Naval Historywith Dr. Alex

Q&A · 2:00:03-2:01:18

Why the Washington Treaty cut the Sendai program short

Treaty rules made 5,000-ton Sendai-class cruisers a poor use of scarce yards when 10,000-ton, 8-inch-gun ships became permissible.

Heavy CruisersImperial Japanese NavyLight CruisersSendai Class CruisersShipbuildingWashington Naval Treaty
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Question

Why did the Washington Naval Treaty cause most of the Sendai-class cruiser program to be cancelled?

Short answer

The ships were too small to exploit the new treaty ceiling, so Japan finished those underway and redirected yards to larger cruisers.

Notes

The Japanese still needed light cruisers, so they completed the three Sendai-class ships already building. The five unstarted ships were only about half the maximum size permitted for a treaty cruiser. Completing them would also occupy yards needed for new 8-inch-gun designs able to exploit the 10,000-ton ceiling. Japan therefore kept the hulls already underway and redirected future construction toward larger cruisers.