The Plan That Failed

Japan's Ground Strategy From Pearl Harbor to DefeatWhen the once-mighty Japanese Empire surrendered last August, an army which, for the most part, had seen but little combat laid down its arms. Faced with defeat, the Imperial General Staff still commanded over 160 divisions. But strangely, only a portion of this tremendous force took active part in the nearly 4 years of combat that followed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In the days that followed that December 7th, it appeared to...
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Japan's Ground Strategy From Pearl Harbor to DefeatWhen the once-mighty Japanese Empire surrendered last August, an army which, for the most part, had seen but little combat laid down its arms. Faced with defeat, the Imperial General Staff still commanded over 160 divisions. But strangely, only a portion of this tremendous force took active part in the nearly 4 years of combat that followed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. In the days that followed that December 7th, it appeared to most observers that an endless horde of Japanese troops was overrunning the lands and islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Actually, the Japanese conquest-and the eventual attempt to hold the Allied counteroffensive-followed a strategy in which the most striking feature was the application of the principle of economy of force.