EMBLEMS OF THE RISING SUN – IMPERIAL JAPANESE ARMY AIR FORCE UNIT MARKINGS

Surely some of the most colorful warplanes ever to see active service, the aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Force carried the samurai regard for brightly colored armor and equipment into the 20th century. 

The heraldic traditions of the warriors of ancient Japan found new expression as the emblems for all types of air units in the service of the Emperor. Used by flying training schools, fighter squadrons, bomber groups and, ultimately, suicide formations, all sprang from the Japanese love of symbolism and design. 

Some were hundreds of years old, others existed for only a few weeks or months. Each one that can be verified from photographs is illustrated here in glorious color. 100 pages of full color drawings show the emblems both by unit and by aircraft type, allowing the enthusiast to rapidly identify exactly which formation a specific aircraft may have belonged to. 

Numerous photos illustrate the many variations of emblems and the different aircraft types which carried them.

Organizational charts give Orders of Battle in different theatres of war, ranging from Manchuria, China and Burma to the Home Islands.