Nor the pilots they lost at Midway…..
I met George Gay. He was shot down and landed between the two fleets. Said he had the best seat in the house to watch the battle.
Perhaps the most significant loss for the Japanese were the highly trained hanger crews that maintained and serviced the carrier aircraft. Japan did not have the number of motor vehicles that the United States had. While we could rely on the fact that just about every kid had worked on a car or farm tractor, that was not the case for Japan. It took them years to train the guys who worked the hanger deck on those carriers. They were all cut down in those enclosed hangers. They Japanese never fully replaced them.