In his autobiography, Saburo Sakai said that the Japanese Navy was far too strict in their training. I think he said that 98% washed out and that included some really good pilots that they could have used later in the war.
I have no idea why they didn’t just go back and get them but I suppose once you were out of the program, that was it.
Yep.
The Japanese did try to increase their Naval pilot training program.
It was too late.
They didn’t have enough fuel for proper training.
They probably should have had a reserve training program.
I think that the Japanese veneration of their Samurai hurt them badly in WWII.
More than likely, they were scooped up by the Army or the Navy (in a non-pilot status) and were either already dead or needed where they were already ...