Like the French list, most of the models are painted as of just before the start of the war.
Pre-war destroyers have their kata-kana names and division numbers on the side. The practice was discontinued after the start of hostilities. Japanese battleships had wooden decks but the cruisers and destroyers had their decks covered in a chocolate brown linoleum. The Imperial Japanese Navy made almost no use of camouflage painting throughout the second world war. There were some exceptions. Surviving aircraft carriers near the end of the war did receive camouflage. A few seaplane tenders also were given camouflage. Carriers did have an individual identification syllable painted on the flight deck.Wind direction was indiated by a set of anfular markings with a jet of steam or smoke emitted at the apex to allow the pilots to judge where the wind across the deck was going. The carriers also used red and white markings to indicate the apron of the landing area so the pilots would not undershoot and crash into the ship.
Aircraft identification marks were usually displayed on a cloth sheet that was rolled out when in proximity to friendly air bases.
The Japanese Merchant Marine adopted a standard camouflage later in the war. Invasion forces under the control of the Japanese army also carried camouflage of various designs. They can be seen in my Blog entries.
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Japanese submarines were given identification numbers in a series following an initial Kata character that was used to indicate what size or class of submarine was being numbered. The Kata characters “I” (
), “RO” (
),and “HA” (
) indicated large medium and small submarines. “HA”, by the way, is pronounced “WA”. There were also some Japanese Army transport submarines that received numbers after the syllable “YU” which was the first syllable of the Japanese word for a transport vehicle. I have never had any models of “YU” class submarines in my collection. The “HA” class included midget attack submarines and some small Navy transports. Japanese submarines usually had their number displayed on the side of the conning tower or sail when in port.
Wetherhorn 