Abstract
The astoundingly rapid successes of Japan's army and navy when unleashed against British and American forces in the Far East in December 1941 has fostered the legend that Westerners totally underestimated Japanese technical proficiency in the design, manufacture and employment of modern weaponry - a legend that provides comfort both for those attempting to explain the achievements of Japanese manufacturing industry since 1945 and for those enamoured of the view that military hierarchies have a natural disposition towards ignorance and smugness. In particular it was the quality of Japanese aircraft that is said to have most taken the Allies by surprise and to have occasioned their most resounding defeats. This article will attempt to show that Western depreciation of Japan's air strength was not entirely unjustified, and that the contribution of Japanese aviation to the conquest of Malaya, Burma and the Philippines was on the whole more apparent than substantial.
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