The Mitsubishi Zero: Imperial Japan’s Kamikaze Weapon 

An intact Zero was captured in the Aleutian campaign and operated by US fighter evaluators. Lessons learned from this were instrumental in understanding how to defeat Zero.

0:59 design and development 6:03 dominance in the skies 9:20 war of attrition 12:12 kamikaze

Zero, the TIE fighter of WWII

Japan's mistake was also not "rotating" there pilots out. The WW2 US navy after a pilot did something like 50(or close, don't remember) missions they were sent back to the USA to train new pilots, putting them as instructors to teach their real-world combat experience to newbie pilots with just more than a paper explanation on what to do. Japan kept their experienced pilots in the front till they died and not passing on their experience to new rookie pilots.

When I was in college, I had a prof who had fought in WWII. After the war, he was stationed in Japan. He met and befriended a Japanese businessman. After the businessman became comfortable with my prof he was invited over for a meal. Not knowing really any Japanese, my prof lifted a glass of saki and said "Banzai." His new friend dropped his glass and hurried from the room. Knowing he had offended his friend, he apologized. After a few minutes, the man returned. He filled a new glass and sat down. He explained he had been trained to be a Kamikaze pilot, but he had returned to the base alive. The meaning of the word was more than just a war cry, it was a greeting to the Japanese Emperor, who was, at that point, viewed as a God on Earth. It was a pledge to die for him, and he hadn't. It was a source of shame for this new friend of my future professor. Oh, and the class I took with him, a summer school class in 1973, was the last class he was teaching before retiring.

Mitsubishi was one of the Zaibatsu. Huge industrial conglomerates that produced lots of different stuff. And while they have been legally dismantled after WWII, there's still lots of companies with Mitsubishi in the name and often close ties with each other. 6000 m is double of 4000 m? There's a museum in the south of Kyuushu, Japan called the Chiran Peace Museum that's dedicated to these "Special Operations" pilots as this was one of the bases they started from. It's very impressive and haunting to read the farewell letters of some of those young men. Lots of pathos in them of course.

There is only one operational Zero in the world. It’s located at Chino Municipal Airport in Chino, CA. It’s an incredibly beautiful and smooth flying plane. I feel lucky to have seen it fly multiple times.

Even during the Solomons in 1943, the P-40, P-39, Spitfire, and F4F had a positive kill ratio against the Zero, meaning it already took more than 1 Zero to down a single Allied plane. The majority of the destruction of the Zeros and their top pilots early in the war was done by the F4F, P-40, and P-39.

1:05 - Chapter 1 - Design & development 6:10 - Chapter 2 - Dominance in the skies 9:25 - Chapter 3 - War of attrition 12:20 - Chapter 4 - Kamikaze

Just for the record, I'm not positive the A5M or the A6M were fighter jets. Pretty sure they were prop-driven, piston-engined aircraft. 3:12

To be completely fair, the vast majority of pre and early war fighters also lacked pilot armor and self-sealing fuel tanks

The Eternal Zero top japanese film i recommed it regarding this iconic plane and his pilots.

The Wind Rises is a cool Ghibli film based around Jiro and the Zero's development. Would highly recommend, one of my favourite movies of all time!

I hate how the zero is always known as the kamikaze fighter, like it was only good enough to ram itself into a boat. While an unorthodox approach to fighter design, it did kick our ass for a year and a half

Always up to see planes on Megaprojects! But im still waiting on the Soviet Mig 21 Fishbed THE most mass produced jet fighter of all time!

3:11 "Prior fighter JET" Nice little slip there. lol

My grandfather met a Japanese POW in Singapore in 1946. The fellow had just had an operation on his eyes ,He was short sighted in one eye and longsighted in the other, He'd been awarded a Medal by his squadron leader in the Japanese Airforce for surviving 11 kamikaze missions

When he calls the A5M a fighter jet 😵‍💫

Captain Eric Brown, the Chief Naval Test Pilot of the Royal Navy, recalled being impressed by the Zero during tests of captured aircraft. "I don't think I have ever flown a fighter that could match the rate of turn of the Zero. The Zero had ruled the roost totally and was the finest fighter in the world until mid-1943."

10:28 it's Corsair, not Crosshair 😅

Beautiful pieces of WW2 Engineering!

Japanese kamikaze = The world’s first combat effective guided missile.

