Inside the Unbelievable True Story of the Real WWII Fighter That Killed Godzilla (2024)

Human war machines don’t tend to fare well in encounters with Godzilla, who debuted on the silver screen in 1954. However, in Godzilla Minus One—a hit with U.S. audiences after its release on Netflix in June—the notorious kaiju finely meets his match in the form of a bizarre-looking fighter plane called the J7W1 Shinden.

The film, which won an Oscar for special effects despite its modest $15 million budget, is primarily set in 1947 in the immediate aftermath of World War II—a period during which Japan’s forces were progressively disarmed and mostly dissolved under U.S. occupation.

In film’s fictional universe, the American nuclear tests in the Bikini Atoll awaken Godzilla, but the U.S. military is too distracted by the Soviets to fight him. So, Japanese paramilitary forces are left to scrape together a handful of disarmed warships and left over prototype tanks and aircraft to confront the King of Monsters on his Tokyo-bound rampage.

But the elegant Shinden (which means Magnificent Lightning) sure doesn’t look like a real World War II-era fighter. It sports swept wings, a rear-facing pusher engine and a set of smaller additional wings near the nose called canards—none of which were found on operational World War II-era piston-engine propeller planes.

So, the audience could be forgiven for assuming that the Shinden is an invention of the movie designed on the basis of ‘rule of cool’. But that’s not the case—the Shinden really did exist in flying form. And you can visit what remains of the surviving prototype at the Smithsonian, or see the full-scale replica built for the movie in Japan.

The origins of Imperial Japan’s Prototype Canard Fighter

While the world’s first airplane—the Wright Flyer—technically featured canards (or ‘forewings’), this design feature largely vanished post-1910 in favor of the more common tailplane configuration.

During the Cold War, the canard gradually crept back into fashion, and several modern jet fighters—notably the Eurofighter Typhoon, Chengdu J-10, JAS 39 Gripen, and Dassault Rafale—incorporate canards to improve maneuverability, lift, and flight control precision (at the cost of added drag).

But World War II-era aeronautical engineer did try to introduce the canard earlier. One example was the weird-looking American XP-55 Ascender, which was flight tested, but never entered production.

Another effort was instigated by Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) technical officer Masayoshi Tsuruno, who saw potential in using canards to free up the ordinarily ‘wasted’ tail space and carry a rearward-facing pusher engine. That could allow smaller wings and a more compact fuselage, trimming weight and thus yielding an improved thrust-weight ratio that would increase maximum speed, acceleration, and climb rate.

Tsuruno initially built three wood-and-fabric MXY6 two-seat canard gliders at the Naval Aviation Technical Arsenal in Yokosuka. In the fall of 1943, these proved stable and maneuverable in test flights towed by a B5N torpedo bomber.

Impressed by the results, the IJN ordered Kyushu Hikoki K.K. (formerly Watanabe Steel Foundry) to build two high-performance interceptor prototypes based on the gliders, with construction beginning in 1944 and supervised by Tsurunno.

This was quite a leap for a company which had previously only manufactured pokey trainers (K10W and K11W Shigariku), E9W submarine-launched float planes, and ponderous Q1W Tokai anti-submarine aircraft. But Japan’s more experienced aircraft manufacturers were already committed to other projects.

The company mobilized a huge number of workers, including female students and conscripted laborers, and was advised by German engineer Franz Pohl on optimization for mass production.

Even before the first prototype flew, the Navy then ordered mass production of the aircraft, aiming to build 150 J7Ws per month at two factories.

At the time, the IJN was desperate for fighters with adequate speed, climb rate, and firepower to intercept and destroy American B-29 bombers, which first raided Japan in 1944. B-29s typically cruised at 30,000 feet or higher, where Japanese flak guns and fighters struggled to reach them. Of 414 B-29s lost bombing Japan, only 147 were downed by Japanese fire.

J7W1 Shinden, on paper and in reality

The J7W1 Shinden was built around a powerful, rearward-facing, 2,130-horsepower Mitsubishi Ha-43-42 air-cooled radial engine mounted behind the co*ckpit, which turned a six-bladed variable-pitch propeller. This 18 cylinder engine (also designated the MK-9D) incorporated superchargers to boost performance at high altitudes where the air is thin.

The Shinden also featured retractable tricycle landing gear (one gear under the nose, two underwing) to prevent the tail-mounted propeller from tipping downward into the runway.

Weighing just four tons empty, the J7W1 was projected to achieve a maximum speed of 470 miles per hour, which would have made it one of the fastest piston-engine fighters of World War II. Its projected climb rate—2,460 feet per minute up to 39,000 feet—would have aided in the interception of high-flying B-29 and B-32 bombers.

Similar to Germany’s Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter, Shinden was armed with four powerful 30-millimeter autocannons angled 3 degrees upwards, each with 60 rounds. The Type 5 cannon individually weighed 154 pounds, and each could spit 6-9 shells per second (with casings collected internally). Shinden was also planned to support up to four 130-lb bombs on retractable racks, or two 75-liter drop tanks.

Unlike many prior Japanese warplanes, the J7W1 was was to be decently armored—featuring 16 millimeters steel on the front fuselage, and 70-millimeter bulletproof glass in the canopy—and had self-sealing laminated rubber fuel tanks (400 liters in fuselage, 200 in each wing) that improved odds of surviving enemy fire. And while the Shinden lacked the ejection seat jerry-rigged in the film (these only existed on a handful of World War II aircraft), it instead featured an explosive propeller ejection system triggered electrically prior to bailing out to improve pilot safety.

