Challenge: Japanese naval forces involved with the European theatre of WW2

Thande

Donor
Odd thought I had, probably inspired by all those ASB threads that swap Japanese and German military stuff in WW2.

Japan did deploy ships to the Med in WW1 when it was on the Entente side, so there is a precedent there.

One would assume that this would have to come at a time when Japan wasn't fighting, or planning to fight, in the Pacific.

How about this: Japan sends a fleet to European waters in 1938 to do joint exercises with Germany to cement an earlier Tripartite Pact-style alliance (I think Hendryk had a thread about such) and due to butterflies and escalation WW2 breaks out earlier, perhaps over the Sudetenland. Japan, in an awkward position, initially tries to remain neutral but a British attack on the Kriegsmarine ends up catching the IJN force in the crossfire and war breaks out, with the Japanese government viewing this as coming at an inconvenient time but still taking the opportunity to go after Malaya and Indochina. Perhaps the Germans promise them the Dutch East Indies in exchange for immediate naval assistance...

What about other possible scenarios to get this?
 

Hendryk

Banned
(I think Hendryk had a thread about such)
That wasn't me, but it's an interesting idea. Especially Japan being offered Malaya, Indochina and the Dutch East Indies as spoils of war. That removes the main reason they started a war against the US. This could go any number of ways.
 
However unlikely, Japan did historically engage navalactivities in Europe in WW2. Several submarines of the longrange I-type did travel to occupied France to supply Germany with some strategical goods and returning home with new German technology and other valuable stuff.

I disagree with the sending of a Japanese Fleet, to Europe in the WW2 period, as this is not benefitting Japan itself. Japan already was short on navalships in the Pacific for its own warplans.
Alternatively a small squadron was the most likely thing that could be have send to the European theater. Historcially the Japanese had the Heavy Cruiser IJN Ashigara in Kiel in 1938, during the celebrations of the widening of the Kieler Kanal and later for the inauguration of George VI at Spithead, England. Perhaps this great ship could have stayed in Europe. She would have been a great asset for the Germans to have in her ranks, being a long ranged and very powerfull cruiser, which had recently been modernized.

So I can suggest the Japanese could have left the Ashigara in Europe, without to much loss of fightingpower in the Pacific theater. More is not likely, as said before. Japan too had a war to prepare for.
 
It's not Europe, and the timing is wrong but what about the IJN helping Italy in East Africa, perhaps reinforcing the Red Sea flotilla?
 
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