Isabel Hofmeyr in Bayly, “AHR Conversation,” 1444.
Garon, “Transnational History and Japan’s ‘Comparative Advantage,’” 68.
Ruttan and Hayami, “Technology Transfer and Agricultural Development,” 119–51.
For details about such a diffusion process, see Goldman and Eliason, Diffusion of Military Technology and Ideas, 11–22.
Samuels, “Rich Nation, Strong Army.”
Mizuno designates this ideology as “scientific nationalism” in Science for the Empire.
Jones, Live Machines, 145.
Muramatsu, Westerners in the Modernization of Japan, 24.
For a detailed discussion of foreign influence on the formation of the Japanese Army and Navy, see Presseisen, Before Aggression, and Shinohara, Nihon Kaigun oyatoi gaijin.
For details on the institutional struggles over the establishment of the Aeronautical Research Institute, see Bartholomew, Formation of Science in Japan, 217–23.
See especially Fritzsche, Nation of Fliers; Palmer, Dictatorship of the Air; Van Vleck, Empire of the Air; and Young, Aerial Nationalism.
Kern, Culture of Time and Space, and Schivelbusch, Railway Journey.
Corn, Winged Gospel; Wohl, A Passion for Wings; Wohl, Spectacle of Flight.
Included in Apollonio (ed.), Futurist Manifestos, 22.
Le Corbusier, Aircraft, 6, 10.
Bijker, Hughes, and Pinch, Social Construction of Technological Systems, 40. See also Law, Aircraft Stories.
Kasza, State and the Mass Media.
Barnhart, Japan Prepares for Total War, and Mimura, Planning for Empire.
Etherton and Hessell, Manchuria, the Cockpit of Asia, 163, 307, 312.
Quoted in Naitō, Ōka: Hijō no tokkō, 163.
1. Powerful Images and Grand Visions
For an inventory of publications that cover various aspects of technology transfer, see Staudenmaier, Technology’s Storytellers, 123–33.
I am aware of the anachronistic use of the expression “air-minded.” According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word entered the English language only in 1927, nearly a quarter of a century after the Wright brothers’ first powered flight in 1903.
Saaler has argued that this “independence from civilian control,” rather than the defeat of France in the 1890–71 Franco-Prussian War, was the main motive for a move away from the French toward the German model. See Saaler, “The Imperial Japanese Army and Germany.”
Yet during wartime it would still be an army general who issued imperial orders to the army and the navy. See Drea, Japan’s Imperial Army, 76–77.
Evans and Peattie, Kaigun, 1–31.
Akimoto, Nihon hikōsen monogatari, 99.
Reconnaissance balloons had already been successfully deployed by the French Aerostatic Corps (Compagnie d’aérostiers) in 1794 and during the US Civil War (1861–65). The British army started experimenting with them in 1863.
Ōura, Saikin sekai no hikōsen; and Ono Shōzō, Kūchū hikōki no genzai oyobi shōrai, 8–9.
Yomiuri Shinbun, May 22, 1877.
A quite appropriate expression, considering that the word appare can be written with the ideographs for “bright sky.”
Ōura, Saikin sekai no jikōsen, 87–88, and Ono, Kūchū hikōki, 10–11.
Markus, “The Carnival of Edo.”
Ōtani, “Kyōto to Shimazu Genzō fushi,” 18–19.
Akimoto, Nihon hikōsen monogatari, 143.
Akimoto, Nihon hikōsen monogatari, 141.
Minister of the Army Viscount Terauchi Masatake, “Yamada Isaburō,” 1909, JACAR ref. A10112670000.
The original report is reproduced in Nihon Kaigun Kōkūshi Hensan Iinkai, Nihon Kaigun kōkūshi 1 Yōhei hen, 50–53.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū no gunbi, 1:12–13.
Drea, Japan’s Imperial Army, 125–31; Schencking, Making Waves, 137–65.
Evans and Peattie, Kaigun, 159–60.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū no gunbi, 1: 15–16.
French pilot Henri Fabre (1882–1984) is generally credited with having carried out the first successful seaplane flight in March 1910.
Nihon Kaigun Kōkūshi Hensan Iinkai, Nihon Kaigun kōkūshi 3, 9.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū no gunbi, 1:11–14.
Roach, The Wright Company, 55–71.
Yomiuri Shinbun, July 28, 1909, morning edition, 1; and Asahi Shinbun (Tokyo), July 29, 1909, morning edition, 2.
A French newspaper article quoted in Demetz, Die Flugschau von Brescia, 50.
Hartmann, “Les premiers Farman.”
