[Vigilanteman]

There was a big difference in combat doctrine. The Japanese kept sending their best pilots into combat. Sooner or later their luck ran out.

America's best fighter pilots were rotated home after a given number of missions to train the next batch of young hot shots.

[skeeter]

True. If they’d rotated their veteran navy pilots home after the middle of ‘42 to train cadets they could’ve been a more potent force for a longer period. As it was they lost most of them by the end of the Guadalcanal campaign.