The converted Taiyo served until 1944 and filled important transport and support functions. Her career illustrates the wider Japanese problem: useful designs existed, but industrial capacity could not supply enough carriers, escorts, aircraft, and replacements for a long war. Japan therefore had the category of ship without the scale needed to reproduce the Allied escort-carrier system. Taiyo is a useful corrective to claims that the Imperial Japanese Navy simply lacked the idea.
Notable Point · 1:46:50-1:47:20
Taiyo and Japan's escort-carrier shortage
Taiyo shows that Japan operated escort carriers, but not in the numbers needed for a prolonged maritime war.