Gilded Capability: Overinvestment and the Survivability Paradox

Infernos raged aboard Japanese aircraft carriers after U.S. Navy dive-bombers found their marks during the Battle of Midway. Many Japanese pilots were incinerated in ready rooms and in the cockpits of their aircraft while they sat idling on flight decks. Those who were airborne returned to find their carriers aflame. They circled until fuel exhaustion and ditched into the sea, and many were never recovered. For Japan, the loss of its carriers was damaging, but the loss of its naval aviators was catastrophic. Her navy never recovered.Japan overinvested in individual pilots, overconcentrating capability into an exquisite cadre at the expense

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