I doubt that even if Kurita had carried out his mission and severely damaged the invasion fleet that the US public would have lost its resolve. They were resolved to have a 100,000 casualties invading Japan when the A-bombs ended the war.
The Japanese were engaging in wishful thinking if they thought they would get favorable peace terms. Magical thinking is something they did regularly throughout the war.
“Magical thinking is something they did regularly throughout the war.”
Never heard it put that way, but that’s certainly correct. Overconfident at least. An island nation with no natural resources to speak of put no priority on destroying the submarines at Pearl and had to resort to suicide bombing towards the end of the war because they they never considered that they would need to train more pilots than they started with.
Exactly... the Germans as well. Always looking for a wonder weapon that would save them.
The V2 is an example. The Germans spent the money of the Manhattan project and produced the bombs on target of exactly 2 eighth air force raids. And it killed more people in production than in use.
Magical thinking.
Kurita was a bit more pragmatic than some, such as Admiral Ugaki...shortly before his death Kurita privately admitted to a friend that he had turned the fleet and withdrawn on purpose. He knew they were finished, and the future of Japan depended on the young men aboard his ships.