Why did Hitler and Germany align with Japan during WW2?
It was not an alliance like that between Britain and the US. Germany, Italy and Japan had an agreement, an ATTACK on one was an attack on all. Japan attacked the US, so the US declared war on Japan. For some reason Hitler declared war on the US, he did not need to do this because Japan was the attacker. Similarly, Germany attacked the USSR but Japan did not declare war on the Russians. Germany and Japan vs the USSR would have made more sense. Russia would have been knocked out of the war early with Germany coming from the west and Japan from the east. After Russia was neutralized Japan could have then bombed Pearl Harbor. So there never was a true alliance between the two nations, only an agreement, Europe and Africa was Germany’s for the taking and Japan got Asia and the Pacific. Had they been true partners things may have ended differently, but as you pointed out Hitler would never have viewed the Japanese as equals.
