The apple-green crosses were hastily applied to all Japanese service aircraft upon the Emperor’s announcement of the Empire’s surrender. They were applied in a variety of styles, in some cases simply painted freehand adjacent the hinomarus, in others they were painted over a wash coat of white at national marking locations.
The surrender delegation who were to meet MacArthur were instructed to arrive in Betty bombers which were stripped of all armaments, painted completely white, and the green crosses applied in place of the Japanese national markings, to add to Japanese humiliation.
When the Allied forces arrived in Japan, they were surprised at the large number of servicable aircraft available, so it was not the case that “crossed” aircraft represented poorly maintained or abandoned airframes.
As long as we're discussing markings, here are a couple more that are uncommon but easily explained. No unusual markings on the float plane - I'm just fascinated by counter-rotating props. They never got all the bugs worked out of this variation... the wingtip outriggers would retract but had a bad habit of not dropping back down.
Which no doubt made for some "max pucker factor" landings. SW
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