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Here’s What You Need to Know: The London Naval Treaty of 1936 was intended to preserve the battleship size limitation at thirty-five thousand tons and to restrict the size of battleship guns to fourteen inches. With memory of the Anglo-German and the Anglo-American-Japanese naval races fresh in their minds, the architects of the treaty wanted to limit the most obvious source of escalation. The United States designed its first generation of London Treaty battleships to carry twelve fourteen-inch guns in three quadruple turrets, a formidable armament equal to that of the “Big Five,” the last five American battleships built before the treaty.
Even Bigger: Imperial Japan Wanted 20-Inch Gun Battleships
Incredibly large and expensive warships like the Yamato were designed to get around naval treaty restrictions, but they proved to be a bad bet on how wars would be waged and won.
Key point: These ships were too slow and vulnerable to aircraft to be worth the cost. But the triumph of planes and aircraft carriers over battleships was not yet apparent during the inter-war years.
In January 1936 Japan announced its intention to withdraw from the London Naval Treaty, accusing both the United States and the United Kingdom of negotiating in bad faith. The Japanese sought formal equality in naval construction limits, something that the Western powers would not give. In the wake of this withdrawal, Japanese battleship architects threw themselves into the design of new vessels. The first class to emerge were the 18.1-inch-gun-carrying Yamatos, the largest battleships ever constructed. However, the Yamatos were by no means the end o
Don t Let the Picture Fool You: Pearl Harbor Was No Victory for Japan
The level of rage also prevented any attempt at a peace settlement at this time, which might have favored Japan.
Here s What You Need to Remember: Pearl Harbor rudely awoke the sleeping giant, in Yamamoto’s words, from his isolationist slumber, converted him into an awakened avenger burning with a righteous anger, and propelled him into a position of world leadership. A massive visceral reaction by the U.S. citizenry and military to the Pearl Harbor attack fueled war plans, military preparation, mobilization, and industry forward faster than any other measure could have achieved.