Thank you, that is super interesting. I've often wondered what happened to those planes. What I thought was a KI-61 was not at the airfield, didn't see it listed in the link you provided. Forty years ago there was WW2 stuff laying all over the place.
Did the D4Y come from Yap and do you know when it was salvaged? The pictures I posted of what I thought was a KI-61 might actually be that plane. I only thought it was a Tony because of the engine. It was pretty torn up. My pic was taken 40 years ago.
Many years ago I spent a lot of time bumming around the Pacific. I spent time in the Philippines, on Yap, Peleliu, Palau, Ulithi, Guam and Saipan. Attached are pics of the Zeros Sweb took photos of by the old airfield. These were taken about 1977. There were three fairly intact Zeros there...
I took these pictures in 1971 of a P-47 that did a dead stick belly landing at an airshow in Port Hueneme, California. Didn't see it crash, they were loading it on a flatbed trailer. I'm not a pilot but I would think that thing would fly like a brick without power. The plane is in really good...