Operational skill cannot erase command responsibility

Mikawa's effectiveness as a staff officer and operational commander makes it difficult to believe that a major action within Eighth Fleet could remain entirely unknown to him. The possible explanations range from ordering or condoning the massacre to learning of it afterward and failing to punish it, because the evidence cannot identify which applies. Any of those possibilities leaves a serious stain on a career marked by strong technical development, staff work, and combat command. Mikawa's useful professional example cannot be separated from accountability.