The fundamental flaw in Kantai Kessen

To improve its chances at Pearl Harbor, Japan would have needed additional strike waves, attacks on carriers and base infrastructure, and perhaps troops landed amid the confusion; at the Philippine Sea it needed more force and surviving land-based air. Even a larger victory would not solve the central problem. Kantai Kessen misunderstood American and British war-making capacity: losing one fleet would cause them to rebuild and return rather than accept the political settlement Japan needed.