Saburo Sakai

[Stig Jarlevik]

Luftwaffle8

No real surprises in what you say, very logical indeed.
However, how did the Japanese High Command work?

If no one 'dared' to state anything upon return, how did they determine the outcome of a battle? To me (but then again I am a Westerner...), hiding inside the Group has a lot of inherent drawbacks especially in wartime.

Did the High Command (Navy and Army) believe in the often very fanciful claim (group?) reports? How did they ensure relevant supplies etc were forthcoming to various battlefronts? What I mean is that if they believed the Allies had basically been destroyed at some front line, they were bound to make mistakes due to, in the end, totally faulty feed back from their own pilots.

Then again there were a few flamboyant characters both in JAAF/JNAF, but perhaps they were far too few to be really counted?

The Japanese mentality is interesting, but beyond the scope of this site/topic, but I cannot help wondering at what level individual thinking/initiative began. It had to start somewhere, since otherwise the Emperor would have been completely overwhelmed in five seconds flat if he would have had to make every decision at every point in every Japanese life.....

Cheers
Stig