Okay, I thought I was going to get verbally ganged on here for my comment, 
. I was always under the impression the P38 came out about the time most of the more experienced sticks of the Japanese forces were long since fish food. I stand corrected. 
No worries.
For some reason I think it's easy to think of the 38 arriving later in the war than it did (at least I have to remind myself to the contrary). But at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor the USAAF had 69 P-38's in it's inventory (D&E models). The first combat victory for the 38 was in the Aleutians in early August 1942.
