Talk:Seasonal/Eve Of Battle/@comment-62.178.120.164-20171112033803/@comment-5046483-20171125193314

決戦=Kessen=decisive battle. The 'Decisive Battle' was what Japanese naval doctrine was built around. They were expecting the US to sortie the Pacific Fleet to attack Japan after Pearl Harbour. As the fleet was crossing the Pacific, DDs would launch hit and run night torpedo attacks to whittle down the fleet and keep the USN on edge so that they would not be on form. Then, the BBs of the Combined Fleet would sortie and engage the Pacific Fleet in an all gun decisive battle, after which they would sue for peace and try to strongarm fabourable terms.

The effectiveness of carrier aviation, the failure to cripple Pearl Harbours strategic facilities and the fact that the CVs were out of port at the time of the raid (and the loss of Yamamoto which more or less let the die-hard nationalists dictate policy) basically railroaded the IJN into the course of events that played out during WWII. Then came the invasion of the Phillipines which gave what was left of the Combined Fleet a final chance to enact the decisive battle doctrine but by that point Southern Force was doomed because they were facing the Pearl Harbour survivors which had been modernised with RADAR guided gunnery, the carriers were so useless that they were offered as bait and while Centre Force stood a chance of actually preventing or hampering the invasion, Admiral Kurita was convinced that Taffy 3 were so aggressive because the main carrier task force was just over the horizon.

The rest, as they say, is history