Interestingly, the entire Japanese Military seems to have designed and built basically everything with the same "offense first" mentality that simply ignored defense and survivability in order to maximize offensive potential.
A great example of this is what happened at Midway. The Japanese lost four carriers but when you look closer none of the hits that they took would have been likely to be fatal to an equivalent American carrier. All four were essentially lost to poor design and poor damage control.
Kaga:
- One 1,000 lb bomb
- >2 500 lb bombs
None of these did any structural damage to the watertight integrity but they started fires on the hangar decks that ultimately blew up all the bombs and torpedos stored there along with a massive amount of avgas. It was the fires that doomed Kaga.
Akagi:
- One 1,000 lb bomb
- two 1,000 lb bombs near-missed and exploded in the water causing some damage
None of these did any structural damage to the watertight integrity but the ONE hit started fires that the crew proved unable to control and a near-miss aft eventually caused the rudder to jam thus making the ship uncontrollable. The ship was scuttled.
Hiryu:
Again, none of these did any structural damage to the watertight integrity but they started fires that the crew couldn't control and the ship was scuttled.
Soryu:
Again, none of these did any structural damage to the watertight integrity but they started fires that the crew couldn't control and the ship was scuttled.
Now compare that to the one American Carrier sunk at Midway:
Yorktown:
First, Yorktown took at 550 lb bomb hit at Coral Sea along with "up to 12 near misses" that damaged the hull below the waterline. This damage was NOT fully repaired in time for the Battle of Midway but the Carrier was badly needed so it was sent out anyway basically with duct tape over the holes and repair crews still aboard.
Next at Midway:
- Three bombs (probably 550 lb)
- One Val (Japanese Dive Bomber that was shot down and tumbled into the Carrier
They repaired that damage and resumed flight operations, then:
The torpedos Obviously did major damage to watertight integrity and the ship was abandoned but remained afloat so a salvage party was sent back aboard to try to save the ship, then:
- Two submarine-launched torpedos that hit low due to the list from previous damage
- One destroyer exploding next to the ship (Hamman was alongside providing assistance and was hit by another of the torpedos from the salvo that finished Yorktown and sunk almost immediately)
Yorktown absorbed about as much explosives as all four Japanese Carriers combined.