Why Didn’t Japan Coordinate An Attack On The USSR With Germany?

A second front in Stalin’s rear could have saved the war effort

(By soviet reporter — former image source [1]; current image source [2], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7903819)

From nearly the moment that German tanks rolled over the border into the Soviet Union, Stalin began pressuring Great Britain and the West to open a second front in Western Europe to relieve pressure on Soviet armies in the east. It took years for that second front to truly develop, but when it did, the war raced to a bloody conclusion. But this idea of a second front raises an interesting question. Why didn’t Germany pressure Japan to open a similar front in Siberia to draw Russian armies from Europe over into Asia?

At first glance, it seemed as though Japan was primed to make a thrust into Siberia by way of Manchukuo and northern China. So why didn’t they?

Japan did have plans to invade the Soviet Union. Throughout the 1930s, there were two trains of thought dominating Japanese military planning. The first was known as Hokushin-ron or Northern Road. This plan called for a massive thrust northward from China into the Soviet Union with the goal of seizing Port Arthur (Vladivostok) and the lands north of Japan. This plan was championed by the army as it would be primarily an army operation. The second idea was called Nanshin-ron or the Southern Road. This plan called for a massive…