Comments by "Winston Smith" (@kryts27) on "Battle of the Java Sea Animated" video.

  1. The "much needed resources", I.e. oil, did not last long to supply Japan. After fixing their torpedoes and selecting Fremantle and Garden Island as a base, American submarines started a offensive against Japanese shipping, that campaigned so well by 1944, the Japanese were growing short of oil in their home islands as they could not substantially tranship it from Indonesia.
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  2. No comment on desecrating war graves of any nation, but this will not be forgotten. Hector Waller was the well-liked captain of HMAS Perth and I agree, he and his crew (and the crew of USS Houston) were poorly served by Allied command, even with scanty intelligence of the Japanese at that time. Captain Waller also elected to go down with his ship, which was by no means common. His surviving crew, even more unfortunately, were captured on nearby Java by the Japanese and few returned home after being brutalized when captured and forced into concentration and labour camps across SE Asia. The Japanese (of the time) were notoriously savage towards their war captives & the wounded, which was not a few isolated cases, but common across the Japanese armed services of that era. Also not forgotten.
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  3. Sunk 4 of their carriers with many of their pilots and planes.
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  4.  @alganhar1  Yes, good analysis and I will add one thing. The IJN and the Japanese army never really got along. There was far too much rivalry between these armed services than there should have been. Particularly for resources and planes (which got more scant as the war went on), but also in strategic direction, tactical support and leadership. They really did not complement each other in the Pacific War, which made the American offensive from 1943 onwards, easier and cheaper (in terms of their own casualties) to carry out.
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