continuation of side-essay

[kaigou]

I'll work this part into yesterday's post, when I send the finals over to Zania.

--

How many times are we reminded that Tallgeese is archaic? Easily five times, ten, maybe a few more. Everyone seems startled that Zechs would possibly want to fight with it, let alone at its power. And then he goes and tries to put Wing back together, to either use it, or fight against it. I was sitting here--actually doing work, I know, I know, shocking--and I recalled an article I read yesterday about pre-WWII Japan.

Okay, as part of some of the treaties Japan signed around the turn of the century, it was already agreeing to certain military restrictions that acted in favor of the US and Britain. But from 1925 through 1930 or thereabouts, several different military envoys came to Japan, bringing their cast-off planes with them. Japan's air force, for the most part, entered its expansionist period using older machinery against people that couldn't fight back. When Japan increased its aggressive actions against its neighbors, the Navy listed their requirements and opened the field to bids. Mitsubishi, in the end, was the only one who thought it possible to build the plane the Navy requested--and they did.

The Mitsubishi A6M Zero Fighter was the finest shipboard fighter in the world during the first year of the Pacific War. It was the first shipboard fighter capable of defeating its land-based opponents. Its world-wide fame was won in a series of astounding victories against all types of land-based and carrier-based Allied aircraft during the first six months after Pearl Harbor. It took part in every major action in which the Japanese Navy was involved, from Pearl Harbor all the way to the final B-29 assault on Japan. It became a legend in its own time for its extremely good maneuverability and its exceptionally long range. Even today, the Zero remains for the Japanese and their erstwhile enemies alike the symbol of Japanese air power during the Pacific War.

Now, you tell me what kind of message the Gundam Revisited (Wing series) might have been saying, given that ZERO drove the pilots insane.

Yeah. Also, a bit of trivia:

During the first year of the Pacific War, the standard shipboard fighter serving with the US Navy was the Grumman F4F Wildcat. The A6M2 was superior to the F4F Wildcat in speed, climb rate, and maneuverability, but the Wildcat had better firepower and was more robust. In a dive the two aircraft were fairly equal, but the turning circle of the Zero Fighter was very much smaller than that of the Wildcat by virtue of its lower wing loadings.

All quotes from Joe Baugher's Mitsubishi A6M Zero Fighter analysis.

Not bad. ZERO: built in record time, answering the demands of war--must have machines. However, the original 'ZERO system' seems to be in Tallgeese. At this point, it gets even more intriguing. Damn! In 1937, George VI was crowned, and Japan sent a two-person plane to mark the event, a little bit to show off (the plane could move in excess of 300 mph, which was phenomenally fast at the time). Keep in mind that at this time, Japan had already set up the puppet-states of Kwantung and Manchuria, and had continued expanding militaristically. According to Allstar (reprinting from the Franklin Mint, of all places), the Mitsubishi Karigane arrived in Britain, and the Japanese pilots were more than happy to show off the plane, its engine, and its interior to curious Westerners.

While [the Westerners] recognized [the plane's] military potential, they did not perceive that the plane was an indication of Japan's growing strength. However, the Karigane proved to be the direct ancestor of the great Zero fighter that was to dominate the sky over the Pacific during the early years of World War II. In addition, the Karigane was modified for combat and became an outstanding warplane in its own right, serving Japan's military forces in the Pacific fighting. [emphasis mine]

Karigane means 'wild goose.'

Man. Okay! Back to work for me.

Comments

goosefeathers

[tanuki02.livejournal.com]

Sol, you rock! I had wondered just what the writers had been smoking when they named the MS “Tallgeese”. Did “geese” imply that this was the first of a new MS line? And if so, was there a scaled-down test model somewhere- the “Shortgoose?”
In my saner moments, I speculated that it might have been a reference to the “Spruce Goose,” Howard Hughes’ monstrosity of a flying boat. After all, the SG was built of wood because of the need for metals during the war, and was meant to airlift cargoes that might be sunk at sea. The thing took forever to develop, was flown once, and then mothballed as dead-end tech when the military decided it was throwing money down the hole. Sounds familiar?
But I agree that the writers were probably referencing the Mitsubishi Karigane. And as for Zero...I think just discussing Zero the plane and the multiple semantics of zero in Japanese language and culture as expressed in GW...well, there’s a whole ‘nother essay right there.

Re: goosefeathers

[solitude1056.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd been over the pages with the naming conventions before, but usually it's the Allied's naming conventions for the Japanese fighters (boys' names), ships (girls, I think), and gliders (animals). Then I scrolled down further, saw the "wild goose" moniker, and researched it further. Lo and behold...

The thing is, the plane's name--Zero--wasn't really zero. It's something else, grrr, that I can't recall now. However, the Japanese military designated 1940 as 'the zero year', which I think was related to the notion of the great new era of co-prosperity beginning under Japanese domination. So the plane got the nickname of Zero (and the allies, for some odd reason, called it Zeke).

What really stands as connection between the ZERO in GW and the Zero in Japan's history is that the Zero was the means by which Japan was able to dominate from 1940 through about 1946. By the time the Pacific theater was in full flush, though, the Zero was already becoming obsolete, but they kept with it, instead of updating. In the end, the majority of kamikaze pilots flew Zeroes, from what I recall.

However, the fact that Zero is what allowed Japan to dominate could be the tweak by the GW writers: ZERO, after all, is an atrociously powerful weapon, one that drives the pilot insane--but that insanity could be, in part, from having so much power at his fingertips. If my instincts are right on the GW writers' attitudes, they're saying--between the lines--that having such an unstoppable weapon on the Japanese side really opened the door to behaviors that probably should not have been perpetrated upon colonists (whether that be in space, or meaning China, Indochina, and so on).

Re: goosefeathers

[christeos-pir.livejournal.com]

Also Zero for the Allies because of the big red circle.