Japan - World War Two

page generated: October 19, 2004

compiled by Allan Magnus

References:

1. "The Final Combat", Mark Higgins, Aeroplane Monthly, June 2001, London
2. Imperial Japanese Navy Aces 1937-45, Osprey Aircraft of the Aces 22, Henry Sakaida, Osprey Pub. Ltd., London 1998
3. Japanese Army Air Force Aces 1937-45, Osprey Aircraft of the Aces #13, Henry Sakaida, Osprey Publishing, London 1997
4. IJNAF Aces List on Compuserve, James L. Perry, Oct. 1996
5. Eagles of the Rising Sun, Keishiro Nagao et al, Aeromaster Decals SP72-04, Miami, Florida 1995
6. Historie 64.sentai, J. Novotny, Plastic Kits Revue 19/1993, Czech Republic 1993
7. Bloody Shambles, Volume 1, The Drift to War and the Fall of Singapore and Volume 2,The Defense of Sumatra and the Fall of Burma , Christopher Shores, Brian Cull & Yasuho Izawa, Grub Street, London 1992
8. Bloody Shambles: Volume 2, The Defense of Sumatra and the Fall of Burma, Christopher Shores, Brian Cull & Yasuho Izawa, Grub Street, London 1993
9. Kawasaki Ki-61 & Ki-100, M. Bily, Modelpress, Czech Republic 1992
10. Famous Aircraft of the World No.27: Type 96 Fighter (A5M), Ichiro Mitsui (ed.), Bunrindo Co.Ltd., Tokyo, Japan March 1991
11. Ki-61, A. Jarski, AJ-Press, Poland
12. Japanese Naval Aces and Units in World War II, Ikuhiko Hata & Yasuho Izawa,Naval Institute Press 1989
13. Winged Samurai: Saburo Sakai and the Zero Fighter Pilots, Henry Sakaida, Champlin Fighter Museum Press, 1985
14. Air Aces, Christopher Shores, Presidio Press, Novato, California 1983
15. A6M Zero in Action: Aircraft No. 59, Shigeru Nohara, Squadron/Signal Publications, Carrollton,Tx 1983
16. Fighter Aces of the USA, Raymond Toliver & Trevor Constable, AERO 1979
17. Japanese Army Fighters Pt.1, William Green & Gordon Swanborough, Janes 1977
18. Japanese Army Fighters Pt.2, William Greene & Gordon Swanborough, Janes 1977
19. Fighter Aces, Raymond Toliver & Trevor Constable, Mcmillan 1965

Japanese Aces:
  Unlike their western bretheren, Japanese aviators did not leave much of 
a paper trail regarding their aerial combat claims. Most western nations 
had set up some form of "official" recognition, whether it be as part of
the record keeping for the unit, or with an official bureau to register 
claims.
  In the China and Nomonhan Wars, and the early part of World War Two, various
units did record individual claims, but this was largely discontinued in the
later years of World War Two, usually with official directives prohibiting 
the practice of recognizing individual claims.
  But, like fighter pilots elsewhere, many pilots did keep personal scores in 
such things like diaries and logs.
  Thus, when it comes to creating a list of Japanese aces, information 
regarding victories is incomplete, and in many cases speculative and based on
personal versus official records.
  Many scholars have recognized the problem with trying to validate claims, and
many have compensated by adjusting total claims to lower values by using a 
percentage, which is often very arbitrary, and sometimes can be as much as 50
percent.
  Therefore the following list must be taken for what it represents, a set of 
claims that contain a combination of pseudo-official and personal claims, often
representing a mixture of confirmed, unconfirmed, probables and damaged claims.