Recent investigation into the Kam Zero revealed that there were several other photographs taken of it before the one that is most widely known. These earlier photos were taken by soldiers stationed at Fort Kam, who used their own cameras to take pictures of the only Japanese plane brought down within the confines of their duty station. The photo below was taken by Jacques Fuselier, a soldier attached to one of the Coast Artillery regiments, and was originally posted on the website Army Hero Jacques Fuselier. This picture is significant in that it shows the Kam Zero with the canopy still in place, which indicates that Hirano's body is still inside. This hypothesis is further strengthened by the memoir of Carl Loughborough, another soldier stationed at Fort Kam who examined the Zero shortly after the attack ended.
The men on the strip in Hickam shot down one of the Zeros. When it fell, it hit one of the machine shops on Fort Kam killing five men. About a half-hour later, I was ordered to leave the 50 caliber and go to the large coastal guns where I was in charge of the range section. As we went by the machine shop, I walked over and looked at the dead Jap pilot. He had a scarf around his neck that I would have liked to had, but the area was under guard so I had to leave it.4
The guard that Mr. Loughborough refers to is visible in Mr. Fuselier's photos. Also visible above the Zero's tail is a sign giving the name of the building as “Ordnance Machine Shop.” The building is clearly not a quarters, and the Ordnance Machine Shop is shown on the 1922 map as in the Barracks area.
A second Fuselier pre-investigation photo, shown above, looks down the street in front of the Machine Shop from a perspective similar to the Kam Zero photo shown on the home page. The structures in the background, while definitely built in the same architectural style as the quarters, have more windows than the quarters and are labelled on the 1922 map as larger barracks buildings.
4 Loughborough, Carl, Recollection on family website 2000, site no longer exists
