Large bodies of water could give states more scope for limited war, allowing them to preserve strength and manage escalation at a distance. Japan wanted to keep conflict far from its exposed home islands, but its prospective enemies possessed even greater resources under the same limited-war conditions. This orientation also helps explain Japanese difficulties in China and against the Soviet Union, where mass infantry and tanks demanded different infrastructure and mobilization. Naval faith in technological quality had no simple land equivalent, and better tanks could only have been force multipliers in selected mainland or large-island campaigns rather than a solution to the Pacific war.
Notable Point · 50:48-56:09
Why limited-war thinking fitted oceans better than mainland campaigns
A maritime limited-war doctrine could preserve strength across ocean barriers, but it offered a poor answer to mass armies and armored warfare in China or against the Soviet Union.