Nakajima Ki-84 "Hayate" - bibliography #1

There are not as many publications as you would expect dedicated to the "Hayate" in Japanese.

Here's a list.

 

 Famous Airplanes Of the World (FAOW): #8 (blue)

Published by Bunrindo; Oct. 1971
Authors: various, Illustrations: Hashimoto Kikuo
Pages: 60
Photos. Vintage: 53 b/w, modern: 10 b/w
Illustrations. Profiles: 16 colour; 16 b/w, drawings: 4-view plus one skeleton

 

FAOW #19
Published by Bunrindo; Nov. 1989
Authors: Akimoto Minoru, Nohara Shigeru, Illustrations: Nohara Shigeru
Pages: 90
Photos. Vintage: 121 b/w, modern: 50 b/w; 19 colour
Illustrations. Profiles: 16 colour; 18 b/w; drawings: 10 4-view, various types.

IN COMPARISON: The older, blue FAOW has worse overall printing quality and worse paper. Most of the photos are included in the new issue. The blue FAOW has only 23 photos that were not reproduced in the new one. Some are important, some not that much. Nevertheless, miraculously, the quality of the vast majority of the same photos is far better in the old FAOW!!! They are clearer and of bigger size. The photos in the new FAOW give the impression that were scanned from the old one! The profiles of Nohara Shigeru are good but leave much to be desired. On the other hand, the profiles of Hashimoto have this brilliant, shiny silver colour that looks and feels so close to the real thing. Something that no new edition has ever been able to reproduce. But the new issue has some very important photos and illustrations not included in the older edition, like the Hayate trainer and the night fighter.

 

 MARU MECHANIC #8

Published by Ushio Shobo; Jan. 1978

Authors: Akimoto Minoru and others.

Pages: 44

Photos. Vintage: 6 b/w, modern: 58 b/w; 48 colour

Illustrations. Profiles: -, drawings: 39; 4-view in 1/50 scale, a/c manual, super detail colour illustration of the cockpit.

MARU MECHANIC #33

Published by Ushio Shobo; March 1982

Authors: Akimoto Minoru, Ikari Yoshio and others

Illustrations: Nohara Shigeru.

Pages: 82

Photos. Vintage: 20 b/w, modern: 80 b/w; 10 colour

Illustrations. Profiles: 8 colour, drawings: 70+; super detail 4-view in 1/50 scale, a/c manual, super detail colour illustration of the cockpit.

Extra features: MM#33 includes: article by Ikari Yoshio regarding the design and development of the a/c, interview with test pilot Igutsi (Inogutsi?), article by Izawa Yasuho on the combat action of the a/c in the China front with the 22nd Sentai, article by Oishi Sozo of the 47th Sentai and their Hayate, article by the maintenance group leader of the 47th Sentai Kariya on the performance of the a/c and finally article by Akimoto Minoru on the markings and operation history of the Ki-84.

IN COMPARISON: The MM#8 is based on the only known surviving Hayate in the world. All the photos included in the book, except the vintage ones, are of this plane showing in great detail various parts of the a/c. The colour photos are especially revealing and helpful although some of them show a quality of the '70s. Excellent cockpit colour illustrations and a few drawings from the Hayate manual. Very few of the photos of MM#8 are repeated in MM#33. I could locate just a couple. MM#33 has a lot more manual drawings and the photos that accompany them show how the real thing looks like. For this, a combination of modern and vintage photos is used which is overly very helpful to the modeller. Nohara's art is a lot better in the MM#33. All the illustrations of the MM#8 are included in the MM#33. So in conclusion, MM#8 is complimentary to MM#33, both issues giving an overall excellently documented, very detailed presentation of the airplane.

Both MM publications cannot be compared to the FAOWs. The FAOWs are mostly photo books with plenty of vintage photos while the MM are mostly technical books.

MODEL ART #283

Published by Model Art; Dec. 1986

Authors: Nohara Shigeru and others

Pages: 158

Photos. Vintage: 51 b/w, modern: 230 b/w

Illustrations. Profiles: 32 colour, drawings: 41; 4-view in 1/48 scale, front view detail colour illustration of the cockpit, various parts.

MODEL ART #493

Published by Model Art; June 1997

Authors: Nohara Shigeru

Pages: 166

Photos. Vintage: 80 b/w, modern: 101 b/w; 20 colour

Illustrations. Profiles: 33 colour; 11 b/w

Drawings: 69+; 4-view in 1/48 scale, a/c manual.

