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吉村啓作

Flight Petty Officer 3rd Class Imperial Japanese Navy

War record

1939 entered the navy (aged 17) → 1941.7 graduated from the 56th Pilot Trainee Course → training with the Taiwan Naval Air Group → sent to southern French Indochina; the Malaya and Netherlands East Indies operations → end of 1942.5 returned to Rabaul → 1942.6.16 attack on Celebes (fought P-39s, 2 shot down) → 1942.8.7 attack on Tulagi (5 F4Fs shot down) → 1942.10.25 hit during the attack on Guadalcanal; his aircraft was destroyed and he was killed (aged 20)

At the young age of 20, his combat career at Rabaul — lasting not quite six months — came to an end with him being shot down

Unit: 台南空→22航戦司付
Victories: 確実9・不確実4・協同1機(すべて撃墜機)sources differ

No fragment for this person is in the Archive yet.

What is still not known

Photograph: none yet. Unless a person was reported on during the war, almost no portrait survives that is free to use ⚪️
Afterwards: how he lived after the war is not written in this source.

This card is made only of facts copied from one book 🟡 index. It is not a biography. An empty field means the book does not say. Nothing has been filled in by guesswork.

Source: Japanese Naval Fighter Units, p.221

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