They’re also operating off the new British carrier, the Queen Elizabeth. Japan & Britain have only recently gotten their F-35B’s but their pilots are still training up. Buy deploying US Marine squadrons they can train their aircraft handlers to support the new aircraft type at the same time.
I totally understand that, I know someone in Japan who saw the QE visit there very recently. I just want to know about that “first time since WWII”. Did we ever fly anything off of Japanese carriers after WWII? Inquiring minds want to know.