- ...Japan [in WW2] had a much better Navy than we did. They had torpedoes with double the range of ours and our 9 times out of 10 our torps didn’t even explode on contact. Their pilots and crews where superbly trained and there weapon systems in every area besides radar. They had super battleships that could sink our entire fleet without taking damage. And yet they where always destined to lose because they didn’t have industrial output to fight a long war...
Permit me to enjoy rambling on this topic. In the early 80s, I was a lieutenant stationed for four years in Japan in Sasebo city (Nagasaki state) at the same naval base and ammunition depot the Japanese used in WW2. And there I met the love of my life and so I've been widely exposed to Japanese culture ever since.
It's dangerous to generalize because there are always exceptions. But what the hell... it makes for a fun discussion anyway ;- )
I believe you are correct: our U.S. advantage in industrial might was a huge factor in beating the Japanese in WW2.
And another factor I would add is better strategic thinking. The Japanese excel in engineering and craftsmanship. It's highly necessary given the mountainous terrain and constant torrential rains from typhoons, earthquakes, volcanos, tsunamis (today actually marks the 6th anniversary of Fukushima).
So ingenuity in construction and engineering was needed to control, for example, the rivers of Japan to avoid city flooding. So engineering dexterity has formed the Japanese character way back through the samurai days when they built those incredible castles like the White Heron at Himeji.
On the other hand, America is a huge, flat country where the ravages of nature are less of an issue. This difference in geography explains why Japan has an excess of engineers, and America has an excess of lawyers -- to battle over the bountiful opportunities the land offers!
So if ingenuity in the design and manufacturing of battleships enabled the mighty Yamato and Musashi to be built, our strategic dexterity allowed America to defeat Japan at Midway, in part because we cracked the code of their radio signals. Our superiority in signal intelligence was decisive in that battle -- even though a lot of our torpedoes failed.
Now I have read that Yamamoto had serious misgivings about going to war with America because he had studied at the Newport Naval War College and knew our character well. But I have no doubt that if he refused to attack Pearl Harbor, he would have been forced to commit seppuku.
Another key American advantage, I surmise, is having commanders with the presence of mind to act correctly and decisively in moments of terror.
At the Battle of Leyte Gulf, for example, Admiral Halsey made the dumb decision of sending his Task Force out on a wild goose chase. Meanwhile he left his shipping and McArthur's army badly exposed off Leyte, and this allowed the Japanese to sail down from the North and into the Leyte area unopposed.
However, the Admiral's grave error was made up for by the excellent presence of mind of a few lowly destroyer skippers. On their own initiative, they attacked the Japanese force in what they knew was practically a suicidal attack on a much larger force.
Their ships were sunk, but their attack succeeded because it scared the Japanese commanders into retreating. If the Japanese they had only forged ahead, they could have surely dealt the Americans a severe blow.
Trump, to my mind, exemplifies the same strategic smarts that enabled those destroyer commanders to turn the tide at Leyte.
Spending a fraction of the money that supported Hillary's giant political machine, he nonetheless understood the bigger picture and wisely out-admiraled the Dems to victory.
Top picture is the USS Intrepid at the Battle of Okinawa.
Bottom picture is the Battle of Midway.