Captured F2A Buffalo
Several Buffalos were captured and tested at Tachikawa. This view is of Brewster Buffalo numbered [1] on display at Tachikawa along with a captured Dutch Douglas DB-7 (A-20) and an early model Boeing B-17. The Tachikawa insignia on the tails has been overpainted or removed by the censor.
Photo credit: Peter M. Bowers via Martin Caidin Collection.
-Jim Lansdale
With the collaboration of one of our Message Board members in Japan, Ryutaro NAMBU, and the cooperation of the Asahi Shimbun, it will be possible to reproduce wartime photographs of the captured Allied aircraft which were tested at Tachikawa test center.
One sample, of several to appear in an up-coming article exclusively for Dave PLUTH's J-Dot Com web site, appears below. It is a captured Netherlands East Indies, RAAF, or RAF Brewster Buffalo undergoing testing at Tachikawa by the Koku Gijutsu Kenkyujo.
Photo credit: This photograph originally appeared in the "Koku Asahi," May 1943 monthly magazine published by the Asahi Shimbun. The photographers are listed on the photograph. Since no negatives or original prints remain in the Asahi Shimbun archives, the photograph was scanned from a remaining "Koku Asahi" copy and digitally enhanced with the kind permission of the Asahi Shimbun.
-Jim Lansdale
The IJAAF captured many more than four Brewster Buffaloes after the fall of the NEI!
See photo above of a whole squadron of Dutch Buffaloes captured. Add to these the RAF and RAAF Buffaloes captured in Malaya and the IJAAF could have fielded an entire Hiko Sentai.
Most Buffs went to the GiKen at Tachikawa and Singapore facilities for testing and training purposes.
-Jim Lansdale