Japan’s Navy

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 19 January 1938, Page 9

Japan’s Navy

Notes on the News

Japan is building 43.000-ton battleships. Two were laid clown last year and work on two raojje is about to start. At sea Japan is regarded by experts as being supreme within the waters adjacent to her territories. The Russians have i ,, nnsported an unknown number of submarines in pieces to the Pacific coast, and there assembled them for coastal defence. But it is beyond the bounds or practicability that the Soviet Union could, even within a term of years, seriously hamper the full deployment of Japanese naval power. It is, indeed, considered more than doubtful whether naval Powers as strong as Great Britain (taking into account her scattered trade routes and world interests!, or the United States, could alone challenge successfully the naval might of Japan in the Far East.

At the time of Japan’s withdrawal from the London Naval Conference, the Japanese fleet consisted of 9 battleships, 12 first-class cruisers, 24 secondclass cruisers, 5 aircraft-carriers. 3 seaplane carriers. 5 submarine tenders. 106 destroyers, 67 submarines, 5 torpedo boats and sundry other craft, making a total of 305 warships of all descriptions,.

These figures do not inciuae warships under construction at that date, nor take account of those plans for strengthening the navy which have been prepared since Japan, by her denunciation of the Washington Treaty, regained liberty of action. The personnel of the Japanese navy has increased in numbers from 64,000 in 1918 to 80.000 in 1932. More important than numbers, however, is the fact that the Japanese are a genuinely maritime nation, and that the individual efficiency of her sailors is regarded as being equal to that of any lation in the world.