Kantai Kessen and the danger of assuming enemy cooperation

The Battle of the Philippine Sea appears here as Japan's last plausible opportunity to execute Kantai Kessen and as evidence of the doctrine's central weakness. A strategy that expects an advancing opponent to keep accepting losses makes enemy cooperation part of the plan. Planners should assume that an adversary is intelligent, committed, and capable, even when its strengths take a different form. Strategy has to survive hostile choices rather than ideal conditions.