"The Yanks call this type of plane "Betty," an effeminatizing gesture that really irks him. Then again, the Yanks name even their own planes after women, and paint naked ladies on their sacred instruments of war! If they had samurai swords, Americans would probably decorate the blades of nail polish." (335) That screamed "UNDERWORLD" to me. The last part was particularly amusing. There's nothing wrong with painting on things with nail polish...I do that all the time...On a more serious note, though, I think it's interesting that the American men who painted women on planes considered it good luck, but the Japanese (or at least Stephenson's Yamamoto)thought it was effeminate and a stupid/disrespectful practice. Meanwhile, Japanese soldiers were raping women, sometimes in ways that would serve as a good luck charm and protect them in battle.
Clearly, Yamamoto cannot multitask the way Bobby Shaftoe can. I wasn't anticipating the head-on collision with the octomelis sumatrana at all. In my head, it kind of played out like a scene from a cartoon where the character crashes into something and sees stars and cuckooing birds or something.
When I read this scene, it reminded me a lot of the movie "Pearl Harbor" and the scene when the American men are preparing to go bomb Japan. There's a scene when one of the men (I think his name was Red or something like that)paints the name "Betty" on a bomb after his girlfriend (a nurse) who was killed in the Pearl Harbor attack. Anyways, all of the film's cheesy symbolism aside, I feel like the movie and the book are kind of pointing out similar things here. I think it is a luck thing, as you pointed out, and also a sort of reminder of home and a reason to fight the war and get back there (to the generically named woman).
Haha, another "Pearl Harbor" reference! I think you are right, that the ladies are for luck (they remind me of the female figures on the bows of ships) but also just hope, too. It seems to me that during war, when one is in a far-away country, your American loved ones seem so distant. These icons emblazoned on the side of planes must be a reminder, but also just a symbol of optimism etc.
This may be completely non-related to our books, but I was wondering, if women (like those half naked mermaids) were carved into the bows of ships, why was it considered bad luck to have a woman ON the ship? I wonder if having a woman in the plane during WWII would have been bad luck too (you know, forget the fact that her name and boobs are on the front of it, she's probably going to make the plane crash or something)?