Pearl Harbor � Mission accomplished for the most part, why press home when there�s a bunch of unaccounted for flat-tops that could show up at the worst time. I think this was a good call on the part of the Japanese.
Midway � No way in heck would anyone in their right mind press the attack after that beating. They just lost 4 flat tops, what is there to make them think their battleships would do better? In fact, the battleships would have been taken out by carrier aircraft, or at least whittled down to the point that the rest of the US surface fleet could mop them up. Again, the Japanese made the right call�After that beating, run like hell.
Taffy � They screwed the pooch big time on this one. Absolutely no excuse whatsoever! If you have a battle fleet that includes the Yamato, you don�t flee anything until you see planes swarming in the air�And possibly not even then. They choked big time.
Although I don�t exactly agree with two out of three of your examples, I do strongly agree that the Japanese navy lacked a spine. They were horribly conservative. Their submarine fleet had a book that listed how many torpedoes can be fired for a given class of ships. This led to who knows how many damaged, but not sunken ships because no sub jock dared to go against the book.
Early in the war, the Japanese were bold and brave. But once they started taking real casualties, and their fleet numbers stated dwindling, they really got cold feet. Simply put, if we fought like they did, we would have given up after Pearl Harbor and the Philippines.
