Japanese planning did not rest solely on confidence in national or naval superiority. Japan prepared for adverse scenarios, yet repeatedly stopped short of building enough reserve capacity. Navies often develop a realistic sense of foreign forces in peacetime because their ships and officers encounter one another regularly, unlike armies that may not test their assumptions until war begins. Recognizing a problem is different from funding a solution at useful scale.
Notable Point · 5:47-7:38
Why Japanese preparations complicate a simple superiority narrative
Japan prepared for losses at a smaller scale than its war plans required, revealing a gap between professional naval appraisal and institutional follow-through.