Nishizawa

L/E of 199 Giclee Prints, 10 A/P, 10 canvas A/P's (Please let us know what surface you'd like. Prints come Rolled)
S/N by the Artist
Image Size: 24" x 16"
Paper Size: 30" x 24"

Plane Type:Zero A6M3-Model 22.

Hiroyoshi Nishizawa has been recorded by historians as having been the highest-scoring Japanese fighter “ace” of World War Two. Although the methods used for keeping tally varied between the Japanese and their Allied opponents, Hiroyoshi Nishizawa still remains in a class with any top-scoring Allied fighter ace. However, due to the differing methods of tallying aerial victories, Nishizawa’s final score remains a subject of controversy to this day - but certainly he was the undisputed top-scorer amongst Imperial Japan’s fighter pilots, both Army and Navy. Nishizawa’s humble beginnings, odd personality, and frail appearance, made him an unlikely candidate for the position in history that he acquired before his death in late October 1944. By October, Nishizawa was a member of the 203rd Air Group and on the 25th of October, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, he had a premonition of his imminent death. The following day, while on a transport aircraft ferrying pilots from Cebu to Japanese-held Clark Field on Luzon, his premonition came true when his transport was set upon by US Navy Hellcats from VF-14 off the USS Wasp, and shot down in flames over Mindoro, most likely by VF-14 pilot Lt. J.g. Harold Newell, who was credited for the “kill”. An extremely aggressive fighter pilot, Nishizawa suffered the ignominy of dying while a mere passenger in a lumbering transport plane. At that time, by his own count he had claimed 87 aerial victories over Allied aircraft. Born in the mountains in Nagano Prefecture on the 27th of January, 1920, the fifth son of a father who was a worker in a local sake distillery. His working life began at age sixteen in a textile factory following his graduation from elementery school. Also at age sixteen he applied to become a member of the Yokaren, a reserve flight-training program and was subsequently accepted into the Japanse Naval Air Force Pilot training program, and graduated 16th in his class of 71 (surviving) students. Between that time in March 1939 and October 1941,when he was assigned to the Chitose Air Group, Nishizawa was attached to various air groups, including the Oita, Suzuka, and, Omura, attaining the rank of Petty Officer-1st Class in the process. His most well-known assignment was to the Tainan Air Group, or Tainan Kokutai, where he became the good friend of Saburo Sakai, Junichi Sasai, and Toshio Ota, three other high-ranking IJNAF fighter aces. Together, these four mutually respecting and intensly loyal friends raised havoc in the skies over New Guinea and over Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. As the Allied air forces gained strength The Tainan Air Group suffered unsustainable attrition, including the loss of Saburo Sakai on August 8 1942, Junichi Sasai, killed by USMC ace Marion Carl on 26 August, and Ota at the hands of USMC Corsair pilot Frank Drury over Henderson Field, on 21 October 1942. Not long after that, the Tainan Air Group disbanded and the survivors were assigned to other units. Above we see Nishizawa in May 1943 while attached to Air Group 251 flying a Reisen (Zero) A6M3-Model 22. PLANE JUNKIE - Nishizawa by Jack Fellows (Zero A6M3-Model 22)