Japan won the first months of the war by courage determination, high quality pilots and air crew and better planes and ships.
By 1943 we had equaled them in every respect and probably surpassed them in quality of aircraft. We then totally surpassed them in production. We kept increasing that edge as the war went on.
We probably never did produce pilots as good as the Japanese early war pilots but we did produce ones who were better than what the Japanese had later.
Eventually we just overwhelmed them with numbers and courage.
“Japan won the first months of the war by courage determination, high quality pilots and air crew and better planes and ships.”
I don’t think so. If we had been preparing for war for months and years as they had been, they would have won nothing. They launched surprise attacks. If they weren’t a surprise, they wouldn’t have fared as well as they did.
I'd bet you've read it.
What about the flying Tigers. If I remember correctly they bested the Japanese early on using inferior planes
I enjoyed the article but was disappointed he didn’t recognize one important factor, at least in my opinion.
That factor was the unbelievable bravery of our kids in tens of thousands of clashes with the enemy. Just one example was the young early twenties pilots that attacked the Japanese carriers at midway and sunk them.
And, individual Marines and soldiers engaged the enemy hand to hand against impossible odds and just kept on coming, particularly on Iwo and Okinawa.
So, in my opinion, the out and out courage of our young guys from the farms and cities was arguably the Japs biggest mis calculation. In street parlance, our boys just kicked their ass!. And, 6 of my uncles helped along with my dad! Sorry, just want to give some credit where some credit is due.