Military Transformation as a Competitive Systemic Process: The Case of Japan and the United States Between the World Wars

Specific individual military transformations achieve full significance only in the context of the broader processes of multiple interrelated transformations taking place in competition with those of one or more opponents. This study examines one historical case of broad systemic competitive processes to clarify the underlying dynamics: Japan and the United States between the two world wars. The armed forces of both nations envisioned significant risk of war between them and sought, with varying focus and vigor, to prepare. These efforts are contrasted in operational concept, doctrine, and technology. Japanese forces achieved a very high level of excellence in tactical execution, a level that American forces did not initially match in many areas. Moreover, Japan entered the war with materiel that was in many areas equal if not superior to that of the U.S. in both quantity and quality. But the effort the U.S. had put into capabilities for planning and executing higher-level operations frequently enabled its forces to pit strength against weakness, resulting in far faster erosion of Japan's defenses than the Japanese had anticipated. Thus American transformation efforts brought advantages beyond those of simple weight of forces.