[Poohbah]

So it's more the issues of despotism and totalitarianism.

Interesting. That makes Japan's failure all the more fascinating, because the Japanese government was composed of military men who (supposedly) understood the concept of campaigns versus battles...

[vbmoneyspender]

There was a pretty successful precedent for the way the Japanese attacked us in WWII. That precedent was the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. The war started with the Japanese launching a surprise attack on Russia's Pacific Fleet at Port Arthur. The Japanese then inflicted a crushing defeat on Russia's European fleet when they crossed the 'T' at the Tsushima Straits. Japan's operational plan in WWII was pretty much an attempted repeat of what they had done to the Russians. They first launched a surprise attack on our fleet at Pearl Harbor (which would have been crushingly successful if our aircraft carriers hadn't been at sea). Then they attempted to deliver a Tsushima-style defeat at Midway. This type of plan had worked once before. Thankfully, though, our Navy and Marines were a bit sharper than the Russians.