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Politically, a “marriage of convenience” is an arrangement where two groups band together simply because they have a common interest or a common problem. It’s not for any altruistic reasons.

One of Japan’s aims in WW2 was to conquer the oil-rich East Indies. The large British base at Singapore was an obstacle to that goal. One of Germany’s aims was to occupy Poland. But Britain had told Hitler that would mean war

So here we have Japan and Germany, two countries half a world apart, with a common problem: Britain. Hence their alliance, a marriage of convenience.

That’s my understanding, anyway.

Wow. Thank you. Nicely explained so I can grasp it easily.

[Politically, a “marriage of convenience” is an arrangement where two groups band together simply because they have a common interest or a common problem. It’s not for any altruistic reasons.

One of Japan’s aims in WW2 was to conquer the oil-rich East Indies. The large British base at Singapore was an obstacle to that goal. One of Germany’s aims was to occupy Poland. But Britain had told Hitler that would mean war

So here we have Japan and Germany, two countries half a world apart, with a common problem: Britain. Hence their alliance, a marriage of convenience.

That’s my understanding, anyway.]

Alliances are marriages of convenience. The unusual thing about NATO is how long it’s the endured, but that’s mostly because of how little the US has asked of its allies, and vice versa, due to the lack of active hostilities in the area covered. And, in part, that’s because of the US’s overwhelming weight, as well as a lack of appetite in its member democracies for fresh military crusades against their neighbors. Germany, in particular, had lost so many men in WW2, the immediate postwar adult gender ratio was 2 women for every man.

The Japanese wanted German technology transfer while the Germans wanted the Japanese to tie up Russian divisions in the Far East. The Japanese chose not to attack Russia for 2 reasons - (1) while Khalkin Gol was basically a draw, despite Japan being outgunned and outnumbered, it was expensive for Japan in men and equipment, and for what was basically wasteland and (2) if Russia collapsed, Japan would have Germany as a neighbor, with serious questions about what Germany would do to Japan, given its policy of exterminating Jews and Slavs who looked fairly similar to Germans.