The shells mentioned in this video that explode only upon getting close to an aircraft rather than hitting it. These were shells made for the 5 inch/38 caliber heavy AA guns present on all US warships from destroyers to carriers by the end of the war. It is stated here that they relied on radio emissions from the aircraft they were being fired at. This is incorrect. They instead used a miniaturized radar in the nose of the shell. When that small radar got a strong enough return (presumably from the aircraft it was fired at) it would detonate the shell usually within a maximum of somewhere around 30ft away from the aircraft. This difference is important because if it relied on radio emissions as mentioned these shells would be completely ineffective against aircraft with their radios turned off. These inner workings of these shells weren’t known till after the war with most US sailors not even knowing how they worked.

Fun fact: the aluminum alloy developed to build the Zero is now commonplace as the material used in the aluminum components of the AR-15 series rifles.

The Zero is essentially Danmaku (bullet hell) incarnate. All that speed and agility, just don't get clipped by a stiff breeze.

Simon, you need to do something on the London & North Eastern Railway A1/A3 Pacific’s for Flying Scotsman’s 100th birthday. And something about Australian trains too, prehaps the NSWGR C38s?

If you want to see a good respresentaion of the types of fights the Zero fought in the Movie Tora tora tora is a great example

Very interesting and very informative 👍

Japanese instructor to kamikaze students: "Now pay close attention! I'm only going to show you how to do this, ONCE!"

I love listening to you while I am organizing my house. Thank you for being a nice voice in the background.

I would have loved seeing a Well piloted Zero Vs. A well piloted BF-109E!

ahead of it's time when it was built, but time has a nasty habit of moving on

Modern Mitsubishi car commercial slogan: Mitsubishi, make an impact. WW2: *BOOM*

Thank you for a great video about the Zero fighter. I think your channel is wonderful. I have to disagree with you on one point. The P-38 Lighting and the F4U Corsair were already being developed before the US entered WWII against Japan.

With post war scarcity, I thought they would have been scavenged/scrapped for material instead of just being left to rot.

Did he just call the Corsair the Crosshair? That and I'm pretty sure fighter jets weren't available prior to Pearl Harbor

It was determined that the Zeros ailerons became ineffective in a steep dive, meaning the plane couldn’t turn until it slowed down. So Allied pilots led the Zeros into steep dives, waited until they couldn’t turn, then circled behind them and finished them with one burst of cannon fire.

I would love to see a video for the P-51 Mustang

This plane never gets enough love

My great-uncle Johnny B served in the US Navy and he took part in the battle of Okinawa and he most definitely had something to say about the kamikaze.

Exactly how does one become a kamikaze ace?

Topic suggestion: Comparisom between the Fairey Firefly, Fairey Battle, Fairey Barracuda, Fairey Fulmar and Fairey Swordfish

Request for video Asml’s EUV machines

Semi on topic: As a kid, I built several plastic models including a Zero that claimed to have "authentic Japanese markings". Once when my uncle and his Japanese wife visited, I showed her my Zero and asked what the writing said. After much squinting and even looking at it with a mirror, she told me they didn't say anything. Authentic imitation Japanese markings. 😂

There's a good studio Ghibli film based on Jiro Horikoshi and the the Zero Fighter plane

Any chance you could you make a MP about the Britanic? The T

6:30 "Saburo Shineedoo" 😮 (It's "Shin-doh")

Great video - however the background music that suddenly comes on while Simon talks is much too loud, it's very, very distracting.

3:12 A5M and A6M were fighter jets? They sure look like propeller driven aircraft to me and aviation history would have to be completely rewritten to make Japan the first nation to adopt jet engines in military aircraft.

Very confusing to show the Boom-and-Zoom diagram while describing the Thach Weave

Thanks, I didn't appreciate how good the zero was at the start of the war....

I think you might be a bit off on how the proximity fuse worked

Did I miss the mention of one design issue: "It lacked hydraulic boosting for its ailerons and rudder, rendering it extremely difficult to maneuver at high speeds" - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_A6M_Zero ? I've seen related elsewhere that due to this one response from enemy planes that had the speed was to just keep that speed up, knowing the zero couldn't follow *and* maneuver.

Yeah, i know at some point in the war, everything was scarce and the pilots weren't taught to land. Despite massive shortages in everything, constant bombing raids and a grim forecast they were not interested in surrendering after the 2nd A-bomb was dropped. However, the prospect of a 3rd A-bomb, some beach landings and the idea that the Russian Army would be invading also was too much.

@3:14. ...prior fighter jet? With props and fixed gear?

The Zero was an incredible plane!

Look up who Nakajima became!!!!😊😊😊

The fuel issue he brings up near the 12min mark reminds me of a similar issue that Germany had (that I've read about). While the US/UK was coming in with thousands of tons of high-quality aviation fuel, the fewer planes the Gerries could put up, with poorer quality pilots, ALSO had bad quality fuel, so that even good planes just couldn't perform, and required 3x as much work to keep in the air b/c the fuel messed up the engines. In the end...LOGISTICS and SUPPLY are king. Yes, quality of equipment and troops, but if the best equipped troops can't get their stuff, they're stuffed.

