Broken Wings of the Samurai: The Destruction of the Japanese Airforce

Description

Overview: By the middle of 1945 the Second World War was in its final stages and the substance of Japan had been gutted. The Japanese Homeland was at the mercy of air raids and inevitable invasion and in the tradition of bushido, some military leaders were dedicated to fight to the very end to defend their Emperor and country. In this endeavour, nearly 11,000 aircraft were available for kamikaze crash dives. By the end of June 1945, thousands of suicide or special-attack aircraft had been converted for this purpose from 4,800 army and about 5,900 navy fighters, bombers, trainers, and reconnaissance aircraft that had survived the air battles. An additional 2,500 were expected to be converted for the kamikaze mission by late summer of that year. It was this strength of surviving aircraft that the occupying forces found when they arrived on Japanese soil. Of those thousands of aircraft, only a few remain today to stand as testimony of this once powerful air armada. Interest in these surviving aircraft soon vanished as the world focused on peaceful objectives, and many were scrapped before their true value was recognised. Others found their way to air museums. These survivors are listed and their locations given as a concluding chapter for this book. Many rare photographs show the aircraft as the arriving Occupation Forces found them, and illustrate in detail the destruction that followed. A photograph of each aircraft that survived is included.