Why costly Japanese destroyer resistance could distort the attrition picture

The simulated action warns against judging combat power from spectacular individual resistance. As Japanese losses mounted, claims that one surviving ship equalled increasing numbers of American ships became progressively less sustainable. A destroyer deliberately charging to delay pursuit could sell itself dearly because ordinary methods of disabling or deterring it mattered less once survival was no longer the aim. Such an action might protect withdrawing ships and impose real damage on the pursuer. It could not solve the wider attrition problem or make the numerical imbalance disappear.