[Japanese Air Force]

This rare Japanese poster issued in Thailand was souvenired at the end of the war from a railway station by an Australian POW who had worked on the Thai Burma Railway. The Japanese text translates as 'Day of Aviation’. This is repeated in the Thai language.

The main aircraft depicted is an Imperial Japanese Army Ki-43 ‘Oscar’ fighter. It has shot down an RAAF/RAF marked single engine fighter which is stylized or representative of a Hawker Hurricane fighter. The latter were encountered by the Japanese over Singapore, Malaya, Sumatra and Burma during the war.

The twin engine bomber has US Army Air Force markings and ‘US ARMY’ can be faintly seen underneath the wings, as per where they were historically placed early in the war. The aircraft is again, not quite one identifiable aircraft but it appears to be a stylized combination of several aircraft.