[rldunn]

Nicholas

Capt. Terauki Kawano (Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force, ret.), working for the Military History Department, Japanese National Institute for Defense Studies, wrote a monograph (The Japanese Navy's air-raid against Australia during the World War Two) based on access to Japanese unit records available at the NIDS archives giving details of losses by JNAF units involved in attacks on Australia. In particular his sources included the unit combat records (kodochoshos) for Air Groups 202 and 753 for the Spitfire period. Historians generally recognize these as the best available evidence of Japanese losses. They are the unit commander's record of the action prepared immediately after the mission was completed. I would say anyone with access to this monograph or the source records on which it was based has a complete and accurate record of Japanese losses for these units over Australia.

The losses mentioned in certain published sources such as Hata & Izawa's book on Japanese fighter units seem to track closely with the data in the monograph mentioned above.

Scepticism is often good but it makes no sense to reject the best available data on a subject. In the case of the Zero versus Spitfire confrontation, we have the basic data on claims and losses. It makes no sense to ignore it or draw conclusions without considering it.

RLD