Ed DeKiep

Sean & Ryan, Yes, by early 1942 Mitsubishi had developed the highly standardized stencils to apply characters in the Houkoku inscriptions by spraying with black paint, as seen in the photo you posted above of HK-874. These stenciled characters took up a lot of space, requiring the repositioning of the data stencil downward and towards the rear. As you noted from the brush strokes in photos of HK-1033, 1045, and 1053 when heavily weathered at the time of recovery from Ballale, Nakajima used a skilled sign painter to apply the Houkoku inscriptions. The data stencil was left in the standard location, and the sign painter squeezed the inscription to fit into the available space. Also visible in the photos of these three Nakajima-built Reisen was evidence of the wide red fuselage band marking of 252 Ku. This band had to be notched to clear the rear of the Houkoku inscription, as well as the front of the data stencil. The tail codes of these aircraft would have been 11??, not like W1-150 as in the illustration above. Ryan and I were having a side conversation about possible tail codes for these Reisen. My participation in that got cut short when I was called back to work from the coronavirus shutdown several weeks ahead of many others. I hope to get back into that and finish up soon. Thanks, Ed DeKiep

Ryan, I agree that these Hōkoku Reisen were all assigned to 252 Ku based on the wide fuselage bands toward the rear of the fuselage. Here is the latest info and translations I have for these. Nakajima-built, Manufacture Number 5451, Completion Date 2-11-? (No. 75 of 80 produced in November, 1942) 報 國 第 1053 號 ( 全 南 海 苔 號 ) Patriotic Gift To The Nation Number 1053 (Jeonnam Seaweed) - Jeonnam is a province in the Southwest part of South Korea that is known for cultivation of seaweed for human consumption. The donors were businesses associated with this product. Nakajima-built, Manufacture Number 5459, Completion Date 2-12-? (No. 3 of 96 produced in December, 1942) 報 國 第 1045 號 ( 内 外 印 刷 號 ) Patriotic Gift To The Nation Number 1045 (Domestic & Foreign Printing) - The Google translation is (Inside & Outside Printing). But, an example I saw was printed in both Japanese and French, so I think (Domestic & Foreign Printing) is a better translation. Nakajima-built, Manufacture Number 3471, Completion Date 2-12-? (No. 15 of 96 produced in December, 1942) 報 國 第 1033 號 ( 第 二 青 島 綿 糸 布 號 ) Patriotic Gift To The Nation Number 1033 (2nd Tsingtao Cotton Cloth) - The donors were Japanese-owned textile mills in Tsingtao, China. The Hōkoku donor inscriptions were all applied Nakajima-style, which differed significantly from those applied by Mitsubishi. All three listed above were part of a large production block of Hōkoku Reisen that ran from at least Hōkoku 1054 through 1032, and probably included several more at each end of the range. It appears that Nakajima applied the donor inscriptions in reverse order to the Manufacture Numbers, possibly as a way to make it more difficult to determine production figures based on the Hōkoku numbers. You could probably make a good guess at the Completion Dates based on the production information I included above. Thanks, Ed DeKiep