Identifying Aircraft Artifacts Ex Situ: The Life History of an F4U Corsair

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Developing Standard Methods, Public Interpretation, and Management Strategies on Submerged Military Archaeology Sites" session, at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In 2016, representatives of Saiki, Japan presented an historical aircraft engine, propeller, and partial wing to the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC). The artifacts were discovered by accident some years prior when fishermen caught their nets on a submerged U.S. naval aircraft in Saiki Bay. Residents of the city of Saiki assembled funding to raise the aircraft, but were only able to recover it in part. The resulting assemblage was placed on display outside the Saiki’s Yawaragi Peace Memorial Hall in 2007 until the return of the artifacts to the United States for the 70th anniversary of WWII’s end. Having little archaeological context, NHHC researchers are tasked with identifying the artifacts and defining the wartime actions that resulted in aircraft losses in the area of Saiki. This paper presents the historical research methods of determining the life history of a WWII-era F4U Corsair.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2019   •
• Developing Standard Methods, Public Interpretation, and Management Strategies on Submerged Military Archaeology Sites

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Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 245