Forces on Japanese held islands in Micronesia were directed to absorb and wear down an expected American counteroffensive. That same year, the Japanese redirected their attention to the defensive perimeters of their previous conquests. American forces eventually gained the upper hand through a vastly greater industrial output and a dramatic modernization of its air and naval forces. Throughout 1943, the Allies were able to reorganize their forces and American industrial strength. The campaign in the Solomon Islands led to furthers losses and the attrition of their forces was decisive in the outcome of the war. Their defeat in the Battle of Midway forced them onto the defensive. The Japanese were initially checked during the Battle of the Coral Sea, and were forced to abandon their attempts to isolate Australia. After these successes, the Japanese then concentrated on the elimination and neutralization of strategic points from where the Allies could launch counteroffensives against the Japanese onquests. In April 1942, the Japanese conducted an Indian Ocean raid that drove the Royal Navy from South East Asia. This was the first time that capital ships were sunk by aerial attack while underway. Japanese naval aircraft were also responsible for the sinkings of Britains warships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse. The Japanese attack on American fleet resting at Peral Harbor, Hawaii, on, crippled the battleships of the US Pacific Fleet while Allied navies were devastated during Japan's conquest of Southeast Asia. During the first six months of the war, the Imperial Japanese Navy enjoyed spectacular success inflicting heavy defeats on Allied forces, being undefeated in every battle. In December 1941, at the beginning of the Second World War in the Pacific, the Imperial Japanese Navy was the third most powerful navy in the world, and its naval air service was one of the most potent air forces in the world.
IJN battleship Yamato running machinery trials off Bungo Strait (outside Sukumo Bay) on 20 October 1941.
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