SUNBURST: The Rise of Japanese Naval Airpower, 1909 - 1941
It was IJN doctrine for the Kido Butai. They were more concerned about air attack than subs I think. Regardless, if attacked by a sub, they'd want to be able to maneuver. Imagine the total chaos at night if ships had to avoid a torpedo attack witha 700m spacing. They'd lose half the fleet from collsions.
The USN had similar issues with CV task forces early in the war. One faction wanted each CV to operate independantly over the horizon from the next. The idea was to make it so a single snooper or strike force would only see ONE CV at a time. the trade off was difficulty screening and maintaining CAP in addition to increased chances that one group might be detected. It was done in a mixed way at Midway with Enterprise and Hornet over the horizon from poor Yorktown
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