Anti-Comintern Pact

Anti-Comintern Pact
Japanese ambassador to Germany Kintomo Mushanokōji and the German ambassador-at-large Joachim von Ribbentrop sign the Anti-Comintern Pact.
TypePact
Drafted23 October 1936
Signed25 November 1936
LocationBerlin, Germany
Parties
Initial parties

Before World War II

During World War II

The Anti-Comintern Pact,[1] officially the Agreement against the Communist International[2] was an anti-Communist pact concluded between Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan on 25 November 1936 and was directed against the Communist International (Comintern). It was signed by German ambassador-at-large Joachim von Ribbentrop and Japanese ambassador to Germany Kintomo Mushanokōji.[3]: 188–189  Italy joined in 1937 (earlier it had signed the Italo-Soviet Pact[4] directed partly against Hitler), but it was legally recognized as an original signatory by the terms of its entry. Spain and Hungary joined in 1939. Other countries joined during World War II.[5]: 49 

The Japanese signatories had hoped that the Anti-Comintern Pact would effectively be an alliance against the Soviet Union, which was how the Soviets perceived it.[6]: 226  There was also a secret additional protocol which specified a joint German-Japanese policy specifically aimed against the Soviet Union.[3]: 188–189 [7]: 197 

After August 1939, Japan distanced itself from Germany as a result of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.[6]: 24 [8]: 40  The Anti-Comintern Pact was followed by the September 1940 Tripartite Pact, which identified the United States as the primary threat rather than the Soviet Union (although in theory applying to the Soviets as well[9]: 14 ), however by December 1941 this too was virtually inoperative.[10] The Anti-Comintern Pact was subsequently renewed in November 1941 and saw the entry of several new members into the pact.[5]: 49  The Nazi regime saw signing of the Anti-Comintern Pact as a "litmus test of loyalty".[11]

The Anti-Comintern Pact ceased to exist with the end of World War II.

  1. ^ (German: Antikominternpakt; Italian: Patto anticomintern; Japanese: 防共協定, Bōkyō kyōtei)
  2. ^ (German: Abkommen gegen die Kommunistische Internationale; Japanese: Kyōsan "intānashonaru" ni taisuru kyōtei (共産「インターナショナル」ニ対スル協定))
  3. ^ a b Hofer, Walther, ed. (1982) [1977]. Der Nationalsozialismus: Dokumente 1933–1945 (in German). Frankfurt/Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag. ISBN 3596260841.
  4. ^ Stoker, Donald J.; Grant, Jonathan (30 August 2003). Girding for Battle: The Arms Trade in a Global Perspective, 1815-1940. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-275-97339-1. Retrieved 27 July 2024.
  5. ^ a b Osmanczyk, Edmund J. (1990) [1985]. The Encyclopedia of The United Nations and International Relations (2nd ed.). Bristol: Taylor and Francis. ISBN 0850668336.
  6. ^ a b Bosworth, Richard J. B.; Maiolo, Joseph A., eds. (2015). Politics and Ideology. The Cambridge History of the Second World War. Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107034075.
  7. ^ Weinberg, Gerhard L. (1954). "Die geheimen Abkommen zum Antikominternpakt. Dokumentation" (PDF). Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte (in German). 1954/2: 193–201 – via Institut für Zeitgeschichte.
  8. ^ Boog, Horst; et al. (1998). The Attack on the Soviet Union. Germany and the Second World War. Vol. 4. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0198228864.
  9. ^ Ciano, Galeazzo (1980). 1937–1938: Diario (in Italian). Milan: Cappelli Editore.
  10. ^ Schroeder, Paul W. (1958). The Axis Alliance and Japanese-American Relations, 1941. Cornell University Press. p. 154. ISBN 0801403715. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  11. ^ Goda, Norman J. W. (2015). "The diplomacy of the Axis, 1940–1945". The Cambridge History of the Second World War: 276–300. doi:10.1017/CHO9781139524377.015. ISBN 9781139524377. Retrieved 25 October 2020.