Japan Rigged Their Own War Games To Win. Then Lost Exactly Like The Dice Predicted

Video Description

In May 1942, Japanese naval commanders gathered aboard the battleship Yamato to conduct war games testing their plan to attack Midway Island and destroy the American Pacific Fleet. When dice rolls predicted disaster during the simulation, predicting two aircraft carriers would be sunk, Admiral Matome Ugaki simply overruled the results and changed the outcome to guarantee victory. One month later, at the actual Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942, reality proved the dice were right. In just five minutes, American dive bombers sank three Japanese carriers—Akagi, Kaga, and Soryu—exactly as the war game had originally predicted before the results were altered. A fourth carrier, Hiryu, was destroyed later that day. This is the untold story of how overconfidence and rigged war games led to one of the most decisive naval battles in World War II history. Featuring the roles of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, codebreaker Joseph Rochefort, and the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, which was repaired in just 72 hours to fight at Midway. Discover how confirmation bias, institutional pride, and the refusal to accept uncomfortable truths turned a warning into a catastrophe that changed the course of the Pacific War and offers timeless lessons about leadership, planning, and honest assessment of risk.