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Re-illumination of Midway and Aleutian campaign plan through ‘A victorious army wins its victories before seeking battle(先勝以後求戰)’ - Focusing on ‘Mesurement of space(地)’ and ‘Five Stages of Military Strategy(度量數稱勝)’ in Sun Tzu’s The Art of War -

Kim, Dong-eun 1

1해군본부

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This paper started with the question of why the Imperial Japanese Navy, which had taken the lead in the Pacific War with superior momentum and overwhelming power after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, was defeated in the Battle of Midway in June 1942, just six months later. In order to solve these questions, this papaer raised the question, "How did the U.S. Navy and Imperial Japanese Navy try to create a victorious military sentence during the six-month period from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the Midway and Aleutian campaigns?"In order to analyze this research question, through the concept of 'a victorious army wins its victories before seeking battle(先勝以後求戰)' presented by Sun Tzu in ‘Disposition’ of The Art of War, a classic of military strategy, the United States and the Imperial Japanese naval forces established Midway and Aleutian after the attack on Pearl Harbor. We will look at the whole process. In particular, using the 'mesurement of space and five stages of military strategy' as the basis of analysis to achieve the disposition of victory in that a victorious army wins its victories before seeking battle, it was closely examined how the U.S. and Imperial Japan went through the process of creating their respective military types. As a result of the analysis, it was possible to observe that the Imperial Japanese Navy, although it had a relative advantage in the Midway and Aleutian campaign establishment stages, failed to utilize it properly and entered the path of defeat before it even started fighting. On the other hand, although the U.S. Navy continued its unfavorable war situation in the entire Pacific theater until May 1942, little by little, it offset the relative advantage of the Imperial Japanese Navy, ultimately leading to victory on June 4, 1942. U.S. Navy was able to create a disposition of victory with a high probability, and with the help of various contingent factors, they were able to win the Midway and Aleutian campaigns and sharply turn the tide of the Pacific War.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.