Attrition before the decisive battle

The decisive-battle concept was not simply a search for one immediate fleet clash. Ambush operations attacked where an opponent least expected, while interception-and-attrition operations used submarines, destroyers, and other forces to wear down a stronger fleet across its advance. The battle fleet would engage only after the exchange created parity or superiority close to Japan, where Japanese support was strongest and American logistics weakest. Tsushima supplied the historical model because the Russian fleet had exhausted itself on the voyage before reaching the chosen battlefield. Pearl Harbor therefore has to be judged by whether it helped create that sequence, not merely by how many ships it damaged on the first day.