The United States of America
After WW1 and the signing of the 1922 naval treaty, the USN's main rival was determined to be Japan, as the US and UK were on friendly terms while Japan sought to expand its power in Asia. Japan's ambitions would place it as the main threat to US interests in the region (trade with China as well as its colony of the Philippines), as well as a threat to the British, French, and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia.
The naval doctrine of the USN was in a state of transition in 1936. The previous school of thought prior to Japan commissioning the IJN Soryu was the same as the UK's naval doctrine; secure the sealanes from submarines with destroyers, and defeat the enemy's core fleet with battleships using carriers to provide air cover. After Japan left the naval treaties in 1936, an overhaul of the USN's doctrine was made, with an increased focus on using carrier groups escorted by battleships instead of battleship groups escorted by carriers. All battleships but the 5 planned Montana's built by the US after the 1936 naval treaty were built as fast battleships, which sacrificed armor for speed in order to keep up with the USN's much faster carriers. These fast battleships were meant to provide AA fire as well as sink any Japanese cruisers attempting to attack the carriers. The ships also had large 16" guns in order to potentially fight on-par with Japan's Kongo-class Battlecruisers (the North Carolina's were designed explicitly to be able to keep up with carriers and punch through the 28-year old Kongo-class BCs' armor). Because of the nature of Pacific warfare, all cruisers after the Atlanta-class were designed with increased range and AA guns in mind over anti-surface weapons and armor, reflecting the new focus on aircraft carriers. Similarly, American submarines (Japanese too) were designed for long-range missions with the intent of attacking Japanese surface vessels, as opposed to commerce raiding. In fact, it's quite possible that American subs sunk more military tonnage than any of the other world navies, despite there being far fewer of them. Many early-model Japanese destroyers were sunk by American subs, and the Japanese super-carrier Shinano was sunk by a submarine.
In general, from a purely objective standpoint, Japanese ships were of higher quality than the American and British ships and Japanese crews, pilots, and leaders were far better trained and experienced when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Japan's major problem was its lack of industrial output, which limited its ability to absorb losses and create new designs. Despite Japan's initial successes, they ultimately succumbed to an enemy that was able to outnumber them by 2:1 within a year, and by the end of the war had over 5 times as many ships as Japan had when everything started. As TZoli pointed out in a post after this one, the US had produced more naval tonnage by 1945 than the rest of the world's navies combined, dooming Japan's ambitions the moment it awoke the "sleeping giant".
Note that I left escort carriers off this list, as the in-game CVE's are closer to CVL's in regards to stats and usage.
The 1936 USN OOB, commissioned ships only
1 Ranger-class Aircraft Carrier
2 Lexington-class Aircraft Carriers (originally built as battlecruisers)
1 Langley-class Light Aircraft Carrier
0 South Dakota-class Battleships (6 planned, all cancelled due to 1922 naval treaty)*
3 Colorado-class Battleships (4 planned, 3 finished)
2 Tennessee-class Battleships
3 New Mexico-class Battleships
2 Pennsylvania-class Battleships
2 Nevada-class Battleships
2 New York-class Battleships
2 Wyoming-class Battleships
5 New Orleans-class Heavy Cruisers
2 Portland-class Heavy Cruisers
6 Northampton-class Heavy Cruisers
2 Pensacola-class Heavy Cruisers
7 Brooklyn-class Light Cruisers
10 Omaha-class Light Cruisers (these ships were designed to be scouts for battleships)
8 Farragut-class Destroyers
156 Clemson-class Destroyers (161 planned, 5 cancelled)
69 Wickes-class Destroyers (111 finished, 42 lost or repurposed by 1936)
10 Porpoise-class Submarines
2 Cachalot-class Submarines
51 S-class Submarines
27 R-class Submarines
The Jan. 1, 1936 USN OOB, launched ships only
2 New Orleans-class Heavy Cruisers
Additional commissioned ships by December 1941
1 Wasp-class Aircraft Carrier
3 Yorktown-class Aircraft Carriers
2 North Carolina-class Fast Battleships
1 Wichita-class Heavy Cruiser
2 St. Louis-class Light Cruisers
21 Gleaves-class Destroyers
6 Benson-class Destroyers
12 Sims-class Destroyers
10 Benham-class Destroyers
5 Somers-class Destroyers
8 Bagley-class Destroyers
4 Gridley-class Destroyers
18 Mahan-class Destroyers
8 Porter-class Destroyers
1 Gato-class Submarine
12 Tambor-class Submarines
10 Sargo-class Submarines
6 Salmon-class Submarines
Additional launched ships by December 1941 (aka they were "in the build queue")
3 South Dakota-class Fast Battleships
1 Cleveland-class Light Cruiser (52 planned, 3 canceled, 27 completed as CLs, 9 converted to CVLs, and 13 reordered as missile cruisers)
4 Atlanta-class Light Cruisers
41 Gleaves-class Destroyers
2 Benson-class Destroyers
2 Gato-class Submarines
Ships completed by the end of the war
19 Essex-class Aircraft Carriers (32 planned, 24 finished in total)
9 Independence-class Light Aircraft Carriers (converted Cleveland CLs)
4 Iowa-class Fast Battleships (6 planned, 4 finished)
2 Alaska-class Heavy Cruiser (these were almost as large as battleships, and therefore could be modeled as BCs in-game; in fact, they had 12" guns and were the only CA's aside from Germany's Panzerschiffe to not have 8" gun main armaments)
12 Baltimore-class Heavy Cruisers (14 planned, all finished)
26 Cleveland-class Light Cruisers
7 Atlanta-class Cruisers
47 Gearing-class Destroyers (152 planned, 98 completed overall)
58 Allen M. Sumner-class Destroyers
175 Fletcher-class Destroyers
22 Benson-class Destroyers
31 Tench-class Submarines (146 planned, 115 canceled)
128 Balao-class Submarines (191 planned, 128 finished)
74 Gato-class Submarines
Ships still under construction at the end of the war
2 Midway-class Aircraft Carriers (3 planned, all completed)
5 Essex-class Aircraft Carriers
0 Montana-class Battleships (5 planned, construction never started; these were the USN's answer to Japan's Yamato-class battleships and would be SH.BBs in the game)*
2 Iowa-class Fast Battleships
1 Alaska-class Heavy Cruiser (6 were planned in total, only 2 finished)
3 Oregon City-class Heavy Cruisers (10 planned, 4 finished)
2 Batlimore-class Heavy Cruisers
2 Worcester-class Light Cruisers (10 planned, 2 finished)
3 Fargo-class Light Cruisers (13 planned, 2 finished, 11 canceled)
62 Gearing-class Destroyers
OK, to summarize all of that using game-terms, if a player wanted to follow historical US unit production with a 1936 start, s/he'd have to finish by 1945: 23 CVs, 9 CVLs, 9 BBs, 17 CAs, 41 CLs, 88 DDs (5 destroyers per unit), and 27 SSs (10 subs per unit). An additional 5 CVs, 5 SH.BB, 2 BBs, 16 CAs, 23 CLs, 21 DDs, and 18 SSs would need to be in the build queue to complete everything the US planned to build between 1936 and the end of 1945.
*Breaking from my earlier entries, I listed these ships despite no work being started on them. I'll go back to the IJN and RN entries and add similar ships.