Design flaws - typically the results of cramming as much weaponry as possible into a limited displacement - caused certain ships to be top-heavy and unstable. However, several mistakes and oversights during the war resulted in their near-annihilation by the United States Navy. At the onset of World War II, the IJN was among the few navies who had properly adopted naval aviation and the only navy with fully developed torpedo assets, achieving stunning victories and technological innovations - sweeping successes in the Russo-Japanese and First Sino-Japanese Wars, the Battle of Tsushima, the sinkings of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse, the world's first purpose-built aircraft carrier, the deadly Type 93 'Long Lance' torpedo - and laying down classes of cruisers and destroyers that, despite being much older than their adversaries, remained among the most powerful of their class of any nation during the War. Japan also readily looked to and accepted foreign input after the opening of their borders, from the rapid assimilation of foreign technology, to the frequent military exchanges with Dutch, French, British and United States navies, with plenty of naval students being sent to their naval academies and many ships initially being purchased or built in their dockyards while Japan perfected her own shipbuilding capabilities. As an island nation, the Imperial Japanese Navy(IJN) was consistently the forefront of Japan's military, characterized by advanced development of naval technology, quality shipbuilding and superb seamanship.

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