Denying Japan both completion rights and early replacement contributed to industrial discontinuity before the Yamato programme. The proposed alternative would replace older Fusō- and Kongō-family ships with two Tosas and three Amagis while Japan remained inside the treaty framework. This counterfactual was never a Washington Treaty term or a guarantee of peace. The example shows how a limited concession might preserve skills, offer visible status and security, and reduce the incentive to leap from no capital-ship work to building the world's largest battleships.
Notable Point · 1:11:26-1:13:32
A Japanese replacement-rights counterfactual
A hypothetical Tosa-and-Amagi replacement programme asks whether controlled construction could have kept Japanese industry active and Japan inside the treaty system.