What's the Japanese national narrative about WW2?

[TokyoBayer]

@Dissonance

Mistakenly believing the enemy to be stronger than they actually were is a mistake as old as warfare. It really didn’t matter what Kurita thought he was fighting though; it doesn’t change the fact that he had already lost a substantial part of his force, the rest had become badly disorganized for continuing a fleet engagement during the fighting, and he was not personally in contact with most of his force and hadn’t been for most of the battle. Things were only going to get worse for him if he stuck around; again regardless of what he thought he was engaging he knew there were even more US ships in the area. His force had been under constant air attack so reorganizing to continue the battle was going to be a lengthy, painful experience, but continuing the fight in such disorder and without being in contact with his own force was an equally bleak idea.

Adding to this, Kurita did not personally believe in wasting his capital ships on a bunch of transports. He was also aware that the Southern Force had been beaten back and would not be there as planned, either.

He became aware from the Northern Force that there were other carriers which could come down and engage him, which added to his distress.

It should also be noted that in addition to the three heavy cruisers sunk and three heavy cruisers badly damaged, the previous day had seen Kurita lose the *Yamato *class battleship *Musashi *and Myoko, a heavy cruiser which was badly damaged and forced to retire.