How treaty superiority encouraged complacency

The Washington Naval Treaty's 5:3 capital-ship ratio gave American officers confidence in a formal superiority over Japan. That confidence reduced pressure to invest while Japan's capabilities, especially naval aviation, developed rapidly. Racial prejudice reinforced the belief that Japanese officers and airmen could not match Western standards, despite evidence from the Russo-Japanese War and the First World War. The Royal Navy was not free of such attitudes, but service alongside Japan in the First World War and long contact through the China Station gave more officers direct evidence against the stereotype.