By 1944, the Japs were using different planes that we all seemed to call Zeros. The Zero was actually pretty much kaput by 1943, mostly due to the entry of P-38’s. The Japs still had good planes but the pilots were gone.
I was a big WWII plane buff back in the late 60’s and 70’s. I then spent a fair amount of time in online WWII flight simulators around the turn of the century.
It was fun to read about the planes and then compare the specs to how they flew in combat simulators. Some simulators were pretty accurate. When I came up against a Zero, while flying a P-38, it was all about speed, because they could easily out-turn me. In fact, the Corsair was the same. The fun part was when I came up against a bunch of them I could always just pour on the coal and bug out. They couldn’t catch me.