I read even the japan hi-command knew they had slim chance of winning..

big mistakes Hitler made(in descending order of stupidity):

--war against USSR...Stalin really didn't want the war...Much of the kraut casualties were from the russ front

--Alliance with Italy(a country with poor war records)and Japan(too distant and different geopolitical objectives)

--Let go the anglo forces trapped in Dunkirk 

--Didn't further his earlier zionist objective of sending jews to Palestine

link: The Madagascar Plan (jewishvirtuallibrary.org)    link: Haavara Agreement - Wikipedia

....

The yanks didn't jump into the euro war theatre until the Pearl Harbour(bcos of german-japan alliance)