The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Zero 

The Zero was symbolic of Japanese war philosophy: your vulnerability is irrelevant if you deliver a first, fatal blow to the enemy. The fallback plan was to die bravely in battle.

I drive a Mitsubishi. Can confirm it too is unstable at high speeds

My grandfather was 16 years old when he tried to become a fighter pilot near the end of the war. Most of the new recruits in Japan were quite young then since everyone older had already been called up or killed in battle. He failed the test so was ordered to fly recon instead which most likely saved his life by keeping him out of any kamikaze missions. My family and I exist today because of his failure.

7:20 To clarify, the Zero actually had a bypass. When inverted, the fuel would flow uninhibited through the carburetor. This would prevent the engine from cutting out entirely, however the limited fuel permitted while inverted did notably reduce the engine's power. The biggest myth with the saying that the Zero's engine cut when inverted comes from a captured Zero by the US. They didn't install the carburetor correctly, presumably that bypass.

"They were able to reverse engineer the Zero and figure out the best way to disable it.... After countless hours of research they came to the conclusion that you have to shoot it."

The Wind Rises is a good movie about the development of the Zero by Studio Ghibli

The other reason that the Zero lost so much ground after the first year or so was the difference in the way America and Japan treated their pilots. American pilots were typically rotated off the front line after six months or so and given a stint as training instructors. This meant that they could pass along things they'd learned in direct combat to new pilots and let the rookies benefit from their experience. Japan, on the other hand, pretty much just kept its top pilots on the front lines until they died and relegated training duties to people who weren't as skilled and didn't have actual experience fighting the Americans.

Me playing war thunder: *sees zero* *furious climbing and diving intensifies*

"The Japanese Air Force didn't even rise to intercept the nuclear bombers" There are two reasons for this, the Japanese didn't have the layers of early warning radars that the Germans did, so often they didn't have enough time to intercept small formations. The second is that lone bombers were typically weather and target reconnaissance that wouldn't drop a weapon so it was a waste of fuel to attempt intercept them as they would be gone before their fighters could get up to altitude. This was a tactic that USAAF deliberately exploited with the nuclear bombers.

I love how this channel mixes engineering with history and strategy. You learn about how the plane was engineered, why it was engineered that, and then historical impacts of said engineering and strategy down to peoples lives. I learned from this video that it was the zeros shortcomings may have lent a bigger hand to the allies victory than I could have thought of. Thanks

I do believe that it was more of protect our families then for the emperor. A similar thing happened in Germany, a pilot took off with no ammo, because there was none, and attempted to crash into an American bomber. He was shot down and managed to bail out. He was captured and when ask why he would do something like that, he replied "if I managed to take down just one bomber, that may be the one that could have dropped a bomb on my family" The human side of war is offen over looked.

10:25 In such a context, the smiles were so heart breaking...

“What use is armor if you don’t get hit” They all say that, until their vehicle is full of holes

This video probably won't get the views I hoped, because of the subject matter. RU-vid has a tendency of suppressing things like this. So share it if you can. Just released a new vlog episode, if you want to watch that too: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-hJlbuecu2vk.html Big shout out to Knowing Better too, whose video on Japan help shaped the narrative of this video. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lnAC-Y9p_sY.html

"Wow, all that Japanese taste and none of the calories!" -Peter Griffin

The F4F Wildcats vs A6M Zeroes are one of the best rivalries/matchups of fighter aircraft in history

“Zero” might have to be the coolest name for a plane

My Asian Studies professor in college was growing up in Japan at the end of WW II and training as a pilot, age 16. He told me it was only after Japan’s surrender that he learned he was being trained to be a kamikaze and that he was shocked to learn he was immediately expendable. There was a lot of coercion in the Japan of WW II, especially amongst the kamikaze.

Real Engineering, could you do a video on the engineering of the B17 or the B29. It would be really awesome if you covered those topics

8:40 I felt something in my heart seeing that plane go down..

Well youve inspired me. I start my course in Aerospace engineering in two weeks. Thanks a lot Brian!

6:00 me if try to land in War Thunder.

Wow.. did anybody take time to read that letter? That is the most profound expression of love I have ever come across.. :(

There’s a Japanese movie called “The Eternal Zero”. It talks about how pilots mostly died for their families and moments leading up to a kamikaze attack, It’s a good watch.

mitsubishi made 2 amazing things the zero and the evo

“Japan had adopted suicide tactics because conventional tactics were inherently suicidal.”

