Japanese
ADVANTAGES
- Had information that allowed them to anticipate the attacks on Mindanao and Luzon
- The Navy was ready for battle
- Strategies: Hold back from other recent American landings to prepare for upcoming fights, use kamikaze planes, use decoy fleet and aircrafts to lure American fleets away
- Overprepared at Mindanao and Luzon, leaving Leyte weak
- Had more territory than they could closely defend
- Had already passed their high point of war production
- Did not have a merchant fleet of ships to run the economy, so they had to use destroyers to transport goods instead of transporting troops
- Only had the weak 16th division consisting of 16,000 men on Leyte
- Army was unprepared to withstand invasion
Americans
ADVANTAGES
- Resources were growing
- Acquired more and better aircraft (B-29 Superfortress bombers)
- Had new battleships, cruisers, destroyers, fast attack transports, landing craft, and carriers
- American Navy was three times the size of the Japanese navy
- Had naval fleets to protect Army landings
- Outnumbered Japanese Army (270,000 American troops to 16,000 Japanese troops)
- US subs detected where Japanese ships were and sunk Japanese cruisers
- Strategies: Pre-Leyte air offensives on other islands, destroy Japanese carriers
- Limited manpower due to the additional fight in Europe
- Flew the B-29 bombers near the jet stream which blew bombs off target
- Easily fooled by Japanese diversions