Tora! Tora! Tora! director dead

Japan has civilian flying clubs, and non-government (not fire department, police, &c) gliders and light planes crashes are unfortunately common.

https://follow.yahoo.co.jp/themes/06de47c4daa840ed9717

For example, this is the Yahoo! Japan News tag for aviation accidents.
The most recent accident is 2017/08/14, when a civilian light plane crashed in Nara Prefecture, with two fatalities.

OTOH, retired warbirds are rare.
Some resourceful civilians may somehow acquire retired JASDF planes (F-104, &c) from scrap yards, and display them on their roofs.

Worse, WWII IJAAF/IJN warbirds displayed at museums, and not at air bases, are mostly wrecks, or 1:1 replicas.

Here in Hong Kong, I read rumours that some surplus Spitfires retired at Kai Tak, were pushed as landfill into the water, when Kai Tak extended its runway into Kowloon Bay.

Don, Thank you.

Many of the T-6 and BT-13 conversions that returned to the mainland United States have had long display and film careers and are fairly well known and accounted for.

I was specifically asking about Japan sourced and converted aircraft used in the scenes filmed in Japan and their eventual fate.
For its population, Japan doesn’t seem to have a lot of general aviation activity, no “warbird” organizations to operate them…to the best of my knowledge…and limited film requirements.
One period source I recall reading is some of the airworthy T-6 conversions ended up at US military base flying clubs in Japan, a statement I’ve never believed. T-6s are a bit too large and expensive for flying club use.

To be concise, those JASDF T-6 and JMSDF SNJ-5, just after they retired in 1968 October, were modified and painted as WWII warplanes, and returned to Japan, to film the movie.
Thus, they were very flyable.

Apparently, during and after the filming ended, they were guests at air shows and open houses at air bases in Japan.
That site author doesn’t exactly know what happened to them after the movie PR campaign ended.

However, article has a photo taken on 1970/02/07 at Atsugi AB, of five “Type 97 bombers” without wings and horizontal stabilisers.

http://dansa.minim.ne.jp/CL-T6-5-Tola-19700207Atsugi-Hayakawa.jpg

That author suspects they were scrapped at Atsugi AB.
OTOH, near bottom of article, three photos were taken in 2005 October at Edwards AFB air show, and these three planes might be survivors from the movie.

http://dansa.minim.ne.jp/CL-T6-5-Tora-EdwarsAB-Nagase%20(1).jpg

http://dansa.minim.ne.jp/CL-T6-5-Tora-EdwarsAB-Nagase%20(2).jpg

http://dansa.minim.ne.jp/CL-T6-5-Tora-EdwarsAB-Nagase%20(3).jpg

The fighters with static landing gear, were BT-13 disguising as Type 99 bombers.

No idea, but some of the Japanese aircraft are clearly just painted Harvards….

At least one of the Zeros in the Japanese scenes must have been airworthy because there is a scene early in the movie where a silver Zero lands on the Akagi and folds its wingtips. I have no idea of the fate of all the aircraft used in the Japanese scenes.

At the time of filming a press article indicated some of the Japanese T-6 “Zeros” were airworthy (as opposed to used just for the carrier deck scenes).
Is that true? Any details on their fate?

http://dansa.minim.ne.jp/CL-T6-ToraToraTora..htm

Article in Japanese, with contemporary photos.

Movie “Tora! Tora! Tora!” (1970) partly filmed in Japan, and featured 15 former-JASDF T-6G-NH and former-JMSDF SNJ-5.

Ten JASDF T-6G-NH and five JMSDF SNJ-5 retired by 1968/10/23.

Five T-6G-NH and all five SNJ-5 disguised as Zero fighters.

Five T-6G-NH disguised as Type 97 torpedo-bombers.

http://www.starbulletin.com/news/20100605_zero_ace_recalls_missions_over_midway_pearl_harbor.html

Zero ace recalls missions over Midway, Pearl Harbor

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jun 05, 2010
By Gregg K. Kakesako

Kaname Harada, a Japanese Zero fighter pilot who downed five U.S. torpedo planes during the Battle of Midway 68 years ago, believes “war is a horrible thing.”

He probably went and saw Pearl Harbour for the first time and the shock was too much. 😀

.

Ouch, harsh but true….. Tora Tora Tora runs like a mini series, ever seen the documentary they made about it that showed on sky movies a while back? Really interesting, a lot of the Japanese military were so stoic and wooden as they were the industrialists etc who put up the money!

As for Pearl Harbour…. oh it makes me cringe, can’t decide if “are all yanks so desperate for a fight” or the “Oh, P-40’s” line from the sailor floating around the harbour is the worst. Tora Tora Tora is a cracking movie, well worth a wet sunday afternoon

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20071203TDY03101.htm

“‘Tora, tora, tora’ pilot’s tale to be told”

(Dec. 3, 2007)
The Yomiuri Shimbun

Manuscripts of an autobiography by Mitsuo Fuchida, best known as the pilot who led the air attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 8, 1941, and transmitted the famous signal–“Tora, tora, tora”–that indicated that complete surprise had been achieved, have been kept by his elderly son.

Takamura Takahiro, who played Lieutenant Commander Fuchida Mitsuo, IJN, in Tora, Tora, Tora! (1970), passed away on 16 May 2006.

FWIW, the real Fuchida Mitsuo passed away on 20 May 1976. He was 74.

Richard Fleischer dies

RIP Mr Fleischer 🙁

He probably went and saw Pearl Harbour for the first time and the shock was too much. 😀

Seriously though all the directors of Tora Tora Tora did a great job.

Takamura Takahiro

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20060518-00000034-mai-peo
reported:

Takamura Takahiro, who played Lieutenant Commander Fuchida Mitsuo, IJN, in Tora, Tora, Tora! (1970), passed away on 16 May 2006. He was 77.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0848796/

Just think of all the other aviation epics that depended on footage from “Tora ,Tora,Tora” and /or re-use of the Japanese aircraft replicas e.g. “The Final Countdown”,”Battle of Midway”,”Pearl” ,”From Here To Eternity” (70s TV version),”Black Sheep Squadron” etc

If “Tora ,Tora,Tora” had never been made it is likely all these productions would have relied on unmodified AT-6s.

And of course “Pearl Harbor” re – used 3 Vals and 3 Kates from the earlier film.

Colin

Yeah, he did. The Japanese directors were Kinji Fukasaku and Toshio Masuda.

It is a shame, my favourite film of his is still 20,000 leagues under the sea, but i think he only directed the American part of tora tora tora.

Ian