'Kamikaze Escort' Japanese Army Ki-84 'Frank' & Ki-27 'Nates'

A dear friend of mine was a Kamikaze escort pilot with the Japanese Army Air Force. He flew the Ki-43 'Oscar' and later the Ki-84 'Frank' fighters on several escort missions from lower Kyushu to the area of Okinawa in 1945. At the very end of the war he was pressed into service as a Kamikaze pilot himself and flew six missions to Okinawa - each time being forced to return due to thunderstorms en-route. He was oddly saved by the bombing of Hiroshima, where he was burned and in Hospital when the war ended. I painted this piece in his honor in 2006. He had died from Leukemia in 1992.   - R. Cole

Signed and numbered.