Elite Japanese training could not supply the depth of total war

The Imperial Japanese system could produce exceptionally trained officers and aviators, but it did not create enough depth for prolonged mass warfare. Earlier success in the Russo-Japanese War and the First World War did not expose that limitation because Japan fought on a more restricted scale. Producing outstanding individuals also left the problem of building them into a cohesive force. Britain and the United States had the infrastructure to sustain a much larger war, so Japanese planning emphasized a decisive battle near Japan followed by negotiation. Against smaller opponents, Japan expected its own superiority to be sufficient. Those assumptions help explain why the system seemed workable in the 1920s and 1930s despite its weakness in a total war.