Fighting beside Britain is proposed as a way to buy time for Japan's internal affairs and its difficult relationship with America. British contacts could help mediate an accommodation, and eventual gains from Italy's empire provide another inducement. An imagined announcement presents intervention as renewed loyalty to a traditional ally and invokes the Washington and London naval treaties as part of that public justification. Support from the emperor could strengthen Yonai's position, although involving the emperor too deeply in politics carries its own difficulty. The plan also envisages an army corps for North Africa. These are Japanese strategic aims within the scenario, with renewed friendship supplying the public explanation. The proposal assumes that American pressure on Japan would become harder to separate from interference with Britain's war effort.
Notable Point · 21:06-26:35
Japan seeks time and resources through its old alliance
The imagined alliance gives Japan time to manage its internal problems and relations with America while offering territorial and diplomatic gains.