“Naval observers in Washington are exhilarated by the evident extent of the Japanese defeat [at Leyte] but they are being canny about it. It isn’t what we have sunk or disabled [that matters], it’s what is left that can still fight… Never before in the Pacific War have Japanese deficiencies been so evident… The Japs haven’t got enough left to attempt a toe-to-toe slugging match with the U.S. forces in the Western Pacific Ocean.”
Wounded though they were, the Japanese were still able to sink 11 Allied ships during the closing days of the war – off the coast of Okinawa.
The war began to turn in the Allies favor just one year earlier.
