Tom Shigetoki Umeda oral history interview, part 2 of 3, June 5, 2008

Shigetoki Tom Umeda's mother helped coordinate the interview with Mitsubishi for Tom. After the interview with Mitsubishi, Tom got the job. He describes how Mitsubishi was two sections for the Army and Navy. There was six other Nisei employed at the company who wanted to use their engineering experiences. Tom and the other Nisei decided to work from Mitsubishi because they could not find an engineering job in the United States.

Tom recalls talking to the man who created the aircraft department at Mitsubishi and how he collected data from American aircraft to construct the zero fighters.

Tom worked in the Navy section on zero fighters. His assignment was the 6th and 7th versions of the landing gear. Tom describes creating and getting approval of the landing gear design.

He designed the landing gear with the philosophy of not using a dead weight. His goal was to make the landing gear as durable and light as possible. After several trials, Tom succeeded with his calculations.
However, the war ended, and Tom's design did not make it in time.

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1916 Aug 25