Japan pursued individual ship superiority because it lacked the infrastructure for a quantitative fleet race with Britain or the United States. In this reading, visible capability was meant to deter conflict, force an enemy to advance cautiously, and buy time. By the late 1930s, a dominant Army faction and a similar naval faction increasingly treated those capabilities as strategic surprises to be revealed in war. That interpretation weakened the original conflict-management logic because a hidden surprise could not exert the same deterrent pressure before war.
Notable Point · 59:27-1:00:51
When deterrent capability became strategic surprise
Qualitative warship superiority was meant to buy time and force caution, but late-1930s factions increasingly treated the same capabilities as surprise weapons.