Older destroyers are criticised as enlarged torpedo boats whose purpose was to destroy enemy torpedo craft. They had not yet been treated as a separate category of fleet protection ship. This interpretation places their design assumptions in the years before the First World War. Continuous construction therefore did not necessarily mean Japan had absorbed the wartime lessons for destroyer employment.
Notable Point · 9:33-10:11
From enlarged torpedo boats to fleet protection
Pre-war assumptions about fighting torpedo craft restricted the development of a broader fleet protection role.