Combined Fleet leadership changed twice in the fourteen months before the Philippine Sea. Isoroku Yamamoto was killed during Operation Vengeance in April 1943. Koga, his successor, died in a flying-boat crash in March 1944. Toyoda then inherited the decisive-battle strategy shortly before the Marianas crisis forced Japan to commit. Yamamoto's time in America may have made him less confident in the prevailing assumptions than some other Japanese officers. This disrupted succession provides context for the continuity and command problems that appear later.
Notable Point · 10:21-11:26
Combined Fleet leadership from Yamamoto to Toyoda
Yamamoto's death and Koga's fatal crash left Toyoda to inherit Japan's decisive-battle strategy shortly before the Marianas crisis.