The Zero was NOT a "Kamikaze" plane. That was the MXY-7 OHKA, aka, a 2k lb flying bomb with a pilot.

If history had taken a walk on the wild side? Zero versus Messerschmitt? Yamato versus Bismarck?

Zero as in zero HP left after the attack.

Whistler boy's writers who sometimes scour the comments for ideas: The many phases of Bradley IFVs. As I understand it had quite a few.. hiccups.

I rember reading how the skin of this plane was so thin to save weight that the metal would tear if stepped in the wrong place

13:35 It takes time to build that level of fanaticism, as it did with the kamikaze pilots. They were raised in a society that was based upon obedience to, and the worship of, their emperor. By the time 1945 rolled around, it often didn't take much more than the promise of the pilots being greatly honored by their respective families. The occasional few pilots needed more coaxing than that. And yes, methamphetamine, among other drugs, was available to those who agreed to sacrifice themselves for their emperor. The basic idea was to be so high on drugs that the planned end of their respective flights wouldn't seem to be so daunting.

Vought F4U cross hair 😂 10:28

Through video. Thanks 👴🏻🇦🇺

Japan had awakened the giant....the emperor truly had no clothes...

Lol Lockheed had to spread some breadcrumbs of alien tech to get an aviation advantage. Classic

Where is the jet on the A5M at 3:11

One day Simon is going to make a video and will say there is nothing more about history or lore I can teach you I have explained the universe lol

Man, flying over the ocean and your aircraft carrier is sunk is a pretty 💩predicament

The Zero was never Obsolete my incorrect friend. It was the Japanese tactics that were Obsolete.

nyyyooommm

Prior fighter jet?

Hard to believe such a small country caused so much trouble.

I haven't counted them all; I wonder how many comments are virtual duplicates relating to the slip-up at 3:12 with the word "jet."

Kamikaze pilots could return home up to 9 times IF they a) could not find the target or b) had mechanical issues. If not those, they could be punished for cowardice.

Shame you didn't mention the kamakaze attack on HMS Indefatigable.

From zero to hero, and back to zero...

3:15 fighter jet??? Wow the A5M was advanced for the times. 😂

Did simon call the Corsair "Crosshair"?

Surely the best aspect to remember about the plane in that title 🙄 4:10 no! No! and *NO!* No fighter plane designed in the Late 1930's had armor or self sealing tanks integrated in their design, those were retrofitted *after* the planes had entered service as a result of war expirence. It is true that IJN's took way longer than most air services in the world to add/retrofitt these features to the air crews survivibility detriments (should REALLY have known better by the time of the B6N and D4Y), but the addition of self sealing tanks would had knee-capped the planes range, which at that point the IJN relied a lot on. 6:42 This was the claimed figure, actual ROCAF losses were 20'ish planes and almost all the others had slight damage. 8:45 IJN pilots also used energy fighting techniques, which they had developed while fighting in China. Keep in mind that for all its maneuverability a zero nor even a claude would be able to cut inside the turn of a biplane like Gladiator, Hawk III or I-15, pilots also realized that getting into manuevering chase tails lead to target fixation and that it was much more effective to do high speed passes that will allow you to control your surroundings and use your speed to scape unfavorable fights. That said the A6M Zero did have a worse maximum dive speed and high speed controlability (mostly the ailerons and rudder, the elevator had a system that somewhat decreased this issue), which meant that USAAF and USN planes were usually better in this kind off fight. 9:42 While the attrition in this battles for IJN carrier air crews were horrific, it should be noted most of the IJN expirienced pilots and crews went down through the long campaigns in New Guinea and Guadalcanal/Solomon Islands. 10:30 Although it is true that the new allied fighters were superior to the Zero, their arrival didn't prove as much of an inmediate edge as one could thing, a few researchers such as Michael Claringbould had shown that the new fighter types only really started to get a serious edge in exchange ratios against the Zero's towards the end of 1943/ start of 1944, mostly by the loss of expirienced pilots as you have correctly alluded in the video. 13:55 No direct replacements, but the Navy had the land based J2M and N1K-1J/2-J, which unfortunatelly for them, had a lot of operational faults and couldn't be produced in large numbers. 14:50 You can narrow that to slightly less than one year (from October 1944 to Japan's surrender). 16:55 One final "actually", the Hellcat, Corsair and P-38 were already projected before the start of the war in the Pacific. In spite of this issues and a few others, overall, a pretty good and balanced video on the plane. Hoping to see more WWII aircraft in the future!

