Tripartite geography limits real cooperation

The distance between Japan and its European partners limited concerted Axis operations. Germany and Italy shared a frontier after the Anschluss of Austria, while large stretches of land and ocean separated both from Japan. Even obtaining Japanese torpedoes, which would have been useful to the European navies, presented a problem of cooperation across that distance. A hypothetical German aid ship sailing past Norway, entering the Pan-American neutrality zone and seeking passage through the Panama Canal illustrates another difficulty: American authorities would face a diplomatic problem if Germany remained formally outside their war. The imagined cargo goes to both Pearl Harbor and Japan, and possible British interception in the Caribbean adds another complication. The Japanese ambassador's apparent bewilderment and the German ambassador's apparent annoyance are interpretations of their appearance, rather than proof of what their governments knew. One interpretation is that some in Japan expected the declarations while most did not. German raiders had already carried the war into distant oceans; Japan's entry expanded it further across the Pacific.