By "anyone," I mean experts such as military or political leaders contemporaneously, or professional historians in retrospect. By "wipeout," I mean a scenario in which Japan sinks five carriers and eight battleships of the American Pacific fleet in 1941-1942 with their trained and relatively experienced crews, with the loss of no more than one or two capital ships, then decimates the numerically largely but less experienced fleet that American turns out in 1943. Admiral Yamamoto was quoted as...
