Japan’s Arrogance Submarine Warfare & Economic Collapse
In Japanese naval doctrine, there were honorable ways to fight and dishonorable ways to fight. In the Japanese naval view, submarine warfare was the weapon of cowards who lacked the courage for honest surface combat. It was codified in Japanese naval strategy. When Japanese naval planners developed their submarine force, they designed submarines specifically to attack warships, not merchants. The idea of using submarines to attack merchant shipping, conducting economic warfare by strangling an enemy supply lines. This struck Japanese planners as both dishonorable and ineffective. Because while Japan was designing submarines to hunt warships, America was designing submarines specifically to do what Japan considered dishonorable, destroy merchant shipping and strangle an island nation’s economy. American submarine doctrine developed in the 1930s explicitly prioritized merchant warfare. American planners understood that Japan, an island nation depending on imports for oil, food, steel, and virtually every raw material, was incredibly vulnerable to submarine blockade. Japan entered World War II without a convoy system. None. Japanese merchant ships traveled individually, unescorted, [music] following predictable routes, making themselves perfect targets. American submarine force was positioned perfectly to strangle Japan’s merchant fleet. They had target-rich environments. Japanese merchant ships traveling alone, unescorted, they strangled Japan’s economy to death. This is how cultural arrogance led to economic catastrophe.