Mitsubishi J2M Japan's Best "Naval" Fighter?

Comments · 576

• GR

  @GregsAirplanesandAutomobiles · 1 year ago · pinned

  Please support this channel: <a href="https://www.patreon.com/GregsAirplanesandAutomobiles">https://www.patreon.com/GregsAirplanesandAutomobiles</a> &nbsp; <br>Paypal: mistydawne2010@<a href="http://yahoo.com/">yahoo.com</a><br>Mugs and Mouse Pad:<br><br><a href="https://www.zazzle.com/mitsubishi_j2m3_raiden_airplane_mug-256532152663693838">https://www.zazzle.com/mitsubishi_j2m3_raiden_airplane_mug-256532152663693838</a><br><br><a href="https://www.zazzle.com/mitsubishi_j2m3_raiden_airplane_mug-256918976719289266">https://www.zazzle.com/mitsubishi_j2m3_raiden_airplane_mug-256918976719289266</a><br><br><a href="https://www.zazzle.com/mitsubishi_j2m3_raiden_two_tone_coffee_mug-256809341337937547">https://www.zazzle.com/mitsubishi_j2m3_raiden_two_tone_coffee_mug-256809341337937547</a><br><br><a href="https://www.zazzle.com/mitsubishi_j2m3_raiden_two_tone_coffee_mug-256809341337937547">https://www.zazzle.com/mitsubishi_j2m3_raiden_two_tone_coffee_mug-256809341337937547</a><br><br><a href="https://www.zazzle.com/mitsubishi_j2m3_raiden_airplane_mousepad-256666198993739742">https://www.zazzle.com/mitsubishi_j2m3_raiden_airplane_mousepad-256666198993739742</a>

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• JI

  @jiyushugi1085 · 1 year ago

  Hi Greg, I&apos;m a professional translator of Japanese (and a retired Pt. 135 airline pilot). I do a lot of translations for Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Yamaha Motor, Honda, etc. I&apos;ve also translated some WWII books from Japanese into English (&apos;The Miraculous Torpedo Squadron&apos; the autobiography of Juzo Mori and &apos;Kaiten Special Attack Group&apos; the autobiography of Yutaka Yokota.) Be glad to help you out with some translations.<br>And thanks for another great video!

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• RI

  @Riccardo_Silva · 1 year ago

  Forty five years ago it was difficult, for a (then) young italian like me, to find japanese model kits other than the Zero and a few others. Then, i realized that putting the wings and the tail surfaces of a Zero on a Buffalo fuselage, and a LOT of putty, could give me a fairly good stand-in Raiden model, albeit a bit off- scale, until some real good ones could reach my country. I still must have that Frankenplane somewhere....

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• JE

  @jeffreychen1191 · 1 year ago

  Awhile ago in Taiwan a documentary was released about how Taiwanese teenagers during the war went to Japan to join so called &quot;half work half study&quot; apprenticeship programs to build the J2M in promise of earning a certification. They witnessed the factory being bombed and attacked. In effect these planes were partially built by child labour. After Japan was defeated and the kids returned to Taiwan, naturally the new ROC government would not recognise their experience. Some of these kids, in the latter stages of their lives, returned to Japan to meet their old mentors.

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• PK

  @Pk-ThunderSmash · 8 months ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJMooMiYfAA&amp;t=10">0:10</a> The Raiden being nicknamed &quot;Jack&quot; by the Americans is an interesting fun fact to me. The protagonist, from Metal Gear Solid 2, is codenamed &quot;Raiden&quot;, but his actual name was Jack. Knowing Kojima, this isn&apos;t a coincidence.

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• PL

  @plastictsubasa1390 · 1 year ago

  These planes were manufactured in present-day Zama, in an IJN facility which later became a major Nissan manufacturing plant. There’s a park just west of there which has hundreds of meters of tunnels used as shelter by the factory workers during air raids. &nbsp;They have placed a large scale model in one of them as a rare reminder of Japan’s not so distant but less visible past.<br><br>Just a few years ago, a local resident found a sizable section of forward fuselage of one which crashed, likely after takeoff from or on approach to the nearby Atsugi naval airfield, in a remarkable state of preservation. It often makes me wonder how much of that history lies just under my feet!

