What if more fighter aircraft got airborne?

I don't think it would have made a great deal of difference. There was little to no real radio control or discipline available to vector aircraft to hot spots, there was no cohesive, organized defense plan in place, no real serious practice intercepts had been flown in the months before.

Pearl was sort of a vacation tour. The senior staff was more in the dark than Joe Grunt was, a fair number of pilots were recovering from Saturday night drinks. I'd liken the 'defense' of Hawaii as equal to The Marx Bros. meet The Three Stooges @ W.C. Fields' house and Adms. Kimmel and King were very culpable for the sorry state of unpreparedness-Kimmell took the beating and King kept rising in power and rank as the war went on.

The tendency that continued all through the war of sending the oldest, least loved crap equipment to the edges of the fight started before the war with P-26's and P-43's along with a pitiful number of P-40's in the Philippines and early P-40's in Hawaii in small handfuls and the poor souls in the Aleutian Islands throughout the war. I'm pretty sure the Japanese military was more than aware of the capabilities of all the aircraft out on the edges and knew they were easily licked with superior tactics and better disciplined formations and except for a few B-17's. they knew the U.S. had no retaliatory aircraft with anywhere near the range or punch to do any damage to the attacking fleet.

The major reason that CURTISS was kept busy building P-40's was simple. They were in production, were an 'acceptable' fighter, they could be dealt out like potato chips to the Allies on Lend-lease on a 'we don't really want them back' plan who then used them to chip away at the fringes of the enemy as a semi-dangerous swarm of flies that could 'pick off' the occasional enermy aircraft or armor, sort of like very fine sandpaper, it had a grinding effect but was hardly noticeable in small doses.

This discussion has been a great eye opener. Great perspective from all.

The bushido spirit would have probably made them press on even if only one aircraft got through. Right up until the very end of the war (and in a couple of instances years later)the order, and the sociological goal was 'never surrender, it shows weakness' Saving of face above all else has been the guiding tenant and prime directive in Asian society for half a zillion years.

Remember they were amazed that we would expend 50 trucks to save one wounded guy and they would risk 50 guys to save a truck.

A fascinating read is "Flyboys" by James Bradley (author of "Flags of our Fathers.) He goes into considerable depth about the mentality of the Japanese military..the senior officers referred to the enlisted men as "five cent men," because that's what it cost to send a death notice to their family. The whole "Bushido Code/Samurai Spirit" thing was actually fairly recent..the militarists made most of it up in the early 20th century to whip up a sense of nationalism and blind devotion among the ranks. Drifting OT, I understand the current version of Radical Islam followed by the Taliban and Al-Qaida is similar..it only dates back to the late 19th century, when it was concocted by one particularly outspoken cleric.

The book also takes an unvarnished look at America's history, particularly our shameful treatment of Native Americans and Filipinos..not for the purpose of "America bashing," but to give some cultural background of what led us and the Japanese into conflict. The book is not for the faint of heart though, as Bradley details the atrocities committed by the Japanese against POWs and civilians..particularly incidents of cannibalism, which was disturbingly common, especially among troops sent to far-flung battlegrounds and expected to fend for themselves without resupply.

SN

Absolutely!

I can't remember the exact quote, or who said it (a Civil War general maybe?) but it was something along the lines of " it's a good think that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it."

A coiple years ago my wife got me the HBO miniseries "The Pacific" on Blue-Ray, but I still haven't managed to watch it all the way through. I've watched "Band of Brothers" a dozen times and love it, but "The Pacific" is far darker..not unlike the real war.

SN

The Pacific is darker and I just don't like it as much I like the Band of Brothers ... its really not my cup of tea but I do enjoy The Pacific in some degree.