USS MISSOURI: JAPANESE KAMIKAZE AIRCRAFT FRAGMENT.

USS MISSOURI: JAPANESE KAMIKAZE AIRCRAFT FRAGMENT.
A Piece of Aluminum from a Japanese Zero. Retrieved from the USS Missouri, after the attack on April 11, 1945, off Okinawa, approximately 160 x 90 x 40 mm, mounted to a wooden base 260 x 96 x 19 mm, with a plaque reading "Japanese Kamikaze Crashed Aboard U.S.S. Missouri / April 11, 1945 /Bob Schwenk / U.S. Navy." Heat damage and distortion to aluminum.

Bob Schwenk was aboard the U.S.S. Missouri on April 11, 1945, off Okinawa, when the ship was struck by a Japanese Mitsubishi A6M fighter plane, known to the Americans as the "Zeke" or "Zero." No American personnel were lost in the attack, and the body of the Japanese pilot was recovered from the wreck and given a burial at sea, complete with a respectful three-gun rifle volley and salute from the Missouri's crew. Schwenk retired to Long Beach, California, and recounted some of his experiences in the book U.S.S. Missouri (BB-63) "The Mighty Mo" (Tuner Publishing, 1998). The USS Missouri was the ship on which the signing of the Japanese Surrender document took place on September 2nd 1945, in Tokyo Bay.