Japanese enemy aircraft identification guide

[Luftwaffle8]

About 20 years when I was in Japan, I would head immediately over to a district called Jinbocho, in Tokyo. This is Tokyo's famous book district. There was one particular old bookshop which specialized in WWII era books and publications.

I picked up 2 enemy aircraft identification booklets. The one on the right was published in September 1941 and the red booklet was published in 1944. These booklets were available to the public and to aviation personnel.
They are 3.5" x 5" and fits conveniently into your pocket. I picked these up for a dollar each.

The Japanese intelligence people subscribed to Jane's All the World's Aircraft and simply copied the photos and data. They really had no hardcore information on our planes and performance data, except from some P-40s and a couple of B-17s they had captured in 1942.

The booklets were divided into US, Soviet, and British aircraft.
They even pictured an experimental XF5F Grumman Skyrocket, which never entered combat. When I once chatted with Zero pilot Kenji Yanagiya, he told me that he had shot down a Skyrocket! I told him that he was mistaken because they never entered combat...perhaps it was a P-38 down in the Solomons?

From time to time, these old booklets crop up on eBay.