Time Slip Reiwa Japan

044 - Italy's Impact

Although Mussolini had decided to join the G4 and Japan, he was very careful in his actions. He instructed the ambassador of the League of Nations to set up individual negotiations with Japan, while keeping the sharing of information on Libya's oil fields between himself and his close associates so that the information would not be leaked to Germany or the Soviet Union in advance. Ostensibly, the topic was to expand trade and promote friendly relations between Italy and Japan. The calculation was that this title would make it appear to those countries that had received information in advance that Italy was trying to improve relations with Japan, which had deteriorated somewhat during the Siberian War of Independence.

Naturally, the two countries with which Italy was wary of leaking information in advance were Germany and the Soviet Union, with whom it had a friendly relationship. They were wary of interfering with the negotiations with Japan. They wanted to break away from the de facto solidarity, if not alliance. Moreover, both Germany and the Soviet Union are using crude oil as a bargaining chip, a resource that they both want desperately as a result of heavy industrialization. Therefore, it was natural for Mussolini to be wary of what Germany and the Soviet Union might do.

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League of Nations: Japan/Italy

The subject of the agreement was trade between Italian East Africa and Japanese companies operating in Kuwait. Initially, the Japanese companies purchased food and other necessities from the surrounding British colonies. Recently, however, the number of armed independence movements *1 had been increasing and the security situation was deteriorating, leading to a reliance on imports from the surrounding areas. Italy tried to take advantage of this situation—or so Japan and the world thought.

Therefore, Japan went to the meeting relatively unconcerned, and received a mental shock. Mussolini, who had entered Switzerland in secret, was present at the negotiations. He spoke of the deepening of relations between Italy and Japan through the oil fields in Libya. Italy had succeeded in a political and diplomatic surprise attack on Japan.

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Japan

For Japan, the expansion of its resource import sources was a good thing. At the same time, it was a welcome reduction in the number of influential friends of potential enemies such as the Soviet Union and Germany. Italy's desire for access to the Japanese Federation and the development of Siberia was not a major problem, given the disparity in economic power between Japan and Italy. Rather, access to Italy's economy with low tariffs was more beneficial.

The problem was that Japan had accepted with some resignation Italy's military request for support in the event that it came under pressure from Germany. There was already one armored brigade stationed in France, and for some reason, there was also one armored regiment in Britain under the guiding force framework. In addition, if it was only one brigade, they were resigned to the fact that it would be better to think of it as the placement of one division in Europe. *2

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Britain

The fact that there were good oil fields in Libya was good news for Britain. This was because of the sporadic armed independence movements in the Middle East, which made it difficult to get a steady flow of oil to Britain's home islands. The security situation in Libya was more stable than in the Middle East, and it was assumed that a stable supply of oil would be available. This encouraged negotiations between Japan and Italy, and also led to a request from Japan to sell some of its oil to Britain. France also agreed to take part in the negotiations. Japan, for its part, had secured enough oil resources to import for the time being, so it looked at the Libyan oil fields as a business opportunity—accepting that there would be no problem if there was an affordable buyer for the resources produced.