The Japanese high command did not believe they could win the war. However, they believed that if they showed enough resolve and caused the allies enough casualties, they could get a more favourable pleace treaty, one that kept places such as Taiwan, Manchuria and Korea within the Japanese Empire.

The Japanese still controlled Malaya, Singapore, French Indochina (Vietnam), parts of Burma, the Dutch East Indees, Machuria, Taiwan, Korea and large amounts of land in China. The high command believed that if they husbanded resources for one apocalyptic final battle to throw the Americans back into the sea when they finally invaded Japan, they could deter the allies from futher conflict and gain a peace where they retained the pre-war parts of the Empire of Japan.

Of course, the combination of the Soviet declaration of war and over-running of Manchuria and Korea and the atomic bombs finally threw them out of this idea.