Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-73.220.89.40-20150318192417/@comment-26574811-20151231025711

Severstal wrote: This is interesting history, but it is also ancient history. It is a REAL stretch to use this to say they hate each other (as of 1941) at a level comparable to against real enemies. And you still aren't dealing with the times when they did manage some degree of cooperation. Some degree, merely. The IJA was preparing for a war against Russia all the way until 1943, what kind of cooperation is that?

In fact the IJA and IJN was once fine with each other, when they formed an allience to establish the Japanese government in late 19th centuary. But by 1930, the high-rank officials that had better impressions with each other are either dead or retired, the new generation of officers and officials in both IJA and IJN, they don't like each other so much.

And then, the Japanese military fell into a whole deep shitload of internal political confrontation. Including the disputes of  switching sides from US and UK into Germany and Italy. Next thing we know, some front-line admirals of IJA then dragged Japan in to the Second Sino-Japanese War, and by extension, WWII Pacific Theater.

Yes, IJN (most notably Yonai Mitsumasa, Yamamoto Isoroku, and Inoue Narumi) was on the side of staying with US and UK during the dispute of switching sides, so it is very possible that IJN likes US and UK more than IJA.

A real stretch? Not at all. In 1941, the bitter "war" between IJA and IJN was fresh, coming directly from the 1930s.