While the first J7W1 prototype was completed April of 1945, its engine took longer. B-29s raids damaged the Mitsubishi Nagoya plant that was building the Ha-43-2 engine, and ground tests revealed engine over-heating problems caused by a flawed cooling system. The same tests revealed that, despite the tricycle landing gear, the tail-mounted prop nonetheless ended up digging into the runway. The second prototype’s prop was swapped onto the first prototype, and a tail wheel that had been cannibalized from a K11W trainer was installed as a stop gap to avoid a repeat.

Finally, the first flight (by Tsuruno himself) took place on August 3 at Mushiroda Airfield (today, f*ckuoka Airport). Two additional test flights followed on August 6 and 9—coincidentally, the dates of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. All were low-speed tests (never exceeding 182 mph) with landing gear down. Remarkably, there is footage of the test flights.

The tests revealed that substantial modifications were needed to stabilize the aircraft—particularly due to the heavy starboard torque produced by its engine during takeoff and in flight (it could only trim to the left). Vibration of propeller blades and drive shafts were also problematic, as was excessive engine oil temperature. The one-degree tilt of the aircraft’s canard also produced a strong nose-down bias that necessitated excessive flight control pressure to counteract.

These were the kind of problems flight-testing was intended to detect, and they were corrected on the second prototype through a revised cooling air intake, re-tuned flight control system, flap adjustments, and an increase in the canard’s tilt to three degrees (at the expensive of raising stall speed).

Future prototypes 3-8 were planned to introduce revised positioning of the landing gears—they would be placed 10 centimeters rearward to prevent propeller ground contact, removing need for a tail wheel—a less expensive (but 50% larger) diameter 4-blade propeller, machine gun armament, and the newer Ha-43-44 engine in an elevated mounting to the design.

In the longer run, Tsuruno wanted to evolve the design into a Shinden Kai model powered by an Ne-130 turbojet engine, but Japanese turbojet development was lagging. Finally, aided by smuggled-in German technical documents, Japan developed a Nakajima Kikka jet fighter prototype with two Ne-20 turbojets. This first flew on August 7, 1945 while the Ne-130 was undergoing ground test.

The Shinden’s fate

But further development of Shinden and Kikka was canceled following Japan’s surrender, announced on August 15, 1945. The J7W’s blueprints, second prototype, and a third airframe (mid-construction) were burnt by the IJN. However, the original was seized by U.S. Navy technical research teams in October.

After being repaired for storm or sabotage damage (accounts vary), the Shinden was shipped to the U.S. on the escort carrier USS Barnes and reassembled, but not flown. It was finally transferred to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in 1960. Since 2016, the prototype’s fuselage, nose, and canopy have been on display at the museum’s Udvar-Hazy center.

However, nearly eight decades after the J7W1 flew, a Japanese film company built a full-sized replica of the J7W1 specifically for the filming Godzilla Minus One, which is now on display at the Tachiarai Peace Memorial Museum in Chikuzen, Japan.

Other aircraft on display include the sole-surviving A6M3 Type 0 ‘Zero’ and the Nakajima Ki-27 monoplane fighters, used by the Japanese Navy and Army respectively.

Despite its limited flight history, the J7W’s striking looks have led to its depiction in numerous comics, animated shows, and videogames like Ace’s High and War Thunder.

And that’s without even mentioning Godzilla Minus One, which also features several other deep cuts from World War II history.

Four tanks shown ineffectually shelling Godzilla are 30-ton Type 4 Chi-Tos, designed to match the U.S. M4 Sherman medium tank with 3 inches of armor and a long-barrel Type 5 75-millimeter gun. Only two prototypes were built prior to the war’s end.

The many warships depicted were all real-life survivors of World War II. The heavy cruiser Takao, seen blasting her twin 200-millimeter gun turrets at Godzilla, survived two torpedoes, dive bombing, and even underwater sabotage by British commandos using a mini-sub (though this last attack immobilized it.)

The Ukuru-class frigate/coast defense ship Ikuno—swum under by Godzilla—was completed post-war and given to the Soviet Union as a war reparation.

One of the four disarmed destroyers depicted in the final battle is the illustrious Yukikaze—the only Kagerōu-class destroyer of the 11 built to survive the war, despite participating in numerous major battles. It was later destined to become the flagship of the Republic of China Navy post-war. Alongside Yukikaze is Yukaze, an old but fast Minekaze-class destroyer that escorted the carrier Hosho.

The two less prominently featured destroyers are the Akatsuki-class Hibiki (another sole-survivor of its class, transferred to the Soviet Navy), and the Matsu-class Keyaki anti-submarine destroyer.

Also of interest are the wrecked Liberty-class transport ship, the 405-ton Sokuten-class minelayer Katashima (in reality, destined for Soviet and Chinese service), the carrier-sinking American submarine USS Redfish (depicted destroyed with a picture of its sister ship USS Tang, sunk by its own torpedo), teh No. 13 class subchasers used (in film) to broadcast audio lures, and the ribbed 13.2-millimeter Type 93 heavy machine gun fed by 30-round magazines used for mine destruction (in fact, a license-built Hotchkiss M1930).