Japanese Forces

Kunio Iwashita

japanese ace Kunio Iwashita first saw combat in iwo jima 1944, he watched from the ground as thirty-one Zeros took off to intercept incoming American planes. At the conclusion of the dogfight, only seventeen Zeros returned. Iwashita recalls: “I was on pins and needles to see friendly planes being shot down one after another. I told Commander Katsutoshi Yagi, the group commander, I wanted take part in the sortie tomorrow by all means.” Before dawn on July 4, 1944, while still suffering from the stomach pains, Iwashita reported for duty. His squadron leader, Lt. Fujita took him aside to offer some advice about his first combat: “One’s first fight is most risky. Buntaicho, I will teach you how to fight. Don’t go apart from me. Follow me tight.” Iwashita recalled. His leader was a classmate of Iwashita’s deceased brother, and a veteran of the Pearl Harbor attack and Battle of Midway, Lt. Iwashita saw four planes that he initially assumed were Japanese. Increasing his speed, he approached them at a distance of 100 meters. Closer, their star markings came into sight: they were American Grumman F6F Hellcats. They had failed to notice his approach, allowing Iwashita to close in on the last fighter in the formation. From less than 30 feet, he opened fire. The Zero’s 20mm cannon shells tore into the Hellcat. “The wing of the F6F broke up. I saw the goggles and white muffler of the young pilot and his face as he looked back in surprise. The F6F was instantly engulfed in flames and crashed into the sea. Mount Suribachi was close to us.” Iwashita observed, After Iwo Jima, Iwashita flew missions over the Philippines, Okinawa and Japan. He shot down other aircraft, but never witnessed another American pilot up close again, he still alive today as the president of the zero pilots association