Work behind the scenes

Most of the daily life when you are in the military is maintenance: planes, tanks, ships, guns... everything needs constant upkeep and babysitting (yes, even a Kalashnikov rifle needs to be disassembled and cleaned... once in a while).

And maintenance in the remote areas of the Pacific was a nightmare for the Japanese: since all the skilled personnel, tools, replacement parts, food, medicine, fuel and other supplies had to be shipped from Japan's home islands, most of the Japanese garrisons across the Pacific simply couldn't repair anything larger than a destroyer.

The makeshift runways built by the Japanese weren't gentle to their lightly built planes, resulting in high numbers of grounded planes. High humidity and frequent rains corroded metal parts and wires, lubrificant oils evaporated or ran off equipment in the tropical heat, Allied bombings and tropical diseases such as malaria killed skilled mechanics.

Lack of standardization of equipment was baffling: the IJA and IJN equipment wasn't interchangeable, and army and navy maintenance crews often refused to work with their counterparts.

Japanese commanders had very little interest in sending their men to the ordnance school. And the service schools themselves paid little attention to logistics and engineering support of combat forces.