Case Studies in the Achievement of Air Superiority - Air Force ...

8
Air War Against Japan
Alvin D. Coox
Although Japan had been waging major, undeclared hostilities against
China since 1937, it was not until December 1941 that the authorities in
Tokyo launched all-out war with the American-British-Dutch (ABD) powers.
This essay addresses the period between the attack on Pearl Harbor
and Japan’s capitulation in August 1945. The achievement of other than
regional Allied air superiority, however, had to await the seizure of forward
bases and the development of bomber and fighter aircraft able to reach
targets in the distant Japanese homeland. Inasmuch as such capabilities
were not available until 194445, it is that climactic period of the war that
will receive the preponderance of attention. And, since the ultimate unleashing
of the B-29 bomber offensive overshadowed and predated the
introduction of fighters, emphasis on the attainment of Allied air superiority
centers on the consequences of the thrust westward across the Central
Pacific, allowing the B-29 command to be relocated from China to the Marianas
and built up there, and U.S. fighters finally to be based on Iwo Jima.
While other American and Allied air forces broke through the periphery of
the China-Burma theater, the Seventh Air Force and U.S. Navy and U.S.
Marine Corps aviation fought their way through the Phoenix, Ellice, Gilbert,
and Marshall Islands to Palau and the Marianas. The Seventh Air
Force went on to Okinawa and took part in the last campaign against Japan.
As the Allied counteroffensive unfurled and the air war progressed toward
the home islands, Japanese defense planning revealed a frenzied and
largely ad hoc dimension that was exacerbated by fatal qualitative and
quantitative weaknesses. This chapter describes and assesses the course of
ultimate Japanese failure and Allied success during the quest for air superi-
383