World War II Database

1.  Bill says:
6 Oct 2011 07:12:20 PM

Ohka I-18 was captured along with I-13 and several others Ohka's at Yontan air field, Okinawa in 1945.
I-18 was on display for years at the Planes of Fame Museum, Chino California USA, its has
been moved to Valle, Arizona USA.

Growing up in 1960s Los Angeles, my parents would take my brother and I to the Museum, those were remembered days ma packed a lunch
we had a wonderful time.

2. Anonymous says:
8 Aug 2012 05:05:36 PM

My grandfather actually stood next to that ohka on Okinawa

3. D. Henderson, son of Capt. David N. Henderson, XX AF says:
12 Jun 2025 10:02:11 AM

There is a row of tents in the background. One of them is my father's. He was involved in the move of the XX Air Force (Xx Bombardment Group) from India to the Marianas in March of 1945. Originally ordered to relocate to Tinian after the bombers had left India, those orders were cancelled on March 29, 1945. On April 2, 1945, he was ordered to board a C-54 for transportation to Tinian but in the air, it was announced that the aircraft was redirected of Okinawa (I have no information on whether the redirection was ordered whle the aircraft was in the air or if it was planned to go to Okinawa but the destination was kept secret until it was airborne.)
This C-54 landed on Yontan about 4:00 PM on April 2, 1945 (about 36 hours after the invasion of the main island of Okinawa), being one of the first US aircraft to land on Okinawa.
In his papers, I found a photo of my father with I-18, along with him is an Army sergeant who had graduated from my father's North Carolina high school a year prior to my father; they met on Okinawa in the days after the invasion.
In my father's photo, they are standing in front of the numbers on I-18 but there is a dent in the lower section just behind the point of the nose cone of I-18 that's visible on my father's photo, so we can be assured that it is the same aircraft.
There are photos of I-18 being dis-armed in a wooded area. The first photos show the nose cone in place; subsequent photos show the warhead and the rocket propellant tubes being removed. In the last photos of that set, the nose cone is shown as being returned to its place but not fully secured as previously. You can see the lack of fasteners on I-18 in this photo, and on my father's photos. It would seem that this implies that the disarming of I-18 took place prior to 7 April - i.e. with in the first week after the invasion.