How did the United States end up in an arms race with Germany and why did were the

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bombs dropped on Japan? For starters, are Germany and Japan allies?

Where does Russia fit in to this relationship?

Why did the United States choose to drop the bomb on Japan which was only a satalite territory of the big bad nazi Germany?

Why not drop it straight on Hitlers head?

How did the Japanese/ Nazi relationship form?

Which was the larger threat to America- Germany or Japan?

Was Japan ever close to developing nuclear weapons?

What made the United States enter the arms race with Germany?

Where is Russia in the whole situation?
 
Assuming all questions are in the context of WWII...
For starters, are Germany and Japan allies?
Yes. They were both Axis Powers.

Where does Russia fit in to this relationship?
You mean the Soviet Union. Imperial Russia was formerly in hostilities with Japan. The USSR was in a Non-Agression Pact with Germany designed to partition Poland despite patent hatred of the Nazis for communism. This pact was broken by Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union, leading to a USSR alliance with Great Britain and the USA.

Why did the United States choose to drop the bomb on Japan which was only a satalite territory of the big bad nazi Germany?
Japan wasn't a satellite of any other country. It was an empire in its own right. Japan was bombed because of US estimates of unacceptable casualties expected to occur in the event of a conventional invasion of the home islands. The US desired a speedy end to the war that a continuation of conventional strategy wouldn't deliver. It also feared a partition of Japan in the event the USSR invaded (which it could do following cessation of hostilities with Germany).

Why not drop it straight on Hitlers head?
He was already dead.

How did the Japanese/ Nazi relationship form?
The expansion of the Japanese empire occurred to the detriment of western colonial powers that were hostile to Germany (France, UK, Holland, etc.) Germany had no material interests in the Pacific Theater.

Which was the larger threat to America- Germany or Japan?
Germany. No contest. The same assessment at the time by US commanders lead to the "Germany First" grand strategy.

Was Japan ever close to developing nuclear weapons?
No.

What made the United States enter the arms race with Germany?
It didn't. Outside of its considerable naval power, US air and ground forces at the outset of hostilities in the European theater in the late 30s were very very insignificant and no threat to Germany.

Where is Russia in the whole situation?
See above.
 
First off, there wasn't an arms race with Germany.
Russia made the nonaggression pact with Germany during World War II. Germany broke the pact when they invaded Russia, the Russians asked the Western Powers to open another front on the attacking Germans to relieve the pressure off them.

They dropped it on Japan because Japan was going to be recieving support from Russia, and the US felt that in order to prevent the Russians from getting involved they dropped the bomb.

The US did, in fact, plan to drop nuclear weapons on Germany but the war had ended before they had the chance.

The larger threat to the US was Japan as it was close enough to drop bombs on home soil.

Japan wasn't close to developing nukes.

I think you mean Russians? I don't remember any arms race, and if there was. The US won, developing the first nuclear weapon. (Which was dropped on Nagasaki, killing 40,000 people instantly, and Hiroshima).
 
Japan was no satellite of Germany. It was an ally, but completely independent, with separate goals.
The bomb was finished after Germany surrendered. They started the program because of fears Germany would get one first, but did not know the Germans were way behind the USA to begin with and did not have the same type of program running.
Both Japan and Germany saw they had potentially the same enemies- Britain, France and the USA.
The US was not in an arms race with Germany until Germany (Hitler) declared war on the US.
Russia had been in an uneasy alliance with Germany until after they split Poland. Then German turned on the Soviet Union and quickly overran the western part of Russian to with in sight of Moscow....then winter set in and the tide turned. Both Germany and Russia lost more men on that front than the others in the war did combined.
 
Japan was no satellite of Germany. It was an ally, but completely independent, with separate goals.
The bomb was finished after Germany surrendered. They started the program because of fears Germany would get one first, but did not know the Germans were way behind the USA to begin with and did not have the same type of program running.
Both Japan and Germany saw they had potentially the same enemies- Britain, France and the USA.
The US was not in an arms race with Germany until Germany (Hitler) declared war on the US.
Russia had been in an uneasy alliance with Germany until after they split Poland. Then German turned on the Soviet Union and quickly overran the western part of Russian to with in sight of Moscow....then winter set in and the tide turned. Both Germany and Russia lost more men on that front than the others in the war did combined.
 
Japan was no satellite of Germany. It was an ally, but completely independent, with separate goals.
The bomb was finished after Germany surrendered. They started the program because of fears Germany would get one first, but did not know the Germans were way behind the USA to begin with and did not have the same type of program running.
Both Japan and Germany saw they had potentially the same enemies- Britain, France and the USA.
The US was not in an arms race with Germany until Germany (Hitler) declared war on the US.
Russia had been in an uneasy alliance with Germany until after they split Poland. Then German turned on the Soviet Union and quickly overran the western part of Russian to with in sight of Moscow....then winter set in and the tide turned. Both Germany and Russia lost more men on that front than the others in the war did combined.
 
Japan was no satellite of Germany. It was an ally, but completely independent, with separate goals.
The bomb was finished after Germany surrendered. They started the program because of fears Germany would get one first, but did not know the Germans were way behind the USA to begin with and did not have the same type of program running.
Both Japan and Germany saw they had potentially the same enemies- Britain, France and the USA.
The US was not in an arms race with Germany until Germany (Hitler) declared war on the US.
Russia had been in an uneasy alliance with Germany until after they split Poland. Then German turned on the Soviet Union and quickly overran the western part of Russian to with in sight of Moscow....then winter set in and the tide turned. Both Germany and Russia lost more men on that front than the others in the war did combined.
 
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