The tanker fleet behind a larger Pearl Harbor operation

How much fuel and tanker support would Japan need for a larger trans-Pacific strike force?

The force would need enormous fuel stocks and more tankers, which Japan would have had to acquire and disguise as commercial purchases during prewar preparations.

Moving battleships and carriers across the Pacific would consume tens or hundreds of thousands of tons of fuel and demand more tanker capacity. Because Japan chose the timing of war, it could have tried to buy additional merchant tankers through neutral markets before the embargo fully closed the opportunity. The watch point shows that a more ambitious operation required a larger logistical program long before the fleet sailed.