Why would you want a pilot who will just die early ?
For kamikaze, maybe... or could it be that they need enough cannon fodders to absorb enemy gunfire, though it would be wasting resources and war materials.
For kamikaze, maybe... or could it be that they need enough cannon fodders to absorb enemy gunfire, though it would be wasting resources and war materials.
With crazy standards such as this, no wonder they had a hard time replacing pilots.
Skilled pilots were used to guide the kamikaze squadrons (pratically made of fresh recruits) into the fray.
The brunt of the veteran IJN pilots died long before the Japanese decided to resort to kamikaze attacks (Coral Sea, Midway, Guadacanal), and the fact that they were kept on the battlefield until they died (Japanese squads were ordered to fight till the last man, since they believed it would help boosting their pilots morale) made training of new pilots more and more difficult, since they were pratically losing many potential flight instructors, and it didn't helped the fact Japanese were resorting to put their diminishing supply of instructors on the battlefield as the situation worsened.
Was this... was this for real? I just can't believe this shit.
I want to think it isn't, and yet it also seems so in character for the Japanese military of that era...
That said dying young honestly doesn't mean much with regards to a World War II fighter pilot's potential career. Tons of high scoring aces died long before they even hit 25 and anyone over thirty was considered ancient. In fact it tended to be the high scorers that often died young since they tended to also be the most aggressive and risk taking pilots.
Showa 11 (1936)
Kasumigaura Air ForceThe final test is:
Hand reading and phrenology by a master from ToudaiYou expect me to accept this!?After passing many testsYou have all done great in the training until this dayWe finally have 36 peoples left out of the 1500 candidates who entered for the testFailedPilot trainees!oh, and you won't get marriedAnd learned the techniques from trainer "Number 1 dive bomber" Fukunaga and "Torpedo God" Murata who competes as the top two trainers in EnojimaThe last selection... I wonder how difficult it would beAah, this kid will die early
maybeThe last trialWe will close that to 26 peoples in the next selectionOkay, failed!Sensei, would you please!?*CLANG**Fwee*
