not have beeen the known oil deposits they were looking for but surely they could have squeezed alot of resources out of all that

>>2519881
None of them were considered Superpowers back then anon...

>>2519975
German deaths weren't 8 million. They had about 5,000,000 military dead and 300,000 or more civilian dead from air raids.

>inb4 da lolocaust

>>2521785
>the US and Russia weren't considered superpowers in WW2
Are you fucking with me right now? Are you pulling my dick?

I remember reading about their one coordinated effort. Some very minor naval engagement off Madagascar or something.

>>2521785
China was arways numba wan!

>>2521786
Yeah no. A huge chunk died during their expulsion from East Prussia.

>>2519377
The problem was that Japan's industry was so shit they had no way to make use of the blueprints.

It's a miracle Japan did as well as they did considering most of their equipment was garbage, with faulty pistols, bomb sights, gunsights, hilariously bad grenades, shitty tanks, planes that explode when shot, warships that didn't have modern fire control systems, horribly outdated infantry weapons (Arisaka was pretty cool tho), the list goes on and on.

File: 0128_-_NRWKYVY-150x150.jpg (12KB, 150x150px) Image search: [Google]

12KB, 150x150px

>>2519976
the original idea(for the military ultra-nationalists who eventually seized control after 1931-32) was to carve out a self-sufficient empire in north east asia based around japan, korea, taiwan, and manchuria. however the same phenomena that led to manchuria being taken, namely mid-rank officers taking the initiative and generally ignoring tokyo, also led to further japanese encroachment in inner mongolia/hebei. ie, japanese troops would take a little more land despite being not ordered to nor it being part of a wider plan. you have to understand japanese imperialism as being fundamentally reactionary and opportunistic, there was little in the way of a cohesive vision.

furthermore, chiang kai-shek really upped the ante against japan in the aftermath of the marco polo bridge incident. the incident was just one of many similar skirmishes in the area between chinese and japanese troops that had previously not led to total war. however, after the xi'an incident in which chiang kai-shek was kidnapped and forced to agree to the united front with the commies, he was really looking for a way to regain prestige and unchallenged political leadership. a war against japan seemed like a good way to do that at the time(obviously he radically miscalculated). so, he escalated what was a minor skirmish into a full-blown way and japan was all too happy to take the opportunity to subjugate china.

>>2522221
>nip commanders were basically independent warlords that did whatever the fuck they wanted

I don't get it, why are japanese always portrayed as socially rigid, rarely taking initative, and having an utmost regard for authority when shit like this happened?

>>2522274
Because of idiots thinking modern day Japanese are the same as WW2 era Japanese. Also the I depended warlords as commander stuff is partially the reason why Japanese troops committed so many war crimes. Humans do fucked up stuff when under the stress of war and combined with no clear authority just makes it worse.

>>2522087
japanese naval gunnery was actually excellent. It was just man power intensive and took time to train.

>>2522274
>I don't get it, why are japanese always portrayed as socially rigid, rarely taking initative, and having an utmost regard for authority when shit like this happened?

Japan was modernized only by appearance. Imperial Japan still kept a lot of feudal ideals like gekokujo, where the subordinate defies his master to become more powerful, which came from the Sengoku period.

A lot of the officers were high class and thus exempt from everyday rules. If you're a peasant, then yes you're expected to be 100% obedient. For the Japanese soldier, obedience was the most valued trait followed by discipline.

>>2519341
Discussion between Japan and Germany was extremely limited and almost awkward.

Japan kind of maybe hinted at attacking Russia or Singapore and snuck in a comment about Germany maybe attacking the US if they were to get involved in a war.

Hitler kind of took the bait said yeah Russia and Singapore are important so if the US becomes a problem then yeah we would declare war on them too.

The whole thing was kind of informal and indirect and they kind of talked past each other.

Completely different than the allied forces. And much much worse off because of it.

its similiar to the allies in WWI pre-fauche and the central allied command.

They all wanted different shit and refused to work together.

File: Heer - Major japonés_1.jpg (55KB, 381x500px) Image search: [Google]

55KB, 381x500px

>>2519341
There were observers:

"Japanese observer wearing a German uniform; Krasnodar, Russia, 1942."

Japanese observers did wear Heer uniforms, however their duties were limited to evaluating German aircraft and tanks, and they wore the uniforms only due to the impossiblity to get uniforms from Japan. The Kyokujitsu-ki patch on his sleeve simply signified that they were Japanese Army.

File: Heer - Major japonés_2.jpg (65KB, 660x507px) Image search: [Google]

65KB, 660x507px

>>2522498

>>2519975
>PRC flag
>State of Japan flag
>Nazi flag
>Soviet flag
what a shitty fucking graph

File: militares - Oshima Hiroshi, embajador japonés en Alemania, visitando el frente ruso en 1942.jpg (451KB, 834x1187px) Image search: [Google]

451KB, 834x1187px

>>2522499

"The Japanese ambassador, Hiroshi Ōshima (大島 浩), with the Generaloberst Paul von Kleist; 1942, Rostov."

The embassy staff DID fight in Berlin in 1945, only because there was literally nothing else they could do. They were not in any way a cohesive unit - simply a few military observers and diplomatic personnel.

File: Submarino Tipo J3 I-8 (Brest, 1943).jpg (642KB, 1174x831px) Image search: [Google]

642KB, 1174x831px

>>2522531

"The I-8, a Type J3 submarine, arriving in Brest, France, in 1943"

File: Submarino Tipo B I-30 (Lorient, 1942).jpg (231KB, 640x422px) Image search: [Google]

231KB, 640x422px

>>2522545

"Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" by John Meeks.

''Japanese Submarine HIJMS I-30 enters a U-Boat pen; Lorient, France 1942''

File: Submarinos en Penang.jpg (197KB, 592x400px) Image search: [Google]

197KB, 592x400px

>>2522545
>>2522550
>meanwhile, on the other side of the world...

"Monsun (or "A Little Of What You Fancy Does You Good...!")" by John Meeks.

'' Penang, 1944. A crew member from a recently arrived Type IX U-Boat is invited aboard a Japanese "B"- type boat to try sake for the first time. In the background, a "C3" class I-Boat sits, dwarfing its German ally. ''

>>2521815
The only superpower back then was probably Britain.

The US didn't really get going until WW2, and certainly not Russia.