One of the best war movies ever made is the Japanese movie "The Eternal Zero". It's different from almost all other war movies, and very moving.

Not doing a smooth segue on this video was the right call.

Loving how your production quality and polish is increasing over time. Keep it up! Please continue to focus on the engineering and logistics of warfare, as I find it fascinating. How about the captured Sidewinder missile and how reverse engineering works? (K-13 Missile)

Fifty years ago, I read a history of the Zero fighter. The thing that stuck in my mind was that the prototype Zero had to be disassembled and loaded aboard ox carts for transport to the nearest IJN airfield for testing--a journey of several days. Contemporary aircraft factories in the USSR, in Europe and in North America were on railroad lines or had access to canal barges and often had airfields as well. That difficult supply chain seems to have been replicated for raw material flowing into the factory. The big wartime improvement was using horses to pull the disassembled aircraft to the nearest airfield--horses were faster than oxen. Wars waste men and machines. Coupled with Japan's pilot training program, the war would go Japan's way only for a short time--until they ran out of trained pilots and finished machines. When the US tested the Zero captured in Alaska, it was noted that using high octane US fuel gave the Zero a boost in performance because of a substantial increase in engine power--and the test plane was restricted from pushing its performance envelope in the fear that the lightly built airplane would rip apart if pushed too hard. Inferior fuel hurt Zero performance. I learned that criticizing the Zero for lack of armor and for not having self-sealing fuel tanks omitted the fact that contemporary British, French, Italian, German, Russian and American fighters also didn't have those until combat experience demonstrated that losing some speed and altitude was a worthwhile trade-off when the enemy shot back. You also mentioned that the Zero and Spitfire shared the carburetor problems. Another issue with the Zero was Japan's radio shortage--Japan couldn't build enough radios, and the two-way voice radio set cut into Zero performance. Lack of radios was a factor at the Battle of Midway.

My late grandfather was an ammo loader on one of the carriers that was attacked at Pearl Harbor. He was supposed to be stationed on one of the ships that was attacked but the captains said no blacks on board and sent him to the barracks on the opposite side of the island. When the zeros came and butchered the crew inside those ships, he was playing basketball. One twist of fate and my whole family tree would have been wiped out

Incredible video. Thank you for taking a neutral and humanist approach to the subject, stating facts without being cold, and using nuance.

....if you want to be a kamakazi pilot there are many great coarse on skillshare...

9:14 Wow, someone actually made note of a detracting factor to a sources credibility. Incredibly well done research, and good on you for making people aware of possible flaws.

Despite all the flaws,The Zero is still my favorite fighter of WW2,by far the sleekist design imo

Another decisive factor in the end of the Zero was the rise of the Hellcat; basically a toughened-up Wildcat with an upgraded engine, it could match the Zeroes in some of their previously most lethal maneuvers, which came as a nasty shock to Zero pilots and put their advantages down once and for all with a 13:1 kill ratio. Of course, that WAS only the finishing touch; another factor you forgot to mention was the Thach weave, a squadron-level maneuvering tactic that relied on coordination to defeat individual Zeroes even when older planes were using it.

The way you discredited your own quote by letting us know more about the Japanese pilot belief in the Nanking massacre never happening made me respect you immensely, that is the kind of unbiased education I aspire to acquire instead of one sided opinions and fabrications many history books make that I don't discover as wrong until a more versed history buff points it out to me with different sources. This video was great and I hope you do more of these, since I loved the spitfire one as well!