For more biographical details, see Shibuya, Hino Kumazō den.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū heiki, 12.
Tokugawa, Nihon kōkū koto hajime, 241.
Nihon Kōkū Kyōkai, Nihon kōkūshi, 2:186–87, 241–44.
Yokota, Kumo no ue kara, 15–16.
Gunmukyoku gunmu ka, “Hino Tokugawa ryōtaii ōshū haken no ken” [The dispatch of the two officers Hino and Tokugawa to Europe], 1910, JACAR ref. C06084949000.
Tokugawa, Nihon kōkū koto hajime, 52–53.
Nagaoka Gaishi, “Request for the Release of the Contract Guarantee Fund,” 1910, JACAR ref. C06084948200. Nohara, Nihon gun’yōki jiten, rikugun hen, 10, gives a sum of ¥18,835, which includes two spare propellers and the transport cost. Nohara calculates that this sum would have amounted to ¥94 million (around US$920,000) in 2005.
Tokugawa, Nihon kōkū koto hajime, 54–58.
Ader, L’aviation militaire, 79.
Nagaoka Gaishi, “Request for the Release.”
Provisional Committee for Military Balloon Research, “On the Use of the Yoyogi Parade Ground,” 1910, JACAR ref. C06085048200.
For more on the new rituals of the Meiji era and how the leaders exploited them for nation-building and social disciplining, see Fujitani, Splendid Monarchy, 105ff.
Tokugawa, Nihon kōkū koto hajime, 63.
The French seven-cylinder Gnome motor was a rotary engine. Its entire engine block rotated together with the propeller around a fixed crankshaft.
Nihon Kōkū Kyōkai, Nihon kōkū shi Meiji Taishō, 35.
The question about who Japan’s first pilot actually was has received considerable attention. The discussion is further complicated by contradictory newspaper reports. The Nichi Roku Shinpō of December 15, 1910, reported Hino’s flight, and the Kokumin Shinbun of December 20, 1910, announced Tokugawa’s flight as being the first in Japan. A more recent publication by Hiraki Kunio, Baron Shigeno no shōgai, and the exhibits of the aviation museums in Tokorozawa and Kakamigahara give the credit to Hino.
Asahi Shinbun, morning edition, December 18, 1910, 5.
Yomiuri Shinbun, December 20, 1910, 3.
Nihon Kōkū Kyōkai, Nihon kōkū shi Meiji Taishō, 91.
Quoted in Nihon Kōkū Kyōkai, Nihon kōkū shi Meiji Taishō, 34.
Article published in the Yomiuri Shinbun on October 28, 1912, the day after Tokugawa’s flight.
Tokugawa, Nihon kōkū koto hajime, 115.
Takano, Hino Tokugawa ryō taii.
Such conflation of youthful enthusiasm and militaristic flag-waving persisted. Hiromi Mizuno has pointed out in Science for the Empire how, starting in the 1920s, popular magazines promoted interest in science and technology among Japanese children. When these journals increasingly turned toward military science and technology, they became essential tools for wartime mobilization.
Arguably Jules Verne, in his 1904 novel Master of the World, was one of the first writers to develop a narrative of aircraft inspiring visions of world domination.
For more on these novelists see, for example, Wohl, A Passion for Wings.
Yomiuri Shinbun, April 6, April 9, April 15, 1911, October 25, October 28, 1912.
Kai refers to the last syllable of the Balloon Committee’s name, Rinjigunyō Kikyū Kenkyūkai.
For a detailed account of Hino’s flagging career, see Shibuya, Hino Kumazō den, 206–47.
2. The French Decade
Notre avenir est dans l’air (Our future is in the air) was the title of a 1912 pamphlet published by industrialists André and Édouard Michelin with a print run of over a million copies.
Quoted in Hiraki, Baron Shigeno no shōgai, 45.
For more on Japanese World War I volunteers, see Melzer, “Warfare 1914–1918 (Japan).”
Decree of the French War Ministry published in L’Aérophile, no. 21 (1915): 253.
For details, see Nish, “Japan and the Outbreak of War in 1914,” 173–88.
Unattributed quotation in Nish, “Japan and the Outbreak of War in 1914,” 182.
The Siemens Scandal exposed that high-ranking naval officers had accepted bribes for granting German company Siemens a monopoly for naval procurements.
As yet another example of the labyrinthine Japanese designation system for military aircraft, “Mo” stood for the first syllable in Maurice Farman, the aircraft designer.
Nihon Kōkū Kyōkai, Nihon kōkū shi Meiji Taishō, 142.
According to Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū heiki, 15–16, out of the army’s sixteen airplanes, these five aircraft were the only operational ones, so the army had mobilized its entire airpower available.
