Anti-Komintern Pact and World War II

The Anti-Komintern Pact, officially known as the Agreement against the Communist International, was an anti-communist pact signed between Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan on November 25, 1936. The pact was directed against the Communist International (Comintern) and, by implication, specifically against the Soviet Union. The document was relaunched and signed again on November 25, 1941, after Germany invaded the USSR3. In the document, the signing nations pledged to take measures to safeguard themselves from the threat of the Communist International or Komintern, led by the Soviet Union.

 

Several other countries signed the Anti-Komintern Pact. Italy joined the pact in 19371. Spain and Hungary joined in 1939. During World War II, several other countries joined the pact, including Finland, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, China-Nanjing, Denmark, and Croatia in 1941.

 

The pact was sought by Adolf Hitler, who at the time was publicly inveighing against Bolshevism and who was interested in Japan’s successes in the opening war against China. For propaganda purposes, Hitler and Benito Mussolini were able to present themselves as defenders of Western values against the threat of Soviet Communism.

 

On August 23, 1939, Japan, outraged by the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, renounced the Anti-Komintern Pact but later acceded to the Tripartite Pact (September 27, 1940), which pledged Germany, Italy, and Japan “to assist one another with all political, economic and military means” when any one of them was attacked by “a Power at present not involved in the European War or in the Sino-Japanese Conflict” (i.e., the Soviet Union or the United States)

 

The Anti-Komintern Pact played a role in shaping the alliances and diplomatic relations leading up to World War II and thereafter during the war. It helped to solidify the alliance between Germany, Italy, and Japan, which became known as the Axis Powers.