Extra features: both Model art issues include one page of colour chips each. Especially MA#283 includes 45 pages of "Modelling Hayate" and two interviews, one with IJA test pilot (LCDR) Aramaki and another with the maintenance group leader of the 47th Sentai Kariya.

IN COMPARISON: All the vintage photos of MA#283 are included in MA #493. Few of the modern photos can be found in both issues. When this is the case, they are usually of better quality in MA #493. But MA#283 has by far the highest number of photos compared to any other publication. Squeezed in size making it a crowded issue but VERY detailed. The colour photos of MA#493 are of better quality than any other publication although not as detailed as in MM#8. Comparing the vintage photos of MA#493 and the two FAOWs we can say that there are only very few (5-6) photos not found in the FAOW publications in MA#493. MA#493 includes some photos found only in FAOW#8 (not repeated in FAOW#19) and in general, the quality is similar to FAOW#8; a lot better than FAOW#19.

It is difficult to compare the MAs with the FAOWs and the MMs. We can say that they are a combination of both other publications but include some special features of their own (a/c manual, colour chips...) while having less vintage photos (compared to the FAOWs) and slightly less detailed presentation (compared to the MMs).

 

 GAKKEN #46

Published by Gakken; July 2004

Authors: various, Illustrations: various

Pages: 190

Photos. Vintage: 74 b/w, modern: -

Illustrations. Profiles: 66 colour; CGs: 7 (pages); drawings: 4-view in 1/48, plus 30 pages with 125 illustrations of the a/c manual.

Extra features: A reproduction of a vintage colour chart with the standard colours of the IJN & IJA a/c, as of Feb. 1945.

IN COMPARISON: Poor collection of vintage photographs, only four not included in any of the other publications. No highly detailed photos of the a/c except of a few b/w photos of the cockpit, no interviews, no modelling guides, nothing on the HA-45 Homare engine or the twin seat or the night version. BUT it has two extras that makes it a VERY worthwhile publication. First, is the vintage colour chart with the colour chips and the complete (?) maintenance manual. Regarding the maintenance manual, what was partially included in the MM#33 and MA#493 is (almost) all included here. There are also a few illustrations (I counted 4) that were included in the MA#493 and not in Gakken#46 which indicates that maybe the manual is not complete. Also, although these illustrations are highly detailed and extremely helpful, there is a problem with the size. They are simply too small! The reader needs either a magnifying glass or to scan these illustrations again. The MA#493 had them covering almost one page each AND photos to show the real thing. A plus feature of the Gakken#46 is the quality and number of the profiles. Excellent presentation, showing beautifully the various colour schemes and special features of each a/c. BUT, there are no profiles of those "Special Attack" units, especially the super cool "21" of the 57th Shinbu-tai. Absolutely no complains about the CGs. Unbelievable work! Just like the real thing. All in all, a good and helpful publication that compliments all the previous ones but would not stand on its own. This is not the definitive Ki-84 Hayate book, but a nice effort nonetheless.

 

AERO DETAIL #24

Published by Dai Nippon Kaiga, 1999

Authors: Nohara Shigeru, Tanaka Masato

Pages: 76

Photos. Vintage: 25 b/w, 1 colour; modern: 167 colour

Illustrations. Profiles: 11 colour, drawings: 16 pages

IN COMPARISON: This is the most modeller-friendly publication of all. It includes a great collection of colour photographs of the only surviving "Hayate", detailing the aircraft better than any other publication. Very poor collection of vintage photos though and only a small sample of colour artwork.
NOTE: although all the other books are in Japanese, Aero Detail #24 is the only one with the Japanese text also translated into English.

TOTAL ASSESSMENT: Each of the above publications has some similar and some distinct features compared to the others. None can be called the "absolute" book on the Hayate. Their differences and weak points show with age. The overall publication quality is getting better with the passing of time (with the exception of FAOW #19) resulting in the incorporation of the latest technology (as in Gakken #46). Nevertheless the overall feeling is that actually there is not much out there regarding this very important airplane. With only one exception (MM #8) the majority of the material is repeated from one publication to the other, especially the vintage photos. So, from what is published so far, we can conclude that what is available on the Hayate are: a fairly limited number of vintage photos and a maintenance manual. Not much, isn't it.

Important note. The only in-print publications are FAOW#19 and Aero Detail #24. All others are out-of-print but available through our on-line store together with the in-print books. Please email us for availability and prices.

Jacob Terlouw sent over the cover of FAOW#148.