Yomiuri Shinbun, morning edition, September 7, 1914, 7.
Osaka Mainichi Shinbun, extra edition, September 27, 1914.
Nihon Kōkū Kyōkai, Nihon kōkū shi Meiji Taishō, 145–47.
Asahi Shinbun, extra edition, September 28, 1914.
Nihon Kōkū Kyōkai, Nihon kōkū shi Meiji Taishō, 143.
Kōri, Aireview’s the Fifty Years, 14; Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū heiki, 15; Inoue, Inoue Ikutarō den, 182; Kimura and Tanaka, Nihon no meiki hyakusen, 27.
Kōri, Aireview’s the Fifty Years, 14.
Asahi Shinbun, morning edition, October 31, 1914, 5.
Plüschow, Die Abenteuer des Fliegers von Tsingtau, 53. The book ranked among the ten bestselling German books between 1915 and 1940. It was translated into English and—despite its racist undertones—even into Japanese.
Plüschow, Die Abenteuer des Fliegers von Tsingtau, 53, 56.
These numbers include 49 flights and 199 bombardments carried out by the navy.
Yomiuri Shinbun, morning edition, November 29, 1914, 7.
Asahi Tokyo, morning edition, December 24, 1914, 3.
Dickinson, War and National Reinvention, 85.
Minister of the Army Oka Ichinosuke, “Officers to Be Dispatched for Aviation Research Purposes,” 1914, JACAR ref. B07090456200.
The diary refers to visits of aircraft makers LVG, Rumpler, Albatros, AEG, and Otto; engine manufacturers Mercedes and Maybach; and airship builders Parseval and Zeppelin. Kusakari, Taiō nikki, 8–28.
Diary entry of June 4, 1914. Kusakari, Taiō nikki, 8.
Kusakari’s diary mentions the examination of French Rhône, Clerget, Renault, and Nieuport engines and German Benz and Daimler motors. Kusakari, Taiō nikki, 188.
Kusakari, Taiō nikki, 194.
Kusakari Shirō, “An Outline of the Present Condition of the European Countries’ Aviation,” 1917, JACAR ref. C08020891800.
On August 5, 1908, the Zeppelin airship LZ 4 exploded during a stopover at Echterdingen near Stuttgart. This national disaster triggered an unprecedented donation campaign that became known as the “miracle of Echterdingen.” The movement raised capital for the construction of a new Zeppelin ten times the value of the lost airship.
“Sekai kōkū genkyō,” Fukuoka Nichinichi Shinbun, February 1, 1918.
Ikutarō, “Kōkūnihon no sōsho,” reprinted in Nihon Kōkū Kyōkai, Nihon kōkūshi, 1:248–58.
Inoue, Inoue Ikutarō den, 49–51.
The Japanese Navy established its own aviation department in its Bureau of Naval Affairs (Gunmukyokukōkūbu) in 1919.
After the Russo-Japanese War, in an effort to establish closer ties between the army and the populace, the slogan “Good Soldiers and Good Citizens” replaced the previous catchphrase, “Rich Nation Strong Army.” For more on this phenomenon, see Fujii, Zaigō Gunjinkai, 10–11.
Nihon Kōkū Kyōkai, Nihon kōkūshi, 1:258.
Tanaka Giichi, “Rikugunkōkūbu chokurei” [Army flight department ordinance], 1919, JACAR ref. A03021185100.
“Tanaka rikugundaijin no kunji chihōchōkan kaigi ni oite” [The Minister of the Army Tanaka’s instruction at meeting of local governors], Yomiuri Shinbun, September 26, 1920, 2.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū no gunbi, 1: 168.
Hiraki, Baron Shigeno no shōgai, 204–6; and Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū heiki, 35.
For more details on these missions, see Presseisen, Before Aggression, 1–68; Polak, Kinu to hikari, 53–77; and Polak, Fude to katana, 10–61.
National Archive of Japan, JACAR ref. C03024710400, manuscript numbers 2061 and 2062.
Quoted in Polak, Fude to katana, 140.
Quoted in Polak, Fude to katana, 140.
“Kōkūkai no gensei jō,” Tokyo Asahi Shinbun, January 16, 1919; “Kōkūkai no gensei ge,” Tokyo Asahi Shinbun, January 17, 1919.
Quoted in Porte, “L’échec de la Mission militaire française,” n7.
A tragic event happened in the midst of the aviation craze. On April 16, 1919, several thousand spectators gathered at the ferry terminal on the Kiso River. In the subsequent scramble to get into the ferry, the boat sank, and seven people