The decisive battle versus a sustained carrier war

American and Japanese carrier plans expected a decisive blow, then moved quickly from overwhelming victory to loosely described operations against the enemy coast. That sequence risked assuming away the damage, aircraft losses, and repair burden created by the battle itself. British design priorities appear different because they anticipated a global campaign in which ships had to remain useful after being hit. Nothing here treats American or Japanese carriers as disposable. The warning is that a battle plan did not automatically provide a plan for sustaining the rest of the war.