WHY IS THE ZERO CALLED THE ZERO?

Japanese Navy Designation Systems prior to and during WWII

During WWII and prior, Japanese Naval aircraft were assigned designations based on three different aircraft type designations systems. Basically, they were as follows: 1. Experimental "Shi" numbers: from 1931 onward this number, based on the current Japanese imperial year of reign was assigned to every new aircraft projected for the Navy. Thus, all aircraft projects initiated during 1932, the seventh year of Showa (as the reign Hirohito was called), were known as Experimental 7-Shi, whereas those designed in 1940 became known as Experimental 15-Shi. The "Zero" in this designation system was known as "Navy Experimental 12-Shi Carrier Fighter", since the preliminary specifications for this fighter's design competition were submitted to Mitsubishi and Nakajima in 1937. 2. Short designation system: During the late 20's, the Navy introduced this system, similar in concept to that used by the U.S. Navy until 1962. The first capital letter, or type symbol, indicated the primary function of the aircraft, i.e. "A" for carrier fighter, "B" for carrier attack bomber, etc. The first number, or type number, indicated the number of different aircraft that had been ordered under each type designation, while the second capital letter indicated the company responsible for the design of the aircraft, such as "M" for Mitsubishi. Under this system, the "Zero" was known as "A6M". 3. Type number system: From 1921-28, these type numbers were based on the current Japanese year of reign during which a particular type of aircraft was accepted for production, e.g. 1921-26 = Taisho 10 to Taisho 15 and 1927-28 = Showa 2 and 3. However, starting in 1929, the type numbers were based on the last digits or digit (singular beginning in 1940) of the Japanese calendar year. Therefore, aircraft accepted for production during the year 2600 (1940 A.D.) were assigned "Type 0". (As as side note, the Japanese Army Air Force had adopted a similar system beginning in 1927, however the corresponding Army nomenclature to the Navy's "Type 0", was "Type 100") On July 31, 1940, the "Zero" was accepted for production as the "Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighter Model 11" (The "Model 11" [stated "one-one"] refers to airframe and engine versions, both of which, in this case, are the first versions approved for production). To the Japanese, this aircraft was most commonly known as "Reisen". "Rei" is an alternate pronunciation of "Zero", while "sen" is short for "Sentoki", or "Fighter". Therefore the term "Reisen" is "Zero Fighter". Early U.S. recognition books and intelligence reports referred to the new fighter as "Type 0", "Mitsubishi 0" or "Sentoki 0" (and numerous variations of those themes). It is natural, therefore, that American military personnel encountering this aircraft in the Pacific began calling it

the "Zero". In fact, since the U.S. knew astoundingly little about Japanese aircraft, much less their nomenclature, "Zero" became a little too used, a fact profoundly felt by the founder of the U.S. code-name system in 1942, Frank T. McCoy: We had little or nothing with which to start. Each airplane discovered seemed to have a strange sounding name to us, none of which had any meaning. One thing that was fairly consistent in reported sightings of Japanese aircraft by Allied aircrews was that if they were fighters, they were called "Zeros." Once "Zeke" was applied to the Mitsubishi A6M series of fighters, (with the exception of "Hamp", which was the code name given to the A6M3, the clipped-wing version) that name took the place of "Zero" in official sources. However, "Zero" was still the most commonly used pronoun for this aircraft in everyday usage throughout the war, and to this day. It is also interesting to note that a very large number of aircraft were built of "Type Zero" aircraft designs, that is to say aircraft that were accepted for production originally in 1940. The following is a list of the majority of Japanese Navy "Type Zeros", and production numbers: Type Designation Type Type Type Type Type 0 0 0 0 0 Short Name # Built

Carrier Fighter Mitsubishi A6M 10,449 Reconnaissance Seaplane Aichi E13A 1,418 Small Reconnaissance Seaplane Yokosuka E14Y 126 Observation Seaplane Mitsubishi F1M 1,118 Transport Douglas L2D 487 (licence-built DC-3)