Short-war assumptions meet industrial limits

Japanese plans for attrition followed by decisive battle assumed a war short enough to avoid exhausting the country's limited economic depth. A sustained industrial contest lay beyond the resources available for that strategy. The broader argument is that prewar treasuries funded expectations of one- or two-year wars, even when the conflicts that followed lasted much longer. With a ship taking roughly two years to build in the example, early planning concentrated on vessels already available or under construction. Different national expectations about when war would begin further affected which forces could be ready.