Japan's plan to take over the world during WWII involved seizing and occupying a vast area, including all of Southeast Asia, Burma, Siam, Malaya, the Philippines, and the Dutch East Indies, while also neutralizing the Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor on the first day of the war. Failure to consider the true purpose of the Pearl Harbor attacks resulted in the U.S. being caught off guard and Japan nearly achieving their ambitious plan.
In this episode, Dan Carlin discusses Admiral Yamamoto's big gamble to take over a huge chunk of Asia and the Pacific during WWII and how his plan was to create a huge perimeter around his core with a defense perimeter and make the cost of taking it back higher than the opposing side was willing to pay.
The Pearl Harbor attacks were just a means to an end in the larger plan of Japan's acquisition of defense perimeter materials, resources, and oil in Southeast Asia. The plan involved seizing and occupying a vast area, and the preparations for operations on that scale could not be hidden from the British and Americans, who caught on to it months ahead of time.
The failure of military commanders to act on intelligence warnings before the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 and the September 11 attacks in 2001 by terrorists is deeply troubling. Both of these events serve as critical reminders of the importance of gathering and responding to intelligence to prevent future attacks.