Britain could buy equipment from Japanese factories while supplying the raw materials Japan needed from across the empire. That exchange would reduce America's leverage as the coalition's principal outside supplier. Shared combat could also strengthen the Anglo-Japanese relationship enough to affect a later Pacific crisis. Washington would then have to consider the danger that Britain might support Japan in a dispute with the United States. A war against Japan backed by the British Empire would be much more dangerous than a war against Japan alone.
Notable Point · 46:04-48:13
Japanese industry could reduce Britain's dependence on American aid
Japanese factories supplied with imperial raw materials would give Britain another source of equipment and complicate American pressure on the alliance.