When the war in the Pacific started til the end of 1942, it is said the Allies suffered terrible air losses at the hands of the Japanese.
Is this a myth or was the losses more even?
The first and second halves of 1942 in the Pacific War differ in many basic ways, not just air combat. From Dec '41 to June '42 the Japanese were agressively on the offensive over a very wide area. There was much more varied wide ranging air combat against many opponents By the second half of the year much more focus of the war was localized to one smaller campaign: the struggle for Guadalcanal. And the Japanese pretty completely destroyed several of their air opponents in first 1/2 '42: the Dutch, all the units the Brits and US had in PI and DEI, etc.; in general they met the Brits and USAAF relatively less in the second 1/2 of '42 and USN and USMC much more.
So breaking down to 1st 1/2 and 2nd 1/2; the statement is true for 1st 1/2. There's no basic mystery about it, well researched books using both sides loss records have given a consistent picture. We're injecting artificial "uncertainty" to go back to quoting claims, or to point out that claims don't agree with recorded losses of the other side, pardon me: duh. Read Shores "Bloody Shambles", 2 vols all laid out day by day each sub theater: consistent Japanese fighter dominance in the Japanese offensives of 1942. Web links to wartime claims don't refute that book IMHO, are not a serious response to it.
Info from that book quoting an earlier post about Feb '42:
"As long as analyzing Feb '42, 24 of those P-40's were downed in the air by Japanese fighters (all Navy, all A6M, no loss in one engagement v. JAAF Nates, and 2 losses were to bomber defensive fire, rest to enemy a/c on the ground or aboard ship). In turn the P-40's downed 2 A6M's and a Ki-27 for sure; they claimed 15 A6M's and 4 Ki-27's among Japanese fighters"
[24:3 based on losses, that's pretty dominant]
A little later, not in Bloody Shambles but comparing "Pacific Sweep" by Rust to "Winged Samurai" by Sakaida, P-39's spring 1942 in New Guinea:
"stats from Apr 30-June 1 '42, 45 e/a claimed, 37 of them Zeroes, for 26 P-39's (13 pilots) lost in air combat. The Tainan Kokutai lost 11 pilots in this period, w/ the 8th the only Allied fighter unit it faced after May 3..The JNAF didn't use parachutes in this period but still lost more planes than pilots in other known cases; I've never seen a comprehensive accounting of this period though. Anyway ball park of 2:1 against the P-39's in planes..[though] close to even in pilots...The USAAF P-40's defending Darwin same period also went ~1:2 v. A6M's [49th FG v 3rd Kokutai compare AJ Press "3rd/202nd Kokutai" and Rust]. The RAAF P-40's at Port Moresby before the P-39's lost 12 pilots while causing the loss of 3 A6M pilots but were often heavily outnumbered which the US units generally weren't."
The important exceptions to Japanese fighter dominance 1st half '42:
-AVG P-40's even by mid 1942 established a clear ascendancy over the Japanese Army fighters it faced, mainly Ki-27 Nates but increasingly Ki-43 Oscars. Something like 3:1 in its favor, fighter-fighter, per recorded losses of each side ignoring each side's claims. See Dan Ford "The Flying Tigers"
-USN/USMC fighters didn't come out far behind Japanese fighters even in their initial clashes of 1st half '42 (Wake, US carrier raids, Coral Sea, Midway); ahead if we count just F4F's, though not if we include F2A Buffaloes at Midway. See Lundstrom "The First Team"
A lot of the second half of '42, in strategic importance, was Guadalcanal. There again USN/MC F4F's and Zeroes downed each other in about equal numbers. See Lundstrom's "The First Team and the Guadalcanal Campaign" and Frank "Guadalcanal" both based on each side's records. The rest of 2nd half '42 was Burma where the JAAF still tended to have the upper hand (Shores "Air War for Burma"), limited fighting in New Guinea and China; in a few Aleutians combats US P-38's didn't consistently best *float* Zeroes according to loss records, but the P-38 and its use were immature. Anyway the key situation at Guadalcanal featured approximate parity in fighter air combat losses; heavier Japanese losses in fighter *pilots* and that situation obviously would lead to disaster eventually against a hugely larger industrial power than Japan. But consistent defeat for Japanese Navy fighters, fighter-fighter, in planes, according to each side's loss records, came about over the course of 1943 not in 1942.
Joe