"Japanese Pilot Training and Experience in the Pacific Air War – Part II"
by Richard Dunn
20 May 2026
"In Part I of this series we examined the broad contours of Japanese pilot training and experience during the Pacific War. Part II goes deeper — and gets more specific. The evidence presented here comes primarily from prisoner-of-war interrogation reports, captured flight logbooks, translated unit operation orders, and intercepted radio traffic, sources that allow a more granular picture than postwar memoirs or official histories typically provide. What emerges is a story of a training system that functioned with notable rigor in the early war years, then buckled under the weight of combat attrition, accelerated quotas, inexperienced instructors, and a persistent — and costly — reluctance to equip pilots and aircraft with the protective measures their Allied opponents had already adopted. The data are not always tidy, and the reader should weigh them accordingly. But the arc they describe is consistent and, by 1944, unmistakable.
Information provided in this Part comes mainly from primary sources. Mainly does not mean everything which will be evident. Moreover, primary source data are not necessarily equally factual, nor does it exclude opinions. A collection of primary source statistical data is presented in the last section. I also understand that for some, this may be more than you really wanted to know.
Japanese Army Air Force Pilot Training: What POW Records Reveal
Initially we will try to at least partially remedy the dearth of material concerning the Japanese Army Air Force in Part I. An informative summary of a prisoner of war (POW) interrogation report gives interesting details of J.A.A.F. training. . . ."
https://rldunn.com/japanese-pilot-training-part-ii/