Japanese Submarine Operational Errors in World War II: Will America's SSNs Make the Same Mistakes?

A detailed review of the Japanese Submarine Force before and during World War II reveals a remarkable similarity with America's contemporary fleet of nuclear fast attack submarines (SSNs). As U.S. operational leadership struggles to resolve many of today's submarine command, control, and force utilization issues, they can look to the lessons of the Imperial Japanese Navy. In failing to adequately address submarine operational control structure, in assigning submarines to missions for which they were neither designed nor practiced, and in failing to perceive the importance of emerging technologies, Japanese leadership condemned their underseas force to devastating losses with little to show for a substantial national investment. This paper reviews the inadequacies of the Imperial Navy's operational design and reveals how America may be poised to repeat Japan's dismal submarine wartime performance.