Washington Naval Treaty (1922)

Conference that attempted to resolve the naval arms race among the United States, Great Britain, and Japan, and to resolve disagreements in the Pacific. The Washington Naval Treaty of February 6, 1922, had five signatories: the United States, Great Britain, Japan, France, and Italy. The United States ratified the agreement in 1923.

Under the treaty, with specified exceptions for current or under-construction vessels, the navies of the United States and Great Britain were limited to 525,000 tons. The Japanese were limited to 315,000 tons, while the French and Italians could keep 175,000 tons apiece. The maximum size of an individual ship was 35,000 tons, and the maximum gun size was 16 inches.

The Washington Naval Treaty included aircraft carriers—the United States and Britain were limited to 135,000 tons, France and Italy to 60,000 tons apiece, and Japan to 81,000 tons. Each nation could support two carriers over 27,000 tons, but they could not exceed 33,000 tons each. The aircraft carrier section limited the number of large guns on a carrier and specified that a battleship with an airplane on it was not called a carrier.

The treaty led the United States to convert from battleships to carriers because it was over the battleship limits at ratification and had to decommission older ships to get under the limit. It was well under on carriers, however, having only the USS Langley(11,500 tons), a converted collier. The Langley was experimental and not charged against the total, so the Navy had the whole tonnage to work with.

The United States converted the over-the-limit battle cruisers Lexington (41,000 tons) and Saratoga(33,000 tons) to carriers, even though the Navy did not really care for naval aviation. By 1931, still under the limit, the United States finally had a true carrier—the USS Ranger (14,500 tons)—primarily because it was at the limits in the other classes. With the Yorktown and Enterprise (19,800 tons each) authorized in 1933, the U.S. carrier fleet was at 128,100 tons, where it remained until termination of the treaty in 1936. Experience with the carriers led the Navy to appreciate their benefits. In 1936, the keel of the Wasp (14,700 tons) was laid.

The Washington Naval Treaty also encouraged new techniques for making guns more efficient and armor lighter because of the desire to get more bang for the pound.

The status quo prevailed with respect to naval bases and fortifications in the Pacific. There would be no new construction or improvements on certain specific areas, usually small islands. For instance, the United States could build on Hawaii and Alaska, but not on the Aleutians. Britain could not build on Hong Kong, but it could on New Zealand and Australia. Japan could build on its home islands, but Formosa was off-limits. The British and Americans would find at the onset of World War II in the Pacific that their unimproved possessions—Hong Kong, the Philippines, and others—would be easy conquests for the Japanese military.

As the United States turned toward normalcy and disarmament, the impulse to get agreements on the cheap meant that there were no enforcement provisions, and the United States gave Japan unwarranted advantage in the Pacific. In return, it retained the Open Door in China. The treaty remained in effect until 1936, although Japan announced its intent to terminate as early as December 1934.

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