If it can turn on a dime then it can't go fast. If it can go like a bat outa hell then it can't turn. Aviation facts.

A beautiful and elegant aircraft, but the efforts to develop and modernize came far to late.

Could it not be said that a decent amount of kamikaze pilots were forced in to it by peer pressure

There has always been discussion that the Zero was based on Howard Hughes' H-1 design. A claim Hughes himself made. Who knows......

just imagine how good the plane would be if they had actually flew it instead of rammed into stuff. Apparently the only thing that could beat it was itself according to this video. Hell I'm surprised they aren't still using it in service today. Hell it was basically 100yrs ahead of it's time from What I hear

Skill Issue inn'it

The Imperial Japanese Navy, its officers, flight crews, enlisted ranks and ships and aircraft were underestimated and inferior which leads to the disaster (AND CONSPIRACY) at Pearl Harbor and the 6 months of victories in the following months for the IJN.

Bro, slap the 20mil high explosives and incendiary bombs on these bad boys and you’ll feel like an ace on iwo jima breakthrough. Literally went 100-0 on that map 😂😂 i miss bfv.

I don’t think the thumbnail shows a true Zero, I have a feeling it’s some type of repro? Or similar situation to a Buchon/Bf109

Zero still kicks ass in War Thunder. Before it’s battle rating needs it was a tool if genocide.

The "music" was too loud.

Rafale fighter jet please...

The Zero was only ever a interim until they could develop and produce a more powerful engine, the Zero's successor was already commissioned when the Zero reached combat trial status (A7M Reppu), but due to many different factors it would take another 3 years before they had the engine, by that time they didn't have carriers (at least not enough to matter) that there was no point. Add to that, the level of innovations to the Zero was limited as well, couldn't very well put a 2000hp engine into a plane initially designed & balanced for 800hp, that's like slapping a Hellcat engine into a 1970's KE20 Corolla without beefing it up. Main issue was.. well, going to war in the first place, but let's dispense with that for now, the main issue was Japan was so recently modernized by the 1930's, and even then just barely, that the Zero, a very unforgiving aircraft when receiving enemy fire (as with most early planes, and most WW2 Japanese planes), only "dominated" for as long as they had the skilled pilots to fly it. The second they started taking losses they couldn't replace, it was downhill from there. Those losses were caused by a mixture of aggressive opponents that were willing to learn through failure, pilot fatigue, not enough pilots to go around (because after they hit Pearl Harbor they were marathon'ing across the entire Pacific, they saw constant action) Zero's great range meant long range missions (meaning more fatigue and loss of focus). The recent modernization meant the average Japanese hadn't yet had the time to acclimatize to machinery & modern industry in daily life. This required years of training pilots & the needed technical personnel (to keep the Zero airborne), basically weeding out the "farmer mentality" (which in the West is a good thing, farmers stay abreast with technical innovations given their occupation). Add to this, the Japanese, as well as the Germans, didn't rotate their pilots, it was fight until you die, training new pilots was an assignment more less akin to death of their warrior spirit. So after Midway, Solomons, Marshall's, Guadalcanal & Raids out of Rabaul, there weren't even enough skilled pilots left to rotate back home & train new ones. Add to that, ground crews weren't trained to think outside the box/innovate, abandoned Zero's were found in droves, they could have been kept in the air by swapping worn engines with less worn ones etc. In the end it was all they could do making slight improvements and keep churning them out while hoping that newer designs (N1K, KI-84, KI-61, J2M, etc) could stem the tide and bring the Allies to the table and discuss an honorable defeat (and we all know why that couldn't happen, and what happened next).

Simon... did your producers not give you a pronouncer on "Grumman"? If not, it's Grum like "crumb" and "m'n" with the stress on the first syllable. I know stuff like this can slip through the cracks sometimes. Not sure if y'all use a prompter, but (personal opinion) I don't like the way prompters display pronouncers. When everything is all caps you can't tell what's being stressed.

On your kamikaze comments ... Why do you call the tactics "fanatical"? What other options did they have? If you study the war situation, their decisions were very rational. No chance of survival? So what? In 1944 and 45 it appeared that their enemy wanted nothing less than total anhelation of Japan. It was this incredible resistance that gave Japan peace terms that allowed them to rebuild as an independent nation as opposed to another western colony. I have seen many videos on your channel that seem wel thought of. You seemed to have totally missed it here.

Calling the A5M a "fighter jet" is wild 😂

Mitsubishi Zero- Atomic bombs Two………….😬

Not that hot Strip down a P40 get the same specs