Kantai Kessen and the cost of preserving strength

The expectation of a final decisive battle could make Japanese commanders reluctant to commit strength in earlier operations. Japan withheld carriers and additional strikes from Pearl Harbor, preserving a punch for a battle still to come. The same mentality appears in the proposed four-triple-turret cruiser: if Japan was already exceeding treaty limits, a purpose-designed hull could have managed stability and machinery around a more coherent armament. Operational hesitation and cruiser compromises both followed from a doctrine intended to overcome Japan's industrial limitations in one culminating victory.