[Arryn]

Originally posted by Lord_Devi:
That's complete crap The japanese couldn't suit up thier ENTIRE air force with 6 foot tall Japenese. Don't believe everything you see on TV - It's possible though that maybe there was some sort of special unit maybe using some foreign design - or something.. that merely required different pilot dimensions. I mean really, other than the size of the cockpit(which were designed by japs), there's no reason to have tall pilots.

I'll dissect your "rebuttal" sentence by sentence:

1. No crap. Check it out for yourself. It's easy enough to do. When you have a documented counter, then come back to me and tell me I'm full of it. Otherwise, be civil and mind your tongue.

2. I never said their whole air force. I said fighter pilots. Ever heard of the "Zero"? (The A6M, to be precise.)

3a. Newsreel footage, shot by the Japanese themselves, along with veterans who are still alive today.

3b. The Japanese did not use foreign designs. At least not until after 1943 or so, and then it was their own heavily-modified (improved) Versions of the German jet and rocket fighters. It's a little appreciated fact in the West that the Japanese had the world's most advanced air force in 1941, even over the Germans.

4. Sure there is. Pride. The Nazi SS originally only accepted tall, blonde, blue-eyed (etc) recruits (from "pedigreed" families). As the war progressed, they had to lower the standards -- a lot. The Japanese wanting tall pilots had to do with the logic of politics rather than the logic of engineering or combat.