Once the tactical surprise that the Japanese COULD build a truely modern and effective fighter wore off, and the tactics to meet it's threat were evolved, the war's figures show that the fighting was pretty even.
Which is not good news for the Japanese, as their opponants are going to out produce them by a huge margin, and are already training 100,000 pilots during the year. Which means the following years figures
are going to show a much less than even result. Which is more or less born out by history.
Exactly, western powers were initially shocked at the Zero's performance. But ultimately, it was a victim of its own success. The Japanese never saw the need to build a replacement aircraft. By the time they did, it was too little, too late. The US, on the other hand, took the lessons learned during that first year and developed tactics that bought them time to produce aircraft that could easily defeat most anything the Japanese threw at them. As Japanese planes became obsolete compared to ours, their pilot attrition grew and their performance decreased as inexperienced pilots took their places. This chain of events culminated in slaughters like the Marianna's Turkey Shoot.
The Japanese went into the war expecting it to be over very quickly and therefore didn't see the need to do much long range strategic planning or even increase the level of pilot training. Unfortunately for them, the US and its allies never abided by that concept and the result was predictable. By the end of 1942, Allied planners had little, if any, doubt in the ultimate defeat of Japan. Time was on our side.
Chez
