Wartime service reshapes Japanese destroyer design

Japanese destroyer construction drew on continuous wartime service. At Tsingtao, Japan conducted the first attack by aircraft operating from the sea against shore bases, while its destroyers gained anti-submarine and force-projection experience in the Mediterranean. Wartime lessons quickly fed into new builds, including emergency construction for Japan and France. Japan retained a formal first-, second-, and third-class destroyer system, although its final third-class orders dated to 1909. Wartime construction therefore concerned first- and second-class ships, with some second-class designs continuing after the war. Experience increasingly favoured larger destroyers with enough size for the required range, weapons, and capability.