[Kakurin]

Originally Posted by JokerD

The 2nd part of it is the ability to put pilots in those planes. By the mid/end of the war, both the quality and quantity of the Japanese pilots declined to next to nothing. An example was those kamikaze pilots were just trained in the basics of keeping the plane in the air and pointing it in the direction they wanted to go (into an enemy warship) even navigation was not taught which was why they had a senior pilot guide them to the enemy fleet (the senior pilot needed to come back to lead the next batch) Sure they had experienced and deadly pilots left but replacement became a serious problem.

Pilots was a serious problem. The Japanese made life difficult for themselves by artificially restricting their pilot output prior to the war. Some of their measures were more meant to wash out recruits, rather than actually assess the true abilities of a pilot. Moreover they were very indifferent to the human capital aspect. Whereas the Americans would rotate out experienced pilots, promote them to squadron leaders or use as teaching personnel, the Japanese simply left their pilots on their own until they died. So, the experience of the veteren airmen were not passed on to the young ones in training and the effectiveness of Japanese aviation declined from late 1942 onward.

The Japanese spent most of 1943 and early 1944 rebuilding their aviation corps, that had taken a severe hit in the meatgrinder over the Solomons, which was then decimated at Phillippine Sea. Afterwards the remaining carriers (among them Zuikaku) were practically useless and sent out there as decoys during Leyte Gulf.

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Having most of their skilled pilots on Akagi and Kaga, along with their deck crews took care of the first part of the gutting of the naval air groups.

While losing the experienced deck crews was a blow, the airmen losses amounted to less than a quarter of the total embarked personnel at Midway. Akagi's pilot losses were 7 and Kaga's 21. Total losses of the carrier air personnel amounted to 110, most of them from Hiryū.

Originally Posted by Estavali

Whether Pearl Harbor had worked or not, I think another factor to be considered is whether the Japanese would be able to hold onto their newly-acquired territory. The inability to win the hearts (or at least co-operation) of its new subjects means it would have to worry about sabotage and civil unrest, both which would test the fidelity of its defenses. Effort and resources that could have be directed towards the enemy without would be wasted on flushing out those within.

I don't have much knowledge on this, but I think unlike the quagmire in China resistance in the newly conquered areas wasn't all too significant for most of the war. In the Dutch East Indies for example Sukarno, who would become the first president of Indonesia, worked with the Japanese to the very end. In Burma people like Aung San supported the Japanese in the first couple of years, before becoming disillusioned with Japanese promises, in addition to the changing fortunes of the war.