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I recently inherited a number of pictures taken by my father in August & September 1945. During the process of Japanese surrender at the end of WWII.

Several are of captured aircraft, most of which are identifiable, but I can't find information about this one...

Twin-engined japanese aircraft

The picture was taken in Borneo. The aircraft has the white cross painted over the rising sun emblem, which identifies it as captured spoils of war.

The photo has a handwritten note on the back - simply "Captured jap bomber".

Is is a bomber? It seems to have windows in the fuselage.

Chenmunka
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2 Answers2

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Google Lens suggests that this is a photo of a Tachikawa Ki-54 (trainer / transport). And I think Google Lens is right.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachikawa_Ki-54

Tachikawa Ki-54 photo source

enter image description here

Mike Sowsun
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gdir
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  • The landing gear looks more like a Ki-54 than a Ki-57. – Dave Gremlin Oct 05 '22 at 14:33
  • @qq jkztd I believe you are right and I edited the answer to include that photo and link. – Mike Sowsun Oct 05 '22 at 14:52
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    Looking closely at the camo details, the a/c in photo in answer is clearly the exact same individual airplane as the one in question-- – quiet flyer Oct 05 '22 at 16:28
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    @quietflyer Judging by the group standing behind the fuselage, just ahead of the cross, and the other group standing a bit in front of the plane, it may very well be two photos taken at nearly the same time, of the same plane in the same place with the same people around. Hard to say with how blurry the Q photo is. – KRyan Oct 05 '22 at 20:22
  • This looks remarkably like the very same plane. The man on the right in your picture appears to be wearing an AIF uniform, those in my picture definitely are. The ground and the background vehicles look remarkably similar. A great find. – Chenmunka Oct 06 '22 at 12:47
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    I'd also point out that there's a mark on the right front tire, near the bottom, in both pictures, in the same location, suggesting that the plane has likely not moved at all between one picture and the next, unless it's just coincidence the wheel wound up in the exact same rotation... – Darrel Hoffman Oct 06 '22 at 13:37
  • Is it significant that the starboard prop in both photos is stopped in the horizontal position? Or is that a feature of the engine? – DJohnM Oct 07 '22 at 06:34
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Possibly a Mitsubishi_Ki-57?

It's a radial twin and looks to be a similar size and shape, with a row of square windows at the right height and spacing.

Mitsubishi Ki-57

Image courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org

The Ki-57 was a passenger transport derived from the Ki-21 bomber but the 57 looks to be missing the nose glazing and the dorsal glass house of the Ki-21

Dave Gremlin
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