Japan's naval command in January 1939

Personalities change with the date as much as ships and aircraft do. In this interpretation, Mitsumasa Yonai is an unusually capable and comparatively cautious Japanese naval leader serving as Navy Minister. Isoroku Yamamoto is his deputy rather than commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet, while Zengo Yoshida holds that operational post. A war beginning now would develop under a different balance of professional judgment, political pressure, and fleet command than the Pacific War of 1941. Familiar names cannot simply be assigned their later responsibilities.