Japanese Navy Aircraft Popular Names

In contrast to the Japanese Army aviation, most types of Navy aircraft received Popular Names. This began about July 1943 and coincided with the practical abandonment of broadcasting determinations by numbering Type (Koji Gata) and the classification determinations by short code symbols (Kana Gata). These systems had provided allied intelligence too much information as to he planned use of new aircraft and the year of its entry into production. Names were widely used, particularly by Japanese propaganda. Their assignment to particular types of aircraft are based on certain key, and are broadcast fighter aircraft names derived from the weather (in particular sea and windz), land based fighters from lightning, night fighters from the phenomena of light ), bombers (including, in particular torpedo and carrier based) from celestial bodies, medium and heavy bombers from the mountains and mountain chains, special aircraft (including, in particular kamikaze) from flowers, observation airplanes from clouds, transport airplanes from celestial phenomena, training aircraft from grasses, trees and other plants, patrol airplanes from the seas and oceans, various unusual aircraft and other flying objects for special purposes from dragons. The names were generally descriptive, poetic and very rarely coincide with the lethal purpose of the aircraft. An additional difficulty is the exact translation of the Japanese language.