Did Nazi Germany know about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in advance, and give their approval?
If their alliance, created in 1939 with the Tri-Partite Pact, required that they come to each other’s aid in war…you would think that each party would have some approval over the other’s plans. Or did Japan drag Germany unwillingly into a war with the US?
Didn’t Japan rather drag USA unwillingly into war with Germany…? USA was very reluctant to engage in Europe, and didn’t (unlike Britain and France for instance) declare war on Germany until Pearl Harbor, and that’s late in 1941, which is rather late in WWII,* and after Pearl Harbor, Germany did declare war on the US, not the other way around. As far as I know, there was no feeling of being “dragged” into war with USA in the Nazi camp. Although, of course, it wasn’t a smart strategic move due to the overwhelming industrial capacity of the USA at the time.
[SIZE=“2”]* After Stalingrad six months later the outcome was beginning to be rather obvious, thanks to the Red Army etc.[/SIZE]
The pact between Germany and Japan required assistance only if the US attacked without provocation. Since Japan attacked the US Germany was not required to join. In fact, Hitler declared war on the US against the advice of his generals. It was Hitler’s second biggest mistake of the war (after the invasion of the USSR).
Japan did not inform Germany of it’s intent to start a war on a particular date.
Germany and Japan did not share tactical or strategic plans or goals, and they only shared info about operations already in the process of being carried out, as well as info on current Allied tactics, equipment, and deployments.
They also shared some military technology (most famously, Germany sent Japan some blueprints and a working model of a jet engine).