Название: From Allies to Enemies: Spain, Japan and the Axis in World War IIАвтор: Florentino Rodao
Издательство: Palgrave Macmillan
Год: 2023
Страниц: 360
Язык: английский
Формат: pdf (true), epub
Размер: 10.1 MB
To understand the turnaround in Spain’s stance towards Japan during World War II, this book goes beyond mutual contacts and explains through images, representations, and racism why Madrid aimed at declaring war on Japan but not against the III Reich -as London ironically replied when it learned of Spain’s warmongering against one of the Axis members. The changes at both countries’ Foreign Affairs Ministries on 1 September 1942 were part of a restructuring of power related to the war, but their significance was different because the crisis in Japan was a fresh demonstration of the decreasing influence of diplomacy, while in Spain, it was the opposite. Both countries were reading the results differently. After so many conquests, Tokyo believed that it was time to set up a new body of countries under its rule but Spain increased its diplomatic maneuvers. To enhance their role in the world, both countries tried opposite methods. On 21 June 1941, Hitler’s Germany invaded the Soviet Union, opening a new chapter in the world war. Containing the European war’s expansion was impossible, and it was now inexorably spreading throughout the globe, but most of all, it was a time when no one could make a reliable prediction on the conflict’s future outcome. In fact, the invasion took place just as the Third Reich and Japan redefined their aims.
