Relic pieces of Mitsubishi A6M Zero

[Bob Hudson]

The artifacts shown in this video were a vet bringback and I've spent a lot of time to figure out what they are. My best guesses are: fuselage skin, longitudinal wing stringer, thick pieces from a propeller or prop spinner, and one I have no idea about.

 

Making this video introduced me to aotake and the debates about that.

 

Click to play:

 

 

[Bob Hudson]

These are not big pieces:

 

[Jack the Collector]

You always know how to get me to say wow very cool stuff Bob!

[Mr.Jerry]

Another well done and informative video!

[Fortunes Of War]

Hi Bob-

     I really enjoyed the video!  ...No way I can say "aotake" ten times fast!

[Bob Hudson]

This was in the same batch as the metal artifacts - I wonder if the back side was coated aotake?

 

 

[Eric Queen]

Bob,

 

This is incredibly difficult (for me) to read. The writing (if you can call it that) is terrible and the stamps are smudged.

What (I think) I can make out is that whatever this was attached to came out of the Army Avionics Workshop ( 1 = 陸軍航空廠 出) and was going somewhere in Okinawa ( 3 = 沖縄 ). Below Okinawa (4) is the name of the city (市) which I cannot read and the numbers to the left of it look like 19023. The first character of the other set of stamps I think could be Roku ( 2 = 轆) which is a pulley but would really need to be able to read the other two below it (white box) to know for sure. 

 

Sorry, wish I could do better. Just not legible enough for me to read but I am sure there are others who can. 

 

 

 

[Rod]

台湾

Quote

and the numbers to the left of it look like 19023

Further to Eric's great information. I think 台 is for 台湾 Taiwan (Daiwan) so 台19023 is the code number for the 5th Field Air Repair Depot, which was based on Taiwan to maintain training aircraft. Specialized and highly trained, maintenance units often provided detachments as needed elsewhere. 

[Bob Hudson]

On 5/24/2021 at 10:05 AM, Rod said:

台湾

Further to Eric's great information. I think 台 is for 台湾 Taiwan (Daiwan) so 台19023 is the code number for the 5th Field Air Repair Depot, which was based on Taiwan to maintain training aircraft. Specialized and highly trained, maintenance units often provided detachments as needed elsewhere. 

 

Thanks to both of you!

[Fortunes Of War]

Awesome information, Eric and Rod!

[Bob Hudson]

On 5/15/2021 at 9:29 AM, Eric Queen said:

Sorry, wish I could do better.

 

That is more info than I could ever have expected - thanks once again. Today I found another of these paper tags with much less text:

 

[Rod]

This may help with your first tag Bob. I think it was meant to identify an aircraft part that was shipped to Okinawa. This is conjecture based on the format used to address military postcards. In other words, the right side is the address of the recipient, middle in your case seems to identify the part but I can't decipher it. And the left side may be the sender. 

 

I attached a postcard that was sent to the 16th Division Disease Prevention and Water Supply Unit in the Philippines from Kyoto City to show the similarity. 

 

Bob's first tag:

Right to Left: 

Sent to?

Row 1: 沖縄 Okinawa, unknown

Row 2: 台19023部隊 - 5th Field Air Repair Depot

Item?

Row 3: unidentified stamped characters 第四九九 - 499 is an ordinal number (i.e., in a series) so perhaps a part number

Row 4: scratched out, illegible to me 一五一一 = 1511

From?

Row 5: 265大隊 (Daitai - Battalion) 陸軍航空廠 Army Air Depot, 出 originating 

 

Second tag:

球一ノ一 Sphere, ball, bullet, lens, one ノone