20. The Japanese altered their pilot training programs
In the wake of the defeat at Midway, the Japanese faced an immediate and pressing problem. There had been a shortage of pilots before the battle. Midway made it worse. It also removed many of the more experienced pilots. The Japanese responded to the crisis by altering its training programs for pilots. They were converted to abbreviated schedules. After June 1942, Japanese pilots assigned to the fleet had fewer hours in the air, less training in combat tactics and conditions, and few experienced aviators to guide them. From Midway on, the combat capability of Japanese carrier pilots and the units in which they flew degraded.
The Japanese also changed the training for the ship’s crews, and introduced measures designed to prevent the disastrous fires and secondary explosions which gutted the four carriers lost at Midway. The effectiveness of the training they received was questionable, several more Japanese carriers were lost during the war, racked with explosions and crippled by raging fires. The carrier Taiho, designed to be survivable, and with a crew trained in damage control techniques, sank after being hit by a single submarine-launched torpedo (USS Albacore). Its loss was entirely the result of poor damage control by the Japanese officers and crew.