Why the US Navy chose super-heavy 16-inch shells

What is your opinion of the American choice to use a super-heavy 16-inch shell?

It made sense because the United States expected heavily armored Japanese opponents, whereas the British light-shell approach did not deliver enough compensating range or rate-of-fire benefit.

A super-heavy shell was a rational American response to the possibility of heavily protected Japanese battleships. The British light 16-inch shell followed a different tradeoff, but its hoped-for advantages in rate of fire or range did not justify the loss of striking weight. Ammunition design belonged to an anticipated armor contest rather than an isolated set of gun statistics.