Did the Japanese Have Escort Carriers?

IIRC The Japanese Army ran a couple of former cargo hulls with decks laid on and aircraft for convoy escort. Most aircraft were flown down to the various battlefronts and there were sometimes serious losses on the way because of a lack of air-sea rescue resources.

Bill Shuey

You may want to get a copy of "Shattered Sword" which covers the Japanese Navy up to the battle of Midway. It covers how their carriers worked and as such the lack of any sort of escort carriers in the US/ UK sense of the term.

IIRC most Japanese aircraft other than some trainers and shipboard artillery spotters had sufficient range for self-deployment (the Zero had a range of 1200-1300 miles, more that suitable for island to island staging.)

Cookie Sewell