Warbird Information Exchange

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That's a photo of "Fuji" from McHale's Navy when they went on a PBJ bombing mission.

Actually I've seen that photo before on the WIX with the full story behind it.

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That photo is Marine Corps F4U's escorting PBJ-1's over the Philipines. The mission was a suprise attack on the 100th Divisionn HQ of the Japanese Army. The man in question was a Japanese prisoner of war who was providing information to the air strike coordinator, Maj Mortimer Jordan. Sgt. 1st Class Charles Imai was a USMC interpreter, who relayed information to Major Jordan and his pilots. Image is from the Emil Buehler Library from Pensacola

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Andrew King
Air Museum Director with no Museum to Direct
Open to Suggestions

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Great pics! I've seen them many times. Real.
Jerry

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"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

P-61's, BEAUFIGHTER was a taildragger with a single vertical fin and upward canted stabilizers.

The gentleman in question is/was 2nd Lt. Minoru Wada who was an intellegence officer in the 100th Japanese Division Headquarters in Mindanao and he realized his heart wasn't in fighting the war. The raid took place within a week of the wars end. Afterwards Lt. Wada went under cover because of embarrassment for turning on Japan and no one really will say where he wound up. (all veddy hush-hush dontchaknow).

There's a good article on Wada and the mission in the current (Aug 2012) issue of FLIGHT JOURNAL

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

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Possibly war weary B-25's being stripped, I believe I see a nose wheel/strut on the lefter (?) of the subjects but it's a typically poor photo shot with a K-24 or a box BROWNIE with fixed focus and the photographer was trying to pan, it's not your glasses, the nausea will subside

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

In Japan, if you surrendered, you were counted as dead back home. Those Japanese that did surrender ended up being quite likely to cooperate with their captors. It would be interesting to know what happened to this individual.

The magazine story only says that the Lt. went into an early version of witness protection and that's ALL the gummint would say about it or him. An older gentlman with the same name passed in Hawai'i a few years ago.

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-