In modern history, Japan came into contact with Western powers later than China, but it enlightened and transformed earlier than China. With a small territory of four islands, Japan has risen through self-reliance, repeatedly defeated powerful enemies, and put aside historical grievances. From the perspective of national rejuvenation, Japan is indeed much stronger than the Qing Dynasty. Today, we will talk about the road to building our own warships.

As soon as Japan's reform achieved some success, it couldn't wait to expand. In the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War and the Japanese-Russian Liaodong War, Japanese domestically produced warships were of no use at all. The main carriers were warships purchased from the United Kingdom. The most well-known warships in the world are the "Yoshino" and "Mikasa". This reflects a cold reality. Building warships without the support of an industrial base or long-term technology accumulation is simply a matter of trying to make a fish out of wood. (Didn’t modern China suffer from this disadvantage?)

The world's navies have made a rapid transition from ironclads to dreadnoughts. After experiencing two naval battles in the Yellow Sea and the Russo-Japanese Sea, Britain, an established naval power, launched its groundbreaking dreadnought in 1904, which set the tone for the development of the world's navy – big ships and huge guns.

Just entering the era of dreadnoughts, the Japanese Navy fell into unprecedented depression.

In 1908, the United States' "Great White Fleet" arrived. This is a trip for the United States to show off its muscles to the world, but it has provided Japan with a real imaginary enemy. Taking the U.S. Navy as the combat target has become the direction for the development of Japan's naval power.

Not long after the "Great White Fleet" returned home, the Japanese Navy got good news and bad news.

The good news is: with the birth of the British dreadnought, all the ships of the "Great White Fleet" were instantly eliminated, and the Japanese-American battleship competition has come to zero!

The bad news is: Based on its strong national strength, the United States immediately started building dreadnoughts. In two years, it built 18 Level 2 ships, which is another "Great White Fleet" that keeps up with the times.

The Japanese Navy is anxious! Looking back at my own shipyard…Bagaya Road!

The Japanese shipyard has worked very hard. The launch of two "Hanoi" class ships also gave the navy a little bit of prestige. However, the level of the "Hanoi" class is not yet up to the level of a dreadnought. Because the calibers of its main guns are inconsistent, it cannot meet the long-distance barrage projection requirements of a dreadnought.

In fact, Japan has no competitors in East Asia. It's not impossible if you have patience and take your time. But due to my character, I couldn't wait any longer. As a result, the last foreign trade warship in the modern history of the Japanese Navy, the British-made "King Kong" battlecruiser, made its debut.

Japan spent a lot of money to buy the "Kongo" and built three "Kirishima", "Hiei" and "Haruna" based on the purchased drawings and technology. This is the famous "King Kong" class. After three modifications, it was a meritorious class battleship that fought in World War I and World War II.

After this period of technological accumulation, Japan’s independent shipbuilding path has taken shape. On this avenue, we have to mention two people and use them and their works to examine what the road to independent shipbuilding looks like.

Joe Hiraga, the god of Japanese shipbuilding.

The first person: Hiraga Joe.

This man is known as the God of Japanese Shipbuilding and Vice Admiral of Japanese Shipbuilding. His famous work is the "Yubari" experimental cruiser.

The "Yubari" was completed in 1923. She changed the old design of the Tianlong-class and Kuma-class light cruisers-S-shaped bow, curved chimney, and piggyback turret, and reached a combat power of 5,500 tons with a 3,000-ton class. This ship was called "a joyful work" by Hiraga Joe.

The success of Joe Hiraga's design laid the basic idea for Japanese heavy cruiser design, and the road to self-construction of modern Japanese cruisers began. At that time, the Washington Naval Treaty was in full swing and the navies of various countries were shrinking. Battleships and battlecruisers were strictly restricted. The demonstration and competition of capital ship construction technology was transferred to the 10,000-ton heavy cruiser.

The Yubari experimental cruiser plays a prominent role in the development of Japan's self-produced battleships.

Hiraga continued to design the "Furutaka", "Aoba", "Myoko" class heavy cruisers and the "Nagato" class battle array, basically forming a path with Japanese characteristics.

Hiraga Joe's various ship designs were mature and steady, and most of them adopted the Dacheng technology of the time and never made rash advances, because he was considered a staunchly orthodox "British style" designer.

When designing the "Myoko" class heavy cruiser, Joe Hiraga had a sharp conflict with the Japanese Naval Administration Headquarters. Due to treaty restrictions, the Japanese Navy's requirements for ships are becoming more and more abnormal. The limited hulls are required to be capable of artillery combat, lightning strikes, and command… Hiraga gave way! In order to stick to his point of view, he did not hesitate to leave his job.

Miao Advanced Heavy Patrol, many functions are still very balanced.

In fact, Hiraga Joe's persistence makes sense. The Japanese Navy's many requirements for ships only met paper data. Once on the battlefield, many contradictions were immediately exposed.

Requirements for artillery battles – Heavy cruisers are equipped with 203mm twin guns as standard. Although the heavy cruisers after Hiraga Joe have more turrets, they also greatly increase the projectile dispersion. The long and slender hull of the Japanese heavy cruiser ensures high speed, but it is even more inaccurate due to insufficient stability. Would you say it is embarrassing?

