Six-Six Fleet

The Six-Six Fleet was a shipbuilding program initiated by Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) in the wake of the First Sino-Japanese War and the Triple Intervention.

[1] Whereas during the war with China, the Japanese had gone into the conflict with a makeshift force of warships, they would now have a true battle fleet, the core of which consisted of six battleships and six armored cruisers, giving the plan its name.

[3] Yamamoto, who had been newly appointed to his position as Chief of the Naval Affairs Bureau, sensed that a great opportunity existed to secure significant fleet expansion.

Approaching his task with unrelenting enthusiasm, Yamamoto devised a revolutionary plan that would fundamentally transform the navy into a world-class military fleet.

[5] He considered that it was more likely that Russia or possibly Britain in alliance with a lesser naval power like France or Germany, would dispatch a portion of their fleet against Japan.

Furthermore, establishing repair and docking facilities along the route and in East Asian waters for the largest warships would be an enormous expense for any nation.

[6] The centerpiece of this expansion was to be the acquisition of four new battleships in addition to the two which were already being built in Britain being part of an earlier construction program: the Fuji and Yashima.

The program also included the construction of twenty-three destroyers, sixty-three torpedo boats, and an expansion of Japanese shipyards and repair and training facilities.

[8] This was used to fund the bulk of the naval expansion, roughly ¥139 million, with public loans and existing government revenue providing the rest of the financing required over the ten years of the program.

[8] The government did, however, propose a tax increase on sake and tobacco to pay for additional operating expenses that would accompany fleet expansion.