Says it all. In a little under a year of attacks, the Japanese only brought down 80. The USAF probably lost 2x that number to operational accidents.
In short, the Japanese really didn't have anything that could go toe to toe with a formation of B29s. The real question would be, "What Japanese aircraft could attack a B29 formation with reasonable chance of success and survival?". The answer is pretty much none. Maybe the Ki100, but it's chances of survival were not particularly good due to closing speeds vs firepower. B29 was a tough bird to catch and knock down without getting riddled in a piston engined aircraft.
Really wasn't anything out there that could do the job until the Mig 15.
MiG 15 had of course superior speed and altitude, but did they bring down a lot of Superfortresses?
BTW, proportionally seen a lot of B-29s were lost to fighter attacks at night, the Navy's J1N1-S
Gekkos and of course Ki-45 'Nicks' being very succesful.
An extract from Osprey's Aviation Elite Units #5 "B-29 hunters of the JAAF":
"At 1616 hours on 15 June, the first of the 58th Bombardement Wing's 68 B-29s took to the air from the wing's bases at Chengdu. Each aircraft carried a payload of only two tons for the mission, which saw the 58th targeting steel factories at Yawata, on the northern coast of Kyushu Island. Since the operation was very long-range, and fuel conservation was critical, it had been decided that each aircraft would make its own way to the target rather than fly in massed formations. Altitude would be between 8,500 and 11,000 ft.
If the Americans were expecting the raid to be a surprise, they were mistaken, for Japanese army observers in China were quick to report the unusual air activity they had detected to the Western Air Defence Command in Fukuoka, on the Japanese mainland. Early-warning radar on Cheju Island, off the coast of Korea in the East China Sea, had picked up large numbers of aircraft.
Lieutenant Tom Friedman, flying with the 40th Bombardement Group as a radar counter-measures technician, listened on his equipment for signs of Japanese radar. A strong whining signal through his analyser told him they were being 'painted': 'We had been detected well back of the Chinese coast, and several hours from the target. As we neared the coast other signals came in and increased in strength. It was an eerie feeling to know that far below, our every move was being carefully watched on scopes and plotting boards.'
The Japanese issued orders to scramble. That honour fell to the 4th
Sentai, based at Ozuki airfield in western Honshu, and it would be the first unit to engage the Superfortresses over Japan. The 4th
Sentai had briefly taken part in the invasion of the Philippines at the beginning of the war, and in January 1942 had returned back to Ozuki for home defence duties over northern Kyushu.
The 4th was equipped with the twin-engined Kawasaki Ki-45
Toryu ('Dragon Slayer'). Codenamed 'Nick', the aircraft had been designed as a long-ranged fighter, but had failed to live up to expectations. However, it excelled in the ground-attack and nightfighter roles, the latter boasting a service ceiling of 10,000 m (32,810 ft) and a maximum speed of 560 kmh at 6000 m (350 mph at 19,685 ft). At this stage only eight aircraft had been converted for nightfighting, two carrying the conventional armaments of 13 mm and 20 mm guns, and six equipped with a 37 mm cannon.
Expecting the enemy to attack under the cover of darkness, the unit began training its pilots in the specialised skills of nightfighting. Of its 40 pilots, only 25 were qualified at night, and most of these had completed more than 500 hours of flight training.
To work out its tactics, the unit used a captured B-17E taken at Bandung, Java, in early 1942. Attacking the target head-on and from above was the method decided on, and aside from practising with the Flying Fortress, the unit also employed towed target banners as pilots familiarised themselves with performing co-ordinated attacks in conjunction with ground searchlight units.
Meanwhile, as the Superfortresses lumbered towards Yamata, the 4th Sentai scrambled 24 'Nicks' in flights of four aircraft. It did not matter that many of the pilots had completed only half their nightfighting training – they were thrown into combat along with the veterans. They were in for a shock. To see the massive B-29 for the first time would have been a horrific experience for any home defence pilot. In his memoir, 1st Lieutenant Isamu Kashiide recorded his first impression of the mighty aircraft:
'I was flying over the industrial area of northern Kyushu. Our unit commander Captain Masaji Kobayashi gave the order "enemy planes invading an important area! Every flight attack! At the same time, ground searchlights in the area lit up the sky.
'Finally, I sighted an enemy four-engined bomber. I was scared! It was known that the B-29 was a huge plane, but when I saw my opponent it was much larger than I had expected. There was no question that when compared with the B-17, the B-29 was indeed the "Superfortress"! The figure that appeared in the searchlight made me think of a great whale in the ocean, I was just astounded by its size.'Sixty-two B-29s arrived at their destination, and at 2338 hours (China time) they began dropping their 500-lb GP (general purpose) bombs. Due to 5/10ths cloud cover and a blacout over Yawata, only 15 Superfortresses bombed visually, while others dropped by radar – only one bomb landed on the intended target. Meanwhile, bomber crewmen reported that enemy attacks were weak, with only 12 passes being made within 500 yards. The B-29 gunners made no claims.
However, ineffective as the Japanese tactics might have seemed, the Americans did not return home unscathed, with
Limber Dragon (No 42-6230) of the 468th Bombardement Group becoming the first B-29 shot down over Japan. The succesful pilot was Warrant Officer Sadamitsu Kimura, who caught the Superfortress in the searchlights from below and started to attack.
'I approached it to within 20 or 30 meters', he recounted in the July 1944 edition of aviation magazine Koku Shonen (flying youth). 'Suddenly, everything became white because of the reflected light off the big fuselage of the enemy plane, which filled my gunsight. It started to climb in fear of being rammed by me. I did not hesitate! I started to fire, and I could clearly tell that I hit it. The nose came down slowly and it started to spin. I saw one big piece of the dorsal fin come off.'
The 58th Bombardement Wing lost a total of seven B-29s on the mission. Three were shot down and four were operational losses. Flak damaged six others. In their first nightfighting sortie, which lasted two hours, the pilots of the 4th
Sentai claimed six B-29s shot down and three damaged – over-enthusiasm which can be put down to a combination of darkness and confusion. Nevertheless, 28-year-old Sadamitsu Kimura was Japan's hero of the night. He claimed to have shot down two B-29s, and for his feats of courage he was awarded the Bukosho on 3 July 1944."