Lightning strike requirements – Torpedo launch tubes installed on heavy cruisers look extremely powerful, but in World War II when aviation warfare became a trend, heavy cruiser mines became a fatal safety hazard. In actual combat in the future, many heavy cruisers had to abandon torpedoes early in the face of enemy fire, and there were also many cases of warships being seriously injured due to torpedo explosions.

Command requirements – The installation of a majestic bridge on a heavy cruiser seems to improve the observation and command efficiency, but it can easily cause the embarrassment of being top-heavy. To put it bluntly, it is easy to capsize. The "Atago" was struck by a mine during heavy patrol and capsized and sank in just 21 minutes. This is because…

Hiraga ordered shipbuilding, insisted on his own prudent ideas, and dared to say "no" to the Japanese Navy, which is worthy of praise. This also earned him a nickname: Hiraga No Let!

The second person: Kikuo Fujimoto.

This man is known as the genius of Japanese shipbuilding and the major general of Japanese shipbuilding. His famous works are the mine boat "Qiandao" and the destroyer "Fubuki".

Fubuki-class destroyers, because of their new layout, powerful firepower, and fast speed, have stunned navies from all over the world. They have become the favorite of the Japanese Navy's mine force, and have also become the basic characteristics of Japanese fleet destroyers in the future.

If Hiraga is a conservative rightist, then Fujimoto is a radical leftist. Moreover, Japanese people do not like centrists, either 100% right or 100% left. In terms of shipbuilding, this is a bit fatal!

The destroyer Fubuki, Fujimoto’s famous work.

After Hiraga resigned, Fujimoto took over his position. It should be said that Fujimoto's level is high and he is diligent and promising. However, this person obviously had too much official-oriented thinking. In view of Hiraga Joe's lesson, Fujimoto accepted all the military's requirements according to the order, and even some finalized designs, as long as the military had instructions, he would immediately comply with them. This also earned him a nickname: Fujimoto Kaikai!

This is a bit boring. The "Kaohsiung" class heavy patrol was modified by Fujimoto. As soon as this ship came out, just from the silhouette, it was indeed terrifying! So much so that the Americans believe that this is a battleship built in the name of heavy cruiser. Judging from the paper data, it has indeed won the title of the most powerful heavy cruiser. As for future actual combat, whoever uses it knows!

Before the actual combat test, Fujimoto ushered in Waterloo – the Tomotsuru incident.

In March 1934, the "Thousand Islands" class torpedo boat "Friends Crane", which had just been completed for half a month, capsized and sank in strong sea conditions. The Honko Navy was furious and demanded a thorough investigation into the cause. The conclusion was that Fujimoto's design was Taibaga!

Is it really Fujimoto's problem? The Chidori-class has a design displacement of 533 tons, but is equipped with two 127mm naval guns in the front and one in the rear, two twin 533mm torpedo launchers, and a speed of 30 knots. Plus a tall bridge… let alone high-speed tactical turns. Well, the wave is unstable! And the small boat is resistant to heavy equipment – isn't this what the Japanese Navy requires?

Fujimoto was despicably sacrificed by the Japanese Navy! Fujimoto-kun alone took full responsibility for the incident. After a long period of investigation and questioning, he was extremely exhausted physically and mentally. He finally died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 47.

It’s not over yet after death! In 1935, the Fourth Fleet of the Japanese Navy encountered typhoon disaster during exercises. The bows of two destroyers were cut off by large waves, the bridges of four destroyers and the decks of two aircraft carriers were damaged. In addition, many warships suffered cracks. 45 People die. (Kamikaze! Kamikaze!) The investigation ultimately determined that it was a problem with the strength design of the ship’s hull—it was Fujimoto’s fault!

The negative impact of the "Fourth Fleet Incident" was that the Japanese Navy lost its trust in welding technology. Dr. Hiraga Joe returned to the Shipbuilding Department of the Naval Administration Headquarters after the incident and ordered that electric welding be canceled on all newly built ships and replaced by riveting. Hiraga seemed to have a special distrust of new technologies. Under his leadership, Japan's warship design became increasingly conservative.

Later, Hiraga Joe cooperated with his apprentice Fukuda Keiji to build the pinnacle of Japanese battleships: Yamato.

The Kaohsiung-class heavy patrol is known as the "King of Heavy Patrol" based on paper data, but it has made no achievements in actual combat.

Reflecting on Japan's shipbuilding path, it seems that it was deeply affected by the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War. Japan always hopes that one or two extremely powerful warships will play a decisive role in the battle situation, so the construction of warships is always one or two at a time. For example, there are 2 "Nagato" class ships, 2 "Yamato" class ships, 2 "Soryu" class ships, 2 "Shōkaku" class ships, 1 "Taho" class ship, 1 "Shinano" class ship… Their own Xu's craftsmanship and perverted requirements of militarism made Japanese ships very impressive in later mobile games.

But how does it compare with the United States? There are 17 "Essex"-class regular ships built in Eagle Sauce, 9 "Independence"-class light ships, and more than 50 Gypsy modified aircraft carriers… No matter how good Japanese warships are, can they withstand a group fight? ?