After World War I, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) was the world's third-greatest sea power. Although the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 restricted Japanese tonnage to 60 percent of U.S. Navy tonnage, Japan flouted the restriction and, during the interwar period, embarked on a major shipbuilding program. Moreover, in 1936, Japan withdrew from the Washington Naval Treaty as well as the subsequent London Naval Treaty and no longer even pretended to adhere to tonnage restrictions.

Like Great Britain, Japan was a seagoing nation and, accordingly, followed the example of the British Royal Navy, giving the IJN precedence over the Army of Japan. The navy's officer corps, superbly trained at the Naval Academy (Etajima) and the Naval War College (Meguro), was socially and politically well connected. These connections proved a liability for some during the 1930s, when political instabilities resulted in the purge of many of Japan's senior naval officers--to the detriment of the service. Also during the 1930s, the influence of the army grew, and an intense and destructive army-navy rivalry crippled the strategic and tactical effectiveness of both services. Despite these problems, the IJN was a most formidable force at the commencement of World War II, not only because of the excellence of its crews and its advanced ships, but because of its advocacy of naval air power.

In planning for World War II, Japanese naval strategists correctly understood that the United States, an industrial giant, could and would maintain a larger fleet. Accordingly, the Japanese decided to exploit naval air power, advanced submarines, and advanced torpedo designs (Japan developed the most effective torpedoes of any World War II combatant), as well as forward naval bases on its mandate islands, including the Carolines, Marianas, and Marshalls, to enable a strategy of attrition intended fatally to degrade U.S. naval superiority. When the disparity in tonnage had been evened out through attrition, Japan, operating ultramodern ships from advance bases, would have a great tactical advantage over Americans who were operating far from sources of supply. At that point, the IJN would lure the U.S. Pacific Fleet into a final decisive battle, in which the U.S. fleet would be destroyed.

As of December 7, 1941, the IJN had 10 battleships (with two more under construction), 10 aircraft carriers (with four more under construction), 18 heavy cruisers, 20 light cruisers (plus four under construction), 112 destroyers (with another dozen under construction), 65 submarines (of which 21 were obsolete, but another 29 were under construction), and 156 other vessels (plus 37 under construction). Recognizing that oil supplies would be a critical issue, the IJN accumulated a two-year reserve before the war began. This proved inadequate, and fuel became a critical problem for the navy during the late phases of the Pacific war . . .

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