I know this thread is like a decade old, but I thought I would revive it instead of starting a new one. Anyway, I recently have noticed a couple of pictures of WIII Allied planes in the Pacific that have both the regular Japanese flag (white with red circle) and Japanese navy flag ("rising sun" where there are red lines coming from the circle and it is left-of-center) "kill" tallies painted next to their cockpits. What could this difference mean? Part of me thought that maybe it was pilots distinguishing between having shot down planes that belonged to either the Japanese Army Air Service or the Imperial Navy, like bombers as opposed to Zeroes or something. Or maybe the Navy flag ones stand for ships that have been destroyed?