During World War II, Japan was one of the major belligerents and one of the three giants of the Axis camp. Many friends who know the history of World War II have the deepest impression of Japan undoubtedly the Japanese navy, especially the Combined Fleet, so what was the strength of the Japanese navy in World War II? Can it win over the British and US navies?
海军规模比较
Before the outbreak of the Pacific War in World War II, the total tonnage of the US Navy reached 1.43 million tons, the United Kingdom had about 1.3 million tons, and Japan had only 1.2 million tons. In terms of total tonnage, Japan lags behind Britain and the United States.
However, the Japanese Navy has many cutting-edge warships and a large number of aircraft carriers, so in terms of overall strength, the Japanese Navy is not inferior to the British and American navies, and even has a certain advantage.
In particular, after Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the strength of the U.S. Pacific Fleet was greatly damaged, and Japan was actually stronger than the U.S. Navy during this period. But the comparison of navies between countries cannot be based only on the number of existing ones, but most importantly on the country's industrial strength, construction potential.
巨大的工业鸿沟
Even if Japan had a strong navy, it would be nothing more than a fortress made of sand that would collapse if it did not have a strong industrial strength as a foundation.
Compared with Britain and the United States, Japan's navy is very weak, because Japan is what we call a country with no industrial strength and no industrial resources, and Japan's warship construction speed is far from being comparable with that of traditional powers such as Britain and the United States.
Needless to say, during World War II, the United States built more than 160 aircraft carriers alone, and hundreds or even thousands of other ships. Even the British Empire is not something that Japan can touch. During World War II, Japan built 12 aircraft carriers, compared to 25 before the war, while Britain built more than 30 aircraft carriers in World War II.
At the end of World War II, the number of British aircraft carriers reached more than 50, and aircraft carriers could not be compared, let alone other ships. The number of British cruisers in World War II was close to that of Japanese destroyers, and the two were completely incomparable.
集全国之力发展海军
It was only after the Meiji Restoration that Japan gradually embarked on the capitalist road, and in terms of the time of development, it was completely incomparable with the old capitalist powers such as Britain, France, and the United States.
What's worse is that Japan basically has no industrial raw materials, such as iron ore, rare metals, oil and other resources needed to develop industry, basically need to be imported, so once it loses mineral raw materials, Japan can only be a dead end.
For example, the construction cost of the battleship Yamato, which Japan is proud of, is equivalent to the food cost of all Japanese families for a month.
In World War II, even Germany, which had a navy as its shortcoming, far surpassed Japan in terms of tonnage. This is because Germany's industrial strength and mineral raw materials are not comparable to Japan's.
Britain, which has the largest colony, has even more outrageous mineral resources, producing three times as much steel as Japan, eight times as much coal, and 18 times as much oil. Almost all of them are several times, more than ten times the difference.
The reason why Japan attacked Pearl Harbor was because the United States cut off Japan's energy supply lines. In 1937, Japan invaded China and its fuel reserves fell at the speed of light, so Japan frantically imported and hoarded fuel, and as a result, Japan had to take a big gamble after the United States cut off its oil resources.
However, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan failed to force the United States to the negotiating table, and the two sides fell into a long tug-of-war. Japan's weakness was infinitely magnified, and two years after the war, Japan was in a desperate situation. The steel mills ran out of iron ore and the warships ran out of fuel, and the result was that the navy was beaten by the United States, and all the money it had saved for decades was lost.
首先我们还是要承认二战期间日本海军是当之无愧的世界第三大海军，实力也十分强大，但却苦于国力与英美等国差距太大而无法进一步提高。