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• PL

  @plastictsubasa1390 · 1 year ago

  Greg, here are the translations as requested. The terminology doesn&apos;t always line up with modern language, so I&apos;ve kept it pretty literal. Ask me if you need any clarification.<br><br>@<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJMooMiYfAA&amp;t=2294">38:14</a> <br>1. Instrument panel <br>2. Brake fluid tank <br>3. Stick <br>4. Radio control unit <br>5. Telegraph key <br>6. Hydraulic pump lever stowage / storage location <br>7. Regulator (no context for this one, sorry) <br>8. Foot operation lever (not sure on this one either) <br>9. Electric wire passage <br>10. Rudder control cable <br>11. Manual hydraulic pump <br>12. Automatic fire extinguisher <br>13. Electric switchboard / distribution panel <br>14. Seat height adjustment lever <br>15. Circuit breaker box / fuse box <br>16. Elevator linkage <br> <br>@<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJMooMiYfAA&amp;t=2299">38:19</a> <br>[port side] <br>1. Type 3 &quot;ku&quot; Mk.1 radio unit <br>2. Headrest / head pad <br>3. Bulkhead <br>4. Emergency buzzer <br>5. Backpack-type parachute <br>6. Seat <br>7. Seatbelt / safety belt <br>8. Seat height adjustment lever <br>9. Oxygen bottle <br>10. Bomb release lever <br>11. 20mm cannon loading selector valve <br>12. 70mm bulletproof glass <br>13. Supercharger switching lever <br>14. Manifold pressure adjustment lever <br>15. Fuel regulation valve lever <br>16. Cannon selector lever <br>17. Throttle lever <br>18. Propeller pitch governor lever <br>19. Stick <br>20. Elevator trim control device <br>21. Rudder trim control device <br>22. Ultraviolet lamp <br>23. Cannon firing cord on/off switch <br>24. Fuel interchange cock <br>25. Type 4 reflector gunsight <br>26. Number 4 bulkhead <br>27. Circuit breaker box / fuse box <br>28. Foot bar

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• TE

  @Telamon8 · 1 year ago

  All the old-school Il-2 players can confirm that the J2M is a pain in the rear to fight with a Hellcat.

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• LI

  @LindaK.Whitesell · 1 year ago

  I’m really enjoying your videos on Japanese aircraft types which I think have been overlooked by the western media (in part due to the paucity of good sources). Funny - I never really gave any thought to the anomaly of the J2M not being designed to land on a carrier deck until you pointed that out. Great work.

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• EB

  @Ebergerud · 1 year ago

  The &quot;Jack&quot; is a perfect example of why Japan should not have fought the US in 1941. Hirokoshi&apos;s team (designers of the Zero) knew that they would need something faster and tougher than the A6M and had begun preliminary work on what became the J2M before Pearl Harbor. It wasn&apos;t in the air before 1944 and like almost all of the second generation Japanese fighters was something of a hangar queen. (Japanese industrial standards were not up to making a solid multi-bank radial - and the ground crew were not always the best. That&apos;s one of the reasons that both the Zero and Oscar were in production at war&apos;s end - they both worked.) &nbsp;And it was being flown by some young men not ready for war. 5th AF &nbsp;ace Robert DeHaven (14 victories) told me he ran into a Jack when flying out of Tacloban (the small airstrip on Leyte). He gained the &quot;six&quot; position immediately - and closed to point blank range. By this time the IJN fighter had gone into a shallow dive indicating the IJN pilot knew an enemy was approaching. DeHaven fired and the Jack blew to pieces (some fragments stuck in one f his engine nascells - making easy confirmation - also showed why nobody would want a burst from a P38 at close range with 4 50s and a 20mm firing at zero convergence). DeHaven was sure that the pilot simply didn&apos;t know what to do, so he put the plane into a dive and shut his eyes. BTW: if you want to see some splendid photos of a Jack check out &quot;Meatballs and Dead Birds&quot; written by James Gallagher. Gallagher was an intelligence officer with 5th AF and went in with them when they located to Atsugi in September 1945. Some 5th mechanics worked on the Jack trying to get it into flying condition, but to no avail. Anyway &quot;Meatballs&quot; is a photo album and has wonderful pics of dozens of IJ aircraft along with Gallagher&apos;s wonderful text. (If you check the ad for it on Amazon you can see a couple of pics of the Jack.)

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• ST

  @stug41 · 1 year ago

  Very glad youre covering this. As a big 190 fan, this quickly became a favorite japanese fighter when I became aware of it.

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• HO

  @holdmycuppa · 1 year ago

  Another awesome analysis by someone who knows what he&apos;s talking about. Well edited slide sequences, such that we hardly miss having historical video footage, and we DO appreciate that you haven&apos;t substituted foootage of other planes just for the sake of rolling footage.

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