The downfall of the Zero really began much earlier than is commonly thought. Most of the Zero Aces insanely high kill numbers were racked up in China or early in the Southwest Pacific Campaigns. In China they were largely flying against obsolete biplanes and untrained pilots. That started to Change when Cherneau’s Flying Tigers showed up with their P-40’s. Cherneau had a firm rule, his pilots were to never dogfight the Zeros. Take them on head on or tail on with high speed passes, and get clear. It was quite effective. In the early days of 1942 the Zero ruled the South Pacific, as it was facing mostly remote colonial garrison forces flying obsolete, oddball or hand me down planes. The Zero pilots first real sustained encounter with their upper tier US Navy A list counterparts was at Coral Sea. Where the Zeros fared better than their Dive Bomber and torpedo plane counterparts. But it was still a shocking experience meeting the Grumman Wildcats in force and equal footing. Yes the Zero’s were far more agile than the Grumman’s, with a higher climb rate. But the Wildcats were like flying tanks. The Zero had 2 20 mm cannons. But due to the Zeros weight limitations it only had 7 seconds of cannon ammunition. It would need all of it to shoot down a single well armored Wildcat. The a Wildcat in return had either 4 or 6 (depending on model) cannons. Each with 30 seconds of ammo. And the pilots could selectively fire the cannons in pairs to conserve ammunition. It only took a 2-3 second cannon burst to flame a zero. This rather cruel math really started to add up. Especially over Guadalcanal in the back half of ‘42. By the time the US found the Acutan Zero in the Aleutians, the US Navy and Marine Carrier pilots had largely figured the Zero out. Fly in pairs, Take the Zero’s head on. Gain height before engaging and force the Zero to dive. Do Not Get into a Turning Dogfight. If the Zero tries to get you into one, get clear and let your wingman nail him. Guadalcanal would see the pre-war elite Zero pilots virtually wiped out. The only expert pilots to survive, such as the legendary Saburo Sakai, were badly wounded early on, and thus were out of action for most of Guadalcanal. One other thing also often gets missed. A surprisingly large number of air to air Zero kills were by US Dauntless Dive bombers. Once they dropped their bomb they were surprisingly agile. And the twin 30’s in the rear were devastating to the Zero pilots who failed at aircraft recognition.

One of the most nuanced, perceptive and tasteful takes Ive seen on a difficult historical/political topic and you're engineer! Very well done. And you managed to be incredibly concise.

That was really good. As a USN Sailor who served aboard ships named after people and places from this era this was a great perspective on the Zero and its tactics.

There's a fully functioning Zero (minus weapons) in Carson City Nv. It flies all the time out of the little airport.

This channel seems worthy of subscription. Thank you. I did enjoy this video.

Thanks for not being an insensitive clod regarding the ad. Didn’t realize it back then, but subconsciously, it’s why I used *your* link despite the numerous other wonderful creators and educators on YT I could have chosen. 👊🏼

My Grandfather "Gran-pop" was a Marine at the Battle of Iwo Jima. My other Grandfather "Pop-pop" was a navigator on a B-25 Mitchell over Germany. Some how they made it out of their respective theaters alive. Great Men.

What a great video! Should be required watching for kids in school, whenever schools start again! Great, great job!

This is probably the best segue you've done. What you think smooth is definitely not stop

Very informative! My Dad's ship was almost hit by a kamikaze airplane during the Battle of Okinawa, and I actually have a small piece of that plane in my possession. Just a small part of the outer skin, about 7 by 3 inches, but still a fascinating piece of history. I think I understand the kamikaze culture and mentality better now after seeing this video. Thanks.

I love this change in history coverage. I found it interesting to learn so much about this plane and its role in the rise and collapse of the Japanese empire. Keep it up!

The Zaku 2 seems to have been inspired by this aircraft. Impressive when made, but when the enemy got them, they made an even better aircraft.

The Thach Weave also helped bring a lot of the Zeros down.

"To show how good Flextape is, I crushed a plane into this boat"

Interesting to note that the engineering of the Zero is a direct symbolism of Japanese sword fighting style in the past. The katana was nimble and sharp yet it wasn't strong for blocking. Samurai were taught to commit in striking their opponents quickly in disregard of defense. It was all out offense,go hard or die kind of fighting

Absolutely mammothly informative and excellent! Grateful subscriber here! 💛🙏🏼

Great video! Well done on the way you mentioned the sponsor.

I admire not only Japanese engineering but also the quality of their products. I feel they make the best cars in the world.

So basically, the doctrine to beat the Zero was 1) not to engage it at low speeds but at high speeds, when it would become sluggish. 2) to use zero-g maneuvers whenever possible. 3) to get even just a few hits in.

Is it just a coincidence that eminem dropped Kamikaze the same day you dropped a Japanese zero video?

This is a great, eye-opening anecdote from Saburo Sakai. Thank you for sharing it, I never heard this one before.

Thanks for this we have a Mitsubishi Zero plane in a museum here in NZ✈️🇳🇿

The use of the Zero as a Kamikaze aircraft had almost nothing to do with its disposability. To use it as an effective weapon requires a highly skilled and experienced pilot. By the time the Kamikaze tactic was employed Japan had so few highly skilled, experienced pilots left, there weren't even enough to train new pilots. It was a lack of pilots more than obsolescence that the planes were used in this way.

