The Eight-Eight Fleet as a costly defensive target

The proposed twelve-ship battle line was Japan's way of making itself a difficult target. Nagatos, Amagis, Kiis, and Number 13s would combine a powerful battle line with a fast operational element. Japanese planners understood that they could not match American or British industrial and logistical strength in a long war. A powerful defensive fleet could make intervention costly enough to encourage those powers to seek easier targets.