Strategic desperation encouraged intelligence target fixation

Strategic desperation offers an explanation for Japanese acceptance of Midway's uncoded water report. Many naval leaders believed Japan could not win a long war but saw a risky offensive as the only chance to preserve their state and way of life. That belief need not have been correct to affect their decisions. A water shortage promised weaker resistance on Midway and therefore encouraged confirmation of the plan. Target fixation, in this interpretation, displaced the question of why an enemy would transmit such useful information openly.