The Zero was an exceptional airplane in the early days of the war. Probably too because of the excellent pilots as well. It’s range made it the first strategic fighter. A very useful trait for the vastness of the Pacific theatre. The Japanese weren’t prepared for a long war for not having a better replacement and a better program of training replacement pilots. Saburo Sakai wrote about the grueling training the navy put their pilots through. It built an esprit de corp, but washed out many a better pilot than they could produce later. He was one of their best aces and was the best that survived the war and he didn’t make the grade of carrier pilot!

one design feature overlooked was the rear elevators forward position that gave it a phenomenal turn aspect. Overall and Bottom line is egos will get you killed.

I never realized how much the Zero looks like a Focke Wulf 190. The front of the aircraft (engine area) and the undercarriage (the way the landing gear extends down out of the wings and locks) look very similar.

I just got back from Tokyo a week ago. I visited the Yushukan museum and saw the beautiful restored Zero they have on display. Amazing looking thing.

haven't seen one of your vids in many many months (i forgot, or youtube "forgot", to click the bell). Production quality has shot up immensely, good show sir!

The P-38's had supercharged engines with a high ceiling and extremely high dive speeds. A favorite tactic of the P-38 pilots would be to fly high over the top of the Zeros (who could not match their altitude) and dive at high speed with one flight of planes which would break up the Zero formation and then a second group of P-38's would swoop down and shoot down the stragglers who had no wingman to protect them. Very effective. The Zero was built for a close in dogfight which it excelled at but not this type of fight. On another note, I live not far from Chino airport in Chino California that was a military airport in World War 2. Just north of Chino is the San Gabriel and San Bernadino mountains. One of the peaks is 8,000 foot plus Cucamonga Peak, which has a flat looking summit. I believe this is the peak you can see behind the P-40 Warhawk in this video.

Very well written and presented. Thank you

I love history. I love engineering. Both together? Amazing! Keep up the good work. Too bad RU-vid thinks this kind of content is inappropriate...

"Japanese air power was dead. And the Hellcat was the executioner." - History Channel's show "Dogfights"

Got to watch Midway again. The diving is so real.

I was stationed in Japan, at Tachikawa AB, in 1976, on base was a strange building , I was told an Air Tunnel, was said that the Zero was design /tested in this building, the base(U S side) is now a park. Tachikawa was a beautiful base and attracted many high ranking officers for the great housing.

This video is one of the best videos I have ever seen, so keep up the amazing work. Also every single video I watch from you truly inspires me to do better.

To Real Engineering: What made you tell the story of Kiyoshi Ogawa (at 11:00 in)? My wife arraanged the repatriation several items belonging to Ogawa to the young man's family, including his watch, and a letter, and a few other items. Ogawa's items were collected by a crewmember of the Bunker Hill, who left those items in a small tin, to his grandson, who worked for me. Because of my interest in military subjects, he showed them to me and I asked my wife who reads Japanese to translate the letter, and learned Ogawa's name. She then contacted a shrine in Japan, and was able to learn of Ogawa's surviving relatives, and arranged to have them meet the owner of the items here in San Francisco, who gave them to the Ogawa family. That story was reported in the San Francisco Chronicle. I was surprised to see mention of Lt. Ogawa in your video, and wonder why you selected him out of the many?

I believe an American ace pilot noticed that zeroes had trouble manuvering in certain ways. Sothe race to recover the downed zero to inspect it only helped explained some of it's manuvering quirks at certain speeds and altitudes.

Thank you for the super informational video.

Didn't know about the zero G stall or the high speed maneuver problem. Great video. Thanks for doing the homework.

Once again loved the video. I am actually in the middle of a book called ' Whispering Death '. Which is a day to day history of the Royal Australian Air Force during the Pacific War. Needless to say the Mitsubishi Zero features heavily in the book. All if the aspects mentioned in this video are in the book. If I may add, the Japanese pilots of the Zero along with other fighters and bomber very rarely carried parachutes. Which of course meant they lost most of the pilots and other aircrew when shot down. There is one description in the book of a Mitsubishi G-4M ' Betty ' bomber which came down in a raid on Darwin. The final crash was low and slow, when the Australians arrived on the scene there was no fire, but all eight crew were found death, and with not a parachute between them.

California had many gardeners of Japanese dissent. One of whom was one of the funniest man I knew. Whenever we got a new employee, he’d tell the guy he was a kamikaze pilot during World War II. In reality, he spent the war years in an interment camp. RIP Mitz.

I love the clip of the wildcat crashing off the carrier, I just imagine everyone in the bridge going "oh shit!"

I saw the Zero fly at a Chino air show. I think that’s the only one still with the original engine. A gorgeous plane, and a wonderful sound. I also saw a formation of 6 P-38s. No small feat, considering how rare those are. Did I mention they had a Focke-Wulf 190?

I like how you explain things without talking down to less technical people (like me.)

TBF, it’s been argued that Kamikaze tactic led to the Japanese Airforce loosing fewer planes than otherwise. It should also be noted that many key weapons systems of WWII started out as “overpowered” “super-weapons” and ended up being superseded or even made obsolete by newer technology.

Excellent video. Philochrony is the theory that describes the nature of time and demonstrates its existence. Philochrony establishes an analogy between zero and time thus arising the linear zero.

I used to ride an itchifani 250cc. Always loved Japanese motorcycles

Might add that after WW2 Jiro Horikoshi headed Japan's rocket program and became the father of Japan's space program. Disappointed that the P-39 gets no mention. The P-39 held a 1.1"1 kill ratio against the Zero while the much more popular P-40 held a 1.04:1 kill ratio against Zero's. The Japanese tried to produce self sealing fuel tanks in the Zero but they could never get them to work, they leaked. In the end the Zero got fire extinguishers mounted in the wings. Even by 1945 a Zero in the hands of a experienced pilot could still be a dangerous adversary. Their were other aircraft that could do almost everything better but may your gold help you if you got low and slow (below 200mph) with a Zero.

To call the Japanese kamikaze pilots terrorists is akin to labelling the French resistance fighters as terrorists. It’s is simply not so. My wife is originally from Japan and, aside from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, she is the very best thing to ever happen to me. Anyways, Japan is a beautiful country, your video was very well made, and so you have my sincerest thanks for it.

Amazing work!!!

The historical footage used in this video is AMAZING.

"The *Rise and Fall* of the Japanese Zero" thought it was a kamikaze pun... whoops.

VERY thorough, answered all the Qs, addressed all. Re: weaknesses, tactics. Gen.Claire Chennault defeated Zeros without a crashed model to examine, wrote the book, demonstrated success, was ignored.

"In one FOUL swoop" Poetic lapsus, that.

I don't know much about the rise of the Zero...But the fall was from .50 cal API ammo.

The A6M did not suffer the float-type carburetor issue. It had a down-draft carburetor, fuel injection. The Americans put the akutan zero back together incorrectly which gave them this impression.

As great as this video is, it’s amazing how far you’ve come since!!! This popped up on my recommended and it’s an awesome video, but current videos are even better!!!

My Datsun is like the zero steel it’s thin so it rusts so easily

I actually connected better with the ad without a segue. I rarely watch to completion, and often fail to add a like/comment etc. on good content because of the in content ads I hear so often. I'm usually tuned out within 2sec of a segue. It's a shame that YT does not monetize these uploads quicker. This is just as interesting and entertaining as the very best of educationally entertaining content on YT. The demonetization algorithm is far too primitive IMO. YT needs to get away from what appears to be a simple key word based algorithm and implement a weighted bias that accounts for each CC's content metrics history and content quality. Channels like this or anything from Brady Haran, Hank Green, PBS, etc. should be monetized by default. You guys are what keeps me coming back to YT day after day. Google has my profile. These are the best opportunities for the AI to hit me up with a short 15 sec or less ad about some new IC or a cheap new electronics gadget I haven't seen before. -Jake

The A6M Zero was the most feared fighter plane in the first year of the Pacific war.

Great research, good job

I didn't see kamikaze as terrorism; I saw it as a relic of samurai warrior culture that was deliberately reenforced in order make the empire's troops more effective. Now I know that wasn't the only explanation. Desperation, plain and relatable; selflessness, thought of as a virtue in most of the world; and pragmatism, which makes the former two applicable in war; drove brave young people to die in a struggle against an ultimately unstoppable force. My view on kamikaze has completely shifted thanks to a single video and I'm not entirely sure how to feel.

thank you so much for this video it was more than amazing. Can't express my excitement with words after watching this