Japanese planners understood that war against larger industrial powers was dangerous, and they tried to prepare for it while avoiding it. Their choices could make sense within factional, budgetary, or immediate operational pressures while remaining disastrous over a medium or long war. Awareness of economic and industrial limits did not ensure a sustainable response to them. This distinction helps explain why an internally coherent doctrine could still produce an unsustainable strategy.
Notable Point · 45:28-46:32
Preparing for war while trying to avoid it
Japanese naval choices had a recognizable short-term logic even when they could not solve the country's longer industrial problem.