[Luftwaffle8]

Back in the early 1960s, Japanese "aces" scores appeared in young boys/teens magazines. There was no vetting of "facts." In the attached, the top rung is Army and the bottom is Navy.

The top "ace" with 70 victories is Captain Yoshitaro Jobo with 70. How did he get 70? He made such a statement when he had too much to drink with a reporter, and this score has dogged him every since.

WO Hiromichi Shinohara has 54 here. He actually wrote a letter claiming this amount and this score is also attributed to him when he was honored after his death.

Anabuki has 46 and Capt. Isamu Kashiide has 26. Don't believe them.

Capt Isamu Kashiide wrote a book after the war. It was titled: 'I SHOT DOWN 26 B-29S." This score was disputed by his commander and comrades; they said that it was the squadron's claim, not his personal. This makes sense. It was all a team effort. A veteran told me: "It was nearly impossible for one plane to shoot down a B-29!!! Just to get in range was suicidal because they had all these guns pointed at you, and they sent out a wall of bullets!!! They flew in formation and that was very formidable."

A lone wolf cannot bring down a buffalo while attacking a big herd. The only way to bring down a B-29 was to cripple it, make it leave the formation, then gang up on it. Or ram it intentionally.

As for the Navy list, Nishizawa and Shoichi Sugita are 120 while Sakai is listed with his 64. I've already explained to you that Sakai's 64 was an advertising marketing gimmick, it's made up. Sugita made his claims. Nishizawa never claimed 120, not even a hundred. If you believe these claims as factual, then you will believe that you can save 15% or more on car insurance by switching to GEICO.

The great "aces" were the guys from the China War who survived until the end of the war and the pilots who survived Guadalcanal and Rabaul.