>>63810323
The zero was a very good fighter and in the early days its pilots were very experienced and its opponents were not, as soon as the allies developed counter tactics, like head ons or the thach weave, or just booming and zooming with the more modern fighters like the hellcats, p-38s and 47s that were just way more powerful, then it turned into a turkey shoot. The japs could never build a better fighter at scale and they totally failed to train pilots at scale so once the really good generation was ate up in 1943 they never stood a chance.