ORIGINAL: Yamato hugger
http://www.combinedfleet.com/ijnaf.htm
"Shortening the amount of training was tried and, by the last year of the war, Japanese pilots were being pushed into combat missions with as little as 100 hours of flight time."
But your statement of the Japs getting only 50 to 70 hours is in error. "As little as 100 hours" doesnt mean they ALL only got 100 hours either.
You should have quoted the entire statement:
"Shortening the amount of training was tried and, by the last year of the war, Japanese pilots were being pushed into combat missions with as little as 100 hours of flight time. (By contrast, American pilots at that stage of the war[1944] would have had more than 300 hours of flight time.) When these pilots entered combat they were terrified novices, easy marks for American pilots. Even rookie American pilots were better off than this. As for experienced Japanese pilots, those who were still alive were also gradually being killed off in combat. Nor did a Japanese student pilot have to die in combat--many of them died in flying accidents, particularly when they were pushed into the cockpits of fast, unforgiving fighters. Flying accidents and training fatalities were common enough in the continental United States, but anecdotes give the impression that they were much more common in Japan. "
Your source says pretty much exactly what I said. So whatever the number of hours, the resultant product was apparently the same..., "terrified novices", "easy marks", "cannon fodder"; nothing resembling even the level 30's you suggested.
