It is an excerpt from Chapter 8 Individualism of Carnage and Culture, a domestic translation of "Murder and Civilization" written by Victor Davis Hanson. At Midway in June 1942, the Japanese Navy was technically equivalent or perhaps superior to the U.S. military, but such a balance did not last long as the U.S. government, private enterprises, and citizens were mobilized on a large scale in preparation for war. In fact, only a year and a half after the Pearl Harbor raid, the Japanese army lagged behind the U.S. forces not only in number, but also in key areas such as aircraft design, warships, tanks, radars, nuclear research, medical, food supply and demand, base construction, and mass production. Until 1944, Japan's Air Force, Army, and Navy used the same equipment as the beginning of the war, while the U.S. military produced unimaginably advanced planes, ships, and vehicles in 1941. In the late 1941, the United States had not yet fully escaped from its stance of neglecting military preparation for 20 years, and had not overcome slow economic growth and high unemployment. On the other hand, Japan allocated most of its small national production to armaments for almost a decade and had gained abundant direct experience in the war with China. This allowed Japan to mobilize more planes and ships in Midway -- perhaps the first and last of its kind during the war -- in terms of quality and quantity than the United States. Throughout the entire process of World War II, Japan was able to manufacture only seven aircraft carriers, but the United States commissioned a total of 100 aircraft carriers, including fleet, small, and escort, until the end of the war. In addition, the United States built or repaired 24 warships -- almost all of them lost at Pearl Harbor -- and built numerous heavy cruisers, light cruisers, destroyers, submarines, and supply ships. During the four-year war, the United States built 16 times larger warships than Japan. What's even worse for Japan is that the highest monthly production of a variety of aircraft required by the Navy and the Army has rarely exceeded 1,000 units. In the summer of 1945, production was even lower because the factory was dismantled due to the bombing of the United States and equipment and manpower were scarce. On the contrary, the United States developed the B-24, a high-end heavy bomber consisting of 100,000 parts, and produced one every 63 minutes. The number of American aircraft manufacturers was much higher than that of Japan, and each company boasted four times the productivity of Japan. By August 1945, less than four years after the war began, the United States had produced 300,000 aircraft and 87,620 battleships. Even in mid-1944, the U.S. industry rebuilt the entire fleet every six months, loading the fleet with naval aircraft equivalent to the entire force participating in Midway. Since 1943, American ships and airplanes - 16 Essex aircraft carriers equipped with Helldiver dive bombers, Corsair and Helicopter fighters, and Avenger bombers - have been far ahead of the Japanese in quality and quantity. The modern Iowa-class battleships that appeared in the second half of the war were superior to any other Japanese navy ship in terms of speed, armament, range, and level of defense, and were far better than Yamato and Ignorance. A few months after the Midway naval battle, the U.S. Navy and Air Force not only recovered all the losses they suffered on Midway, but the entire force was increasing exponentially. On the other hand, the Japanese navy is virtually outdated, and it is difficult to replace ships and airplanes destroyed by the U.S. attack, rather than building new weapons in factories that were bombed.
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