IJN logbooks

[tomp]

Just picked up two IJN flight logbooks named to the same sailor. I have been eyeing this pair for years, and a purchase finally worked out. These are never seen for sale in the US and only intermittently in Japan. This particular set is dated to Japan’s war with China (1937- 1940) and belonged to a Tohru(?) Yamamoto. According to the seller, Tohru was a gunner on a "Pete" floatplane. Once I have time to study the books further, I will add more information about their contents. If anyone happens to have veteran captured examples of IJN flight log books, I would be very interested in seeing your examples. Thanks for looking.

Tom

[RussM]

Wow, These should be very interesting reading!

Look forward to reading about these further - great pickup!

Regards

Russ

[Nick Komiya]

They can also be found in the archives.

[SNLF]

Congrats Tom!

[tomp]

Thanks, all!

Here is a picture of the sailor who used the logbooks. Mr. Yamamoto started out at Yokosuka Naval Base in 1936, training in communications and reconnaissance. After joining an air unit at Yokosuka, he went to China and participated in 24 bombing missions before dying on a railroad bombing mission on February 13, 1940. Sobering, but information that I am glad can be attached to these logbooks.

Tom

[tomp]

Here is a pic. of a sample page from one of the IJN flight logbooks. The page has the accumulated training flight hours for the month of October, 1937. There are 8 main pieces of information on the page. Going from left to right, the info. is as follows: month, date, day of the week, the ID number of the trainer used (in this case the sailor was using a Type 90 trainer), the flight number within the month, flight minutes/hours, accumulated flight hours, and pilot names/ranks. It is interesting to note that the pilots were mostly flight petty officers of various classes, but there looks to be a warrant officer in there, as well as a lieutenant. I believe these flights were for training on the radio. Below is the sample page, plus a pic. of the type of trainer used (from Wiki). As time allows, I will add one or two more pages from the logbook. Thanks for looking!

Tom