Japanese Mercenaries?
 

Can anyone shed light on this statement "The People's Liberation Army Air Force managed to get hold of aircraft formerly belonging to 22nd and 85th Sentai, who had disbanded in Chosen, the Japanese name for Korea during their imperial rule (1910–1945) over that country. These aircraft were flown by Japanese mercenary pilots, who used them until the last two Ki-44s finally retired in the early 1950s." It's from WikiPedia.

best regards

Keith

Re: Japanese Mercenaries?
 

This theme has been touched in this thread: http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=40458

Another interesting theme would be the Japanese who took part in the Indonesian Independence War against the Dutch after WW2.

Re: Japanese Mercenaries?
 

And, presumably, they operated against the Japanese that the British were using against the Indonesian Nationalists before the Dutch administrators were back in place?

Allan

Re: Japanese Mercenaries?
 

For the little that I have read about the subject there were not any skirmishes between those Japanese obeying Allied orders and those joining the Indonesian independence movement. The Japanese in autumn 1945 had absolutely no interest to take any action against Indonesian independence movement in behalf of the Allied (Dutch) but were in many cases sympathetic and cooperative to Indonesian independence movement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9tYurVJKG4

There has been some academic studies of the theme: http://journals.cambridge.org/action...ne&aid=7445000

This is one of those points when things are more complicated than the simple perfection of WW2 combatants as the "evil Axis" and the "good Allied". In Indonesia many Japanese soldiers ended up to be the "good guys" - freedom fighters against the "bad guys" = the Western Allied (British/Dutch) who tried to restore the colonial yoke of Europeans. The "bad guy/good guy" depends from the point of view and is complicated issue here. Interestingly some Japanese soldiers ended up to be at the winning side after all when Indonesia gained its independence.

More of the theme:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2...a-dies-95.html
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/201.../#.VfAvaPysV8E
http://www.amazon.com/Japanese-Memoi.../dp/6028397199

About the Japanese who fought for the Indonesian independence their motives may have been mixed: it seems some indeed genuinely supported the Indonesian cause and perhaps some were mercenaries - I wonder if the latter category included the Japanese pilots of the nascent Indonesian Air Force.

In any case the Japanese played a very important, even fundamental role in building up, training and equipping the Indonesians for the later independence war against the Dutch.