Japan specializes in higher value small/medium size ships, which they do at annual >US WW2 scale. Modern surface combatants much more sophisticated than liberty

Japan specializes in higher value small/medium size ships, which they do at annual >US WW2 scale. Modern surface combatants much more sophisticated than liberty ships, but broader point is US WW2 ship building tier effort is not whole of nation wartime endeaver anymore, especially with 2.5x larger US pop. Even if US pivots to smaller hulls / unmanned fleet, larger ships still part of future navy force design and there's strategic use for large commerical ship building if US planners insist on maritime ship capacity. At the end of the day, if US wants to be a maritime power, it needs to have a maritime industrial base, even if maritime expeditionary model likely won't survive a peer war.