Warbird Information Exchange

Now, are they SURE it isn't from a turtle?

wilson, a man in my dad's u.s. army rifle company command on mindanoa 1945 related a story where filipino guerrillas presented my dad with a severed japanese head after a patrol........ naturally he thanked them for thinking of him, but he declined the "gift" of course!! if any vet's families retain such gastly souvenirs from any war ( & i'm sure they are out their) return them to the proper foreign embassy for a respectable burial / relatives / family closure.

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

In intro, the search for the lost US and Japanese airmen from the attack on Pearl Harbor began in Dec 1966...now approaching 45 years.

The article "Torpedoing Pearl Harbor", MILITARY HISTORY, Dec 2001, details the forty B5N torpedo bombers, the order of their attack, the problems in the approach, drop, and departure, the loss of the five B5N in detail and crash locations, and identified... including the Japanese pilot who was decapitated and whose skull "MAY" have been recovered.

http://japaneseaircraft.multiply.com/ph ... r#photo=31

Another article, "Pearl Harbor's Lost P-36"is about the sole missing USAAF airman from Pearl Harbor...this is on line:

http://flightjournal.com/ME2/dirmod.asp ... DF526DDD7E

Cheers,
David Aiken, a Director: Pearl Harbor History Associates, Inc. http://www.pearlharbor-history.org

Got your PM and sent mine...
Cheers,
David
PearlHarborHistory AT
Hotmail

Great article

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Better is the enemy of Good.

CNN news story night before last said that the dredging was in SouthEast Loch...
thus the headless pilot from AII-356 is the best candidate:

http://japaneseaircraft.multiply.com/ph ... 4#photo=58

http://japaneseaircraft.multiply.com/ph ... 4#photo=39

Now...I am at liberty to reveal the names for these in the above photos...
Their history is told in "Torpedoing Pearl Harbor", MILITARY HISTORY, Dec 2001.

The diver made two dives on KAGA B5N2 AII-356 serial 3178 ... about a week after the attack.
The first was an orientation trip and he found the decapitated pilot...
He cut the harness and the pilot popped to the surface.
Pilot was Taii (Lieutenant) Mimori Suzuki
No film or still camera was present on that first dive.

The "floater" in the movie still is the radioman (gunner) on board:
Nito Hiko Heiso (Petty Officer Second Class) Yoshiharu Machimoto
This film was made during the second dive when the diver located the radioman.
The diver had cut the harness and Machimoto popped to the surface, loosing his boots in the process.
Apparently, the hachimaki headband is still wrapped on his head, or his neckscarf has moved.

The diver missed that third man...it was too murky on the harbor bottom.
The cable was finally installed to recover the aircraft...
The plane bent in two as the plane broke the surface.

The third man was found in the wreckage after they finally raised the plane...
the photo is quite grisly due to the crabs eating the facial features...
Koku Heisocho (Warrant Officer) Tsuneki Morita was the "Observer"/navigator/bombardier

http://japaneseaircraft.multiply.com/ph ... R_-album_4

http://www.criticalpast.com/video/65675 ... ese-attack

Hope this helps,

Cheers,
David Aiken, a Director: Pearl Harbor History Associates, Inc. http://www.pearlharbor-history.org/


pilot: Taii (Lieutenant) Mimori Suzuki

The common spelling is "Mitsumori", yet I was corrected by the late Zenji ABE, who was classmate to SUZUKI...The spelling and pronunciation that the FAMILY used was "Mimori".

PHOTO CREDIT: from the memorial for Lt. Mimori Suzuki at Aoba-ku Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture.
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~un3k-mn/saki-umiwasi.htm

I have personally seen two Japanese skulls in the possession of WW2 vets or their families. The last time I saw one of them in the late 90s, it was still being used as an ashtray by the vet who claimed to have personally “caused the condition” of the skull itself in the PTO (he came back to the same spot later and found the by-then-skeletal remains). He had no qualms about using it as an ashtray and had a deep-seated hatred of the Japanese people which I’m sure he either still has or has carried to his grave. I can’t judge; the man earned the right to feel anyway he wants on the subject, given the stories he told me. The other (badly charred) skull was in a footlocker after the vet had passed, the story there was the skull was from a MG gunner who’d killed several of the vet’s buddies at Iwo, which was remedied with a flamethrower. I offered to contact the Japanese consulate for them to have the remains returned home, but the family declined. They felt it was part of the ‘family history’ no matter how creepy it was. Even the young kids in the family thought nothing odd about it as it’d always been there.

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Life member, 91st BG Memorial Association
Owner, 1944 Willys MB #366014
Former REMF (US Army, O3)

land of the brave home of the free folks. Step right up.

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"I knew the jig was up when I saw the P-51D-20-NA Mustang blue-nosed bastards from Bodney, and by the way the blue was more of a royal blue than an indigo and the inner landing gear interiors were NOT green, over Berlin."