USA/Japanese Pacific color pixs.

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We should remember that, as of August 19 1945 in Ie-shima, both countries were still under the state of war.
IJN personnels like 302Ku in Atsugi airbase showed strong resistance, in the form of uprising, to the government's decision for surrender.

The 2 Bettys flown to the Ie-shima were the oldest model of G4M1 becuase naval officials thought it was too early to show the enemy their latest models when the war was not formally over yet. They would not have hesitated to call such black cross as green cross with excuse that Japanese used to call the beautiful black hairs like "Green black hairs". Green originally meant "vivid", not the term for color.

The flap trouble of No.1 was caused by the aged electric circuits. Pilot was unable to fix it but warned on radio "Land immediately or you will be shot down" by the US Forces on the ground. As the brake condition was also not good, he was about to ram a US plane parked beside the runway like Kamikaze.

The point to understand the Ie-shima situation would be that the war was not over until September 2, 1945.
Thanks for all the intell ! I knew somebody out there would be able to fill in the blanks. Do you think his intention was to purposely ram an American plane because of the brakes or accidentally because of them?
 
Shinpachi, have divers ever located the #1 G4M or do they just have a general dea where it ditched at?

Good point, Dave as always :)
By the year of 2011, a part of fuel tank and a piece of elevator parts were recovered but the rest are unknown yet.
Local people say several typhoons had brought them away.

Green-cross_G4M_parts.JPG

Source: 地震動の擦痕



Thanks for all the intell ! I knew somebody out there would be able to fill in the blanks. Do you think his intention was to purposely ram an American plane because of the brakes or accidentally because of them?

His intention was to carry 4x250kg bombs to drop there but, instead, he was given a pistol in Tokyo before departure.
He understood it for suicide in case of being captured there.
I don't think he wanted to be a Kamikaze when he was hard to stop his Betty.
 
I have always read the Japanese surrender delegation arrived in two Bettys and transferred to the C-54 to be taken to the ceremony. Allegedly, the only way any Japanese airplane was to be allowed in the air was with white overall and green crosses. So much for the green color.
 
Wonder what the odds are the the "dumbo" b-17 I posted is the same pictured in flight in the above article. That would very cool.
 
Guys,

Seriously, do you think that all the GI's who sent letters home, the Life magazine correspondents' description and 345th BG personnel who escorted the Bettys to Ieshima describing 'green crosses' were color blind? Or is it a fable like the "Emperor's New Clothes" where everyone was saying look at those beautiful green crosses when in reality they were black!

Sorry to rock your boat but there is no doubt that the crosses were a dark black green probably IJN dark green camouflage paint with possibly some black added due to shortage of paint. However, the overall "tint" was green and a scan of the Betty that left Ieshima very late in the day of the 19th August 1945 looks black but I believe this is due to the inherent inaccuracies of the dyes used in Kodachrome processing and perhaps also because the Kodak Wratten filter was not used to correct for the very late afternoon sunlight (note that white appears yellow). The fact that it looks black in the photos does not mean it was black.

G4M_Rikko_surrender_Ieshima_Okinawa_18-08-1945-JEC-CS2.jpg


The close-up 2nd photo shows what it would look like when corrected with a Wratten filter.

G4M_Rikko_surrender_Ieshima_Okinawa_18-08-1945-JEC-CS1.JPG


BTW the above pics are the Betty that ditched off the coast of Japan due to insufficient fuel. This was due to the US Air Force personnel tasked with refuelling not completely filling the outer wing tanks of the Betty which need topping up after the initial fill. Of course, whether this was by design, or an error on their part, is open to question.

Darryl
 
The Ancient Greeks did have names for the primary colors:
erythros: red
cirrhos: orange
xanthos: yellow
chlōros: green
cyanos: blue
ioīdēs: violet
porphyrūs: purple
melās: black
leucos: white
chrȳsos: gold
argyros: silver

It's been ages since I've been in my books, so I may be a bit rusty with the spelling, but it's close enough to give an idea of the names.
 
That's a good debate, the preponerance of the evidence goes to Cyonos (κυάνεος) which is still used today, though reprenting a different shade (Cyan).
As is covered in the linked debate, the Greeks used a form of object association "the color of fire" or "shades of the soil" when writing or having conversation, etc.
So the experts are correct in answering that question, that the Greeks did not have a word for blue.
However, the other experts on the other side of the fence are also correct, in that the Greeks had naming conventions for such things as pigments and dyes and Cyanos was one such name used.
 
Guys,

Seriously, do you think that all the GI's who sent letters home, the Life magazine correspondents' description and 345th BG personnel who escorted the Bettys to Ieshima describing 'green crosses' were color blind? Or is it a fable like the "Emperor's New Clothes" where everyone was saying look at those beautiful green crosses when in reality they were black!

Sorry to rock your boat but there is no doubt that the crosses were a dark black green probably IJN dark green camouflage paint with possibly some black added due to shortage of paint. However, the overall "tint" was green and a scan of the Betty that left Ieshima very late in the day of the 19th August 1945 looks black but I believe this is due to the inherent inaccuracies of the dyes used in Kodachrome processing and perhaps also because the Kodak Wratten filter was not used to correct for the very late afternoon sunlight (note that white appears yellow). The fact that it looks black in the photos does not mean it was black.

View attachment 519625

The close-up 2nd photo shows what it would look like when corrected with a Wratten filter.

View attachment 519559

BTW the above pics are the Betty that ditched off the coast of Japan due to insufficient fuel. This was due to the US Air Force personnel tasked with refuelling not completely filling the outer wing tanks of the Betty which need topping up after the initial fill. Of course, whether this was by design, or an error on their part, is open to question.

Darryl
Go back and look at the photos taken during the arrival of the G4Ms - there's plenty of green around to use as a base - such as foilage and U.S. equipment.
Those crosses were black. Period.

The Imperial Japanese had access to green paint as military issue. NONE of which was "almost black", as their green paint was designed more as natural camouflage shades.
Those crosses were painted black. Period.
The Imperial Japanese were a proud and defiant people - the thought of surrendering to an enemy was distasteful and shameful.

There are some surrender crosses that appeared on a few Japanese aircraft later that were blue on a white field, but the majority of the crosses painted over the Hinomaru on a wide range of aircraft types were black.
 

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