Escape Route
While rubber was being shipped from Japan to Germany, there were many individuals trapped inside the German war machine who turned to the Trans-Siberian Railroad for a one-way ticket out. Thousands of Jews and others fearing Nazi persecution fled using the rail line.
They were graciously granted visas by the Japanese consul in Lithuania. The Japanese maintained a non-racist policy from before the beginning of the war and throughout its duration. Imperial Japan’s race policy was so important to their codes of conduct, they imposed it over territories where they had influence, including China and Manchuria.
From Lithuania, those wanting to flee from Germany would typically journey to the Pacific Ocean and board a ship to the United States. This route of escape did not remain open for very long. By 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union.
The Germans were also fabricating man-made rubber. The supply from Japan was not enough to change the decision to invade. When they did, the Trans-Siberian Rail line was no longer an option for fleeing.
Enough Is Not Enough: Imperial Japan
Since winning against the Russian Empire during the Japanese-Russo war, Imperial Japan rode a continuous wave of expansionism. The country’s main objective was similar to that of other empires: access and control over natural resources satisfied economic pursuits, inflated regional influence, self-sufficiency and attracted western investment – namely from the U.S., British Empire, and France. When the grip of the Great Depression took hold over those nations, Japan could not avoid an economic slowdown.
To deal with the effects of a slowing economy, Japan focused all the more on expansion, setting their sights on territories rich with resources. This included Manchuria, but when they continued reaching more and more into China, tensions rose. The Nanking Massacre in 1937 set off alarms around the world. The Japanese sent troops into the capital of the Republic of China and for six weeks pillaged the city, raping and murdering without provocation. The toll of the destruction can only be estimated. Unlike Germans, the Japanese habit was to destroy such records. However, it is estimated 200,000 were killed over the duration of the month and a half the Japanese spent in Nanking.
One result of the massacre was economic. When in the early 1940s Imperial Japan was pushing China, the United States imposed an embargo on scrap metal, despite a desperate need for it. The move triggered Japanese to move closer to aligning with Italy and Germany as they faced embarrassment by the prospect of having to withdraw from China.
In addition to scrap metal, the U.S. embargo included oil. It is thought this generated Japan’s decision to bomb Pearl Harbor, thus bringing the United States into the war.