 After the battle Shōkaku and Zuikaku were the only large carriers of the original Pearl Harbor strike force left for offensive actions . Of Japan 's other carriers , Taihō , which was not commissioned until early 1944 , would be the only fleet carrier worth teaming with Shōkaku and Zuikaku ; Ryūjō and Zuihō were light carriers , while Jun 'yō and Hiyō , although technically classified as fleet carriers , were second @-@ rate ships of comparatively limited effectiveness . In the time it took Japan to build three carriers , the U.S. Navy commissioned more than two dozen fleet and light fleet carriers , and numerous escort carriers . By 1942 the United States was already three years into a shipbuilding program mandated by the Second Vinson Act , intended to make the navy larger than all the Axis navies combined , plus the British and French navies , which it was feared might fall into Axis hands . 
