Competition between the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy pushed each service toward impressive aviation performance. It also encouraged highly specific comparisons and narrowly optimized capabilities that did not always map onto real combat. Exercises remained simulations because safety rules and artificial constraints separated them from the consequences of battle. Fighting in China supplied a corrective by testing aircraft and doctrine against an enemy in combat. Rivalry accelerated technical development while distorting what designers and operators chose to value.
Chapter · 21:18-24:38
Army-Navy rivalry accelerated design but distorted priorities
Japanese interservice competition drove fighter development while real combat exposed limits that exercises and internal comparisons could not reveal.