Yamamoto Betty relic

[barnbstormer]

This was a presentation gift to a well-known aviation artist. Does anybody know of more of these? How many were matted? It is a piece of the aluminum skin of Admiral Yamamoto's Betty wreck that is approx. 1 1/8" x 1 3/4" nicely matted with a photo of the wreck. I did a "google" search but did not find any mention.

[APG85]

Pretty neat. Any pictures of the wreck in its current state?

[svengi]

If it's genuine, what a terrible thing to do to such a significant historical site, destroying it one square inch at a time.

[Steve Nelson]

I read a book about the Yamamoto attack some years back, which said that the crash site was clear-cut by logging operations back in the 80s or 90s, and the loggers just pile up the remaining wreckage off to one side. I've read that the only thing actually "officially" recovered from the site was a wing panel that's in a Japanese museum. I'm sure the wreck was pretty heavily soveniered over the years..there's probably not a lot left at the original crash site.

SN

[barnbstormer]

Well, "I" certainly had nothing to do with disturbing a historical site or wreck, as it came to me "third-hand." When I DID google it, I found several references mentioning that the site was eventually protected by the local govt, and souvenir and relic hunting, stopped. But it is hard to find dates on when this occurred. I've had this for a long time, and the artist had it for quite a while, before that..I did notice,that in some of the very earlist photos of the wreck site, that the mostly "bare" rudder was still attached, and in later photos, it is completely missing.

[P51Mstg]

Now that is really cool.... Obviously a wreck/historical site I'll never get to see. Shame they clear cut the area, of course that probably made it a but more accessabile for tourists and souvineer hunters. I'm sure the jungle recovers very fast. But I'd say its impossible to protect it from the souvineer hunters.

Mark H