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Anti-Comintern Pact

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, 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.[4]: 49 

Type

23 October 1936

25 November 1936

Initial parties

Before World War II


During World War II

The Japanese signatories had hoped that the Anti-Comintern Pact would effectively be an alliance against the Soviet Union, which is certainly how the Soviets perceived it.[5]: 226  There was also a secret additional protocol which specified a joint German-Japanese policy specifically aimed against the Soviet Union.[3]: 188–189 [6]: 197  However, after the accession of Fascist Italy to the pact and especially the German-Soviet rapprochement after the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, it gained an increasingly anti-Western and anti-British identity as well.[7]: 44 [8]: 13 


After August 1939, Japan distanced itself from Germany as a result of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.[5]: 24 [9]: 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, 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.[4]: 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.

 

Germany

 

Japan

 

Italy

 

Hungary

 

Manchukuo

 

Spain

German–Japanese industrial co-operation before World War II

Germany–Japan relations

Germany–Soviet Union relations, 1918–1941

Monsun Gruppe

Japan–Soviet Union relations

Japanese military modernization of 1868–1931

Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance

Akten zur deutschen auswärtigen Politik

(1980). 1937–1938: Diario (in Italian). Milan: Cappelli Editore.

Ciano, Galeazzo

(2001). Gibson, Hugh (ed.). The Ciano Diaries. Simon Publications. ISBN 1931313741.

Ciano, Galeazzo

(2003) [1992]. Reuth, Ralf Georg (ed.). Joseph Goebbels: Tagebücher 1924–1945 (in German) (3rd ed.). Munich: Piper Verlag GmbH. ISBN 3492214118.

Goebbels, Joseph

(1943) [1925]. Mein Kampf (in German). Leipzig: August Pries GmbH.

Hitler, Adolf

; Simon, Andrew L.; Bowden, Ilona (2000) [1953]. Admiral Nicholas Horthy: Memoirs. Safety Harbor: Simon Publications. ISBN 0966573439. LCCN 00--10118.

Horthy, Miklós

(1948). The Memoirs of Cordell Hull. 2. Hodder & Stoughton.

Hull, Cordell

(1937). 日独防共協定の意義 [The significance of the Anti-Comintern Pact] (in Japanese). 第一出版社.

Matsuoka, Yōsuke

Rosinger, Lawrence (1940). "U.S.S.R. and Japan to Improve Trade Relations". Far Eastern Survey. 9 (3): 33–35. doi:10.2307/3021550. JSTOR 3021550.

(1958). Japan and her Destiny: My Struggle for Peace. New York CIty: E.P. Dutton & Co.

Shigemitsu, Mamoru

Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal

Zeitschrift für Politik: "Europäische Einheit im Zeichen des Antikominternpaktes". Zeitschrift für Politik (in German). 32 (1): 54–56. 1942. JSTOR 43347859.

Appendix to Presseisen 1958 via Springer Link

Statement by Ribbentrop on the Declaration of War on the Soviet Union 22 June 1941

The text of the Anti-Comintern Pact

The text of the Supplementary protocol of the Pact

The text of Italian participation to the Pact

(in Japanese) – lecture texts of Yōsuke Matsuoka, printed in 1937

The significance of the Anti-Comintern Pact