What were Japanese warplanes in World War 2?

Answer 1

Japanese Aviation Technology was far more advanced than the United States Military understood, despite battle reports from the American Volunteer Group fighting for Nationalist Chinese. The AVG made early reports reguarding the A6M2 Zero fighter and its abilities in combat.

Japanese Aircraft design was guided by the nature of the environment in which it was designed to operate. Long ranges over vast areas of ocean required large fuel tanks, which required lightweight designs. Bombers were essentially strategic in all respects except payload and few if any allied aircraft could equal them in the early stages of the war. Japanese fighter aircraft were built to the same specifications, and were capable of great range and performance. No allied aircraft could match them in these areas for the first few years of combat.Japanese pilots were trained in an extensive and brutal manner over a period of years. They were exceptional and virtually unmatched in skill and training anywhere in the world. However, their numbers were small...very small, and the Japanese had no reserves to speak of. Once the prime aircrews were lost to various disasters there became a huge void in skilled combat pilots. No matter the number of aircraft produced after these losses, or the level of superiority in technology, the undertrained replacement aircrews could not hope to cope with over-whelming numbers of highly trained and motivated allied aircrews who flew ever increasingly superior aircraft. The situation for Japan was hopeless against the industrial might of the United States.