Japans Defense Strategy

[MAGNA]

That's a very good summation. The point about the Japanese shipping capacity says a lot. The ability to sustain a long term war at such distances centered around shipping which was inadequate and after years of war became basically non-existant. In the end the Japanese forces were defending territories which had the resources they wanted but they were unable to get enough of them back home to be of any real use.

The quick war solution starting with Pearl Harbour certainly failed and was doomed to fail from the start.

[grognard]

The problem is that the Japanese could NOT think --in their case the Samarui box--outside the box. Retreat was equivalent to defeat, and they had trouble admitting the Bushido spirit was no match for modern weapons. of course they are not the only ones--the US in Vietnam and maybe Iraq, Hitler once the war starting going badly, Napoleon's early opponents, the French facing Wellington, etc. etc.(And don't even look at the US Civil War) etc. ad infinitum.