I decided to follow the American strategy suggested by Herr Hughes. It worked in part as the Japanese cruiser guns hit their target only 3 times in 6 hours.

The Japanese followed the trail to the until they encountered resistance. They assaulted whatever group was in their way and sent a few platoons around to speed up the process. Rinse and repeat for the next 4 hours.

They reached and assaulted the town at 12:30 (turn 19) and just stared at the Americans for the next 30 minutes as the Japanese were 8 already points ahead. The Americans assaulted at 13:15 in an attempt to lessen the defeat from major to minor, but they lost two more steps and decided to give up.

Japanese major victory.

As the Japanese had better rolls than the Americans in the assaults, I am unable to say whether Vince's suggestion is a good one. The scenario is not interesting enough for me to give it a second go.

I rate this scenario a "2".