An attrition fleet built to fight before it is lost

The theory assigned a Japanese capital ship's forward guns to batter one American standard-type battleship while its after guns kept a second busy. In practice, the United States could deploy three or more standards and follow them with newer classes. The intended sequence was to weaken the approaching fleet through ambush and attrition, win one costly battle, and seek a negotiated peace before another American force arrived. Japanese planners did not generally expect most of their own capital ships to survive that decisive encounter. That expectation of loss helps explain cramped magazine arrangements and the lesser emphasis on repairability. British ships, and to a degree American ships, were arranged with distant operations and battle-damage repair more firmly in mind, producing different internal layouts.