Anyone have a historical watch?

A dedication to 西沢広義 Hiroyoshi Nishizawa

Real Kamikaze Hachimaki and it doesn't say "Kamikaze"

Actual Japanese Imperial Navy Pilot Watches donated and displayed in the memorial museum
Including what looks like navigation maps and navigation kit. No detailed photos of the navigation kit.
It is great to see Seikosha Karafu navigational chronographs on display.

@Omegafanman

His younger pictures doesn't show any physical problems. By Japanese standards, he is exceptionally handsome.
He died at the old age of just 24. He may have been the best fighter pilot in the Pacific. Too bad he's working for an idiot
Emperor and sadistic Hideki Tojo.

@Omegafanman, You were right, he doesn't seem to have been in great health.
Seems he also didn't have a friendly attitude, but we can see that from the pictures.



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Below is another person of that Sino-Japanese War period with what looked like a big watch.

If you are interested in what it was like to be a Japanese Navy Mitsubishi Zero Fighter Pilot.
It has English Subtitles. Surprisingly, the pilots had to be incredibly skilled pilots to get within
just 50 yards/meters to the front quarter of the opponents aircraft to bring it down. Shooting
a USAAF aircraft from other locations was less effective because of the armor and self sealing tanks.
Flying at 300 mph and intercepting a plane's nose to fire upon the unarmored part of the plane
must have been crazy difficult at closing speeds that could cause head on collisions in split seconds
or opening yourself to counter-attack.

One story about seeing the P-38 for the first time is almost humorous as
he mistook them for light bombers which he should easily have defeated. It turned out he found
himself in a wasps nest with 6 incredibly maneuverable "bombers". He barely got out alive and
later discovered they were interceptors, which he couldn't hit because the centers of the planes
was a "big hole".


To bring down a B-29 bomber, a pilot would have to fly straight down at the nose of the B-29 at 90 degree angle at 300-400 mph on a collision course, shoot as soon as the opponent is visible which meant less than 50 meters, then gradually pull out of the dive after falling 4000 meters just missing the T-bone hit from the bomber to make sure the wings didn't come off the zero and the pilot doesn't black out.

Captain Ryoichi Yamada seems to be the only person in this 343 Air Group that has a big pilot watch.
It is possible he was issued his watch before the formation of the 343 Air Group. The below
picture is from 1944 when he is part of the "Genda's Blade". These are the most elite fighter
pilots at the time. The were the first to get the Kawanashi "George" that was superior to the Zero.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kawanishi_N1K





This is the identification card for his war plane. Kawanishi N1K2-J Shiden Kai Indentification 343-36


He would go on to become a Jet Fighter Pilot and member of the acrobatics team that put on a display at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

After holding many more important positions, in August 1979, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the Air Self-Defense Force (15th), the highest post in the uniformed group.

https://gendai.media/articles/-/89450?page=8

I wish I knew, it was likely not another big pilot 😀

If I can see the hands on a big pilot and the dial is white, I assume it is a Longines.
Otherwise, we can't tell if it is the crystal reflecting or if the dial is really white.
Below Yamada's watch, too bad I can't tell what it is, but it is huge.




Minoru Genda, himself was wearing a smaller watch. I think Seikosha were not issued to the 343 AG pilots.
Leader Minoru Genda. Black Dial smaller watch.

Inside cover comparison between Longines Wittnauer Weems 20853-296 a.k.a. #946 and 20853-15 a.k.a. #832

#960

By now, you must be wondering why did the Imperial Japanese Navy have Weems watches?

Prior to 1937 and maybe even up until 1941, P.V.H. Weems was in correspondence with the Imperial Japanese Navy.
What is really striking is that P.V.H. Weems was not the first to invent the Aerial Celestial Navigation system, but he was the first to complete it.

The original work for Aerial Navigation was pioneered by the Japanese and improved/completed by Weems according to correspondence between Weems and a Japanese person that until I get the actual correspondences, I won't know who it was. The source is the Smithsonian Institute.






What is also interesting is that IJN also bought and improved on several Navigational instruments from the US. On page 101 you can see that Japan bought 60 A-6 bubble sextants which were critical for the Weems navigation system along with the Celestial Tables. These may have been necessary for the long distance over water navigation to find Pearl Harbor.






Another interesting early 20th century navigation computer necessary for Aviation Navigation was the Bygrave.


Its purpose was to simplify trigonometry calculations.


This is Japanese military version. Note: It has Tokyo Naval Base markings on it.


@Andy_timeman @Ubik @Omegafanman @noelekal

Thank you Omegafanman. Always nice to know someone is enjoying the information as much as I am.
Here's a "bonus". Almost know one knows about these

This is a scaled artist rendition of an I-400 class Imperial Japanese Navy submarine. It's huge, even the British and American's
had never seen anything like it.



Here's where it gets interesting. This is a photo of the upper deck hatch.














USN captured three of the I-400 submarines.



The Launch Ramp



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-400-class_submarine

Too bad, the correspondance doesn't look like it has been scanned yet.

This is further information that Japan was learning navigation from the USA.

Edwin Link was the co-inventor of the Celestial Navigation Trainer developed with P.V.H. Weems.


From his personal papers we know that Japan military bought several of his Link Trainers.

This is just a little display case. The medals are from a Sino-Japanese War estate. The medals date about 1937-1940. The three left medals were often awarded to pilots with outstanding military service. The first from the left is the highest military award given to a pilot, "The Order of the Golden Kite". A kite is a type of hawk found in Japan. This order was awarded from 1890 to 1945. I was abolished by the United States Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces. The next medal is "The Order of The Rising Sun". Followed by "The Order of The Sacred Treasure", the China Incident medal for the Sino-Japanese war, the medal for the continuation of the imperial year 2600 (1940). Japan's monarchy was founded about 600 B.C. The last medal was a bit unexpected, it is Japan's Red Cross awarded for contributing to saving lives.

The insignias are obviously Imperial Japanese Navy. Everyone reading here probably knows what these mean.



Thanks for looking.

For reference


Medals are similar to these original estate medals.

This person may have shot down Pappy Boyington.
He is wearing a big pilot watch. Most likely a Seikosha issued in 1941. Solved this mystery.

Another tangent, but very interesting Spy story.


https://www.usni.org/magazines/nava...ecember/jump-starting-japanese-naval-aviation

And about Yamamoto and Pearl Harbour
https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2009/december/how-japanese-did-it