World War I success and winner's disease

Japan carried a method suited to a small specialist force forward as aviation became a primary strike capability. Its limited First World War aviation commitment differed from the mass-loss experience that pushed other powers toward quantity, replacement, and force generation. At Tsingtao, only a few aircraft needed to operate at once, so the elite system never met the destructive test experienced by European air services. Officers later suggested letting near-miss candidates reapply and proposed other limited reforms, but victory discouraged a fundamental reconsideration. The passage calls this winner's disease: success preserved assumptions that a large war would expose.