They didn't understand how their actions, and the actions of their allies, were changing world politics. They had convinced themselves that once the American noses were suitably bloodied, the US would focus on defense. Unfortunately for them, their upper leadership did not listen to the warnings about how Americans would view the war and how quickly the balance could change, once American industry shifted to war production. It was their concept of 'civilized war', that they expected would remove the US from having any influence in the western Pacific. Their goal was to take a lot of territory, then call for peace talks (preferably with a neutral country as mediator) where their diplomats would negotiate a peace settlement involving some (preferably small) portion of the captured territory being given back as a concession for ending the war. To be fair, Japan hadn't really intended to "win the war" (using our meaning of the term). The Japanese did a lot wrong, but the courage and skill of the dive bomber pilots who finally destroyed the Japanese carriers has never been in question.Īs mentioned above, the book Shattered Sword is the book against which all other accounts of the battle must be measured. Not something you want to do in the middle of a battle.
The only way to win the battle was to go against orders and doctrine. They had been under almost constant, but uncoordinated attacks all morning. The Japanese never got on their game during the battle. Then the bill came due for all the weaknesses in the way they defended themselves from a air attack.
This worked until we finally saturated their defense. All planes went to deal with any threats leaving huge holes in their coverage. There was a decided lack of discipline in the CAP too. Once a plane penetrated the outer ring, the carrier protection relied upon the CAP and AA fire form the carrier itself. This caused them to disperse their fleet in an attempt to give as much warning as possible of enemy planes. Then not enough time to implement any changes.
They cannot really be faulted for how they did things since they had not yet been tested in battle before the battle of the Coral Sea. On top of that, the the Japanese did not practice damage control. Any bomb that landed in that area when they were full of fueled and armed planes was going to create a nightmare for damage control. The planes were fueled in armed in the hanger decks. The Japanese carriers were floating time bombs.
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