The Coral Sea is interesting. It's right at the point where Jap pre-war planning ends, and they start to extemporize.
The initial expansion involved some extemporaneous planning as situations changed during that fluid period, but none the less it was mostly to plan. Once they started into real terra incognito, from a planning standpoint, they really started to show a lack of understanding, frankly. The initial expansion worked so well largely because they were "the firstest with the mostest." As soon as they started having to consider multiple operations over their now wide empire they went downhill fast. Coral Sea really showed how poorly they understood the benefits of the Kido Butai, along with their penchant for planning that constantly divided forces that should have been concentrated.
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