Isoroku Yamamoto is treated as neither a flawless genius nor an incompetent commander. He faced a deeply unfavorable strategic position and tried to fight within it. The larger handicap was the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy's destructive rivalry, which made each service a persistent obstacle to the other. Japanese strategy must therefore be read through institutions and coordination as well as the decisions of one admiral.
Notable Point · 2:24:25-2:25:30
Japan's army-navy rivalry as a strategic handicap
Yamamoto's choices are placed within an institutional struggle in which the Japanese army and navy often sabotaged cooperation and weakened the war effort.