Planning for an unpredictable war: British intelligence assessments and the war against Japan, 1937-45

Britain's ability to develop a coordinated strategy during the Pacific War was hindered by two key factors. The first of these was the persistent difficulties involved in predicting Japanese war plans, which meant that British strategy had to develop on an ad hoc basis. Second, British strengths in the Far Eastern theaters were consistently limited by more pressing commitments arising from the war against Germany, thereby requiring Britain to cope with its Japanese adversary by employing its scarce resources in an economical manner. The intelligence pointing to the unpredictability of Japan's strategy and the disparity between the opposing forces in the Far East, in turn, played a crucial role in shaping the evolution of a strategy that was within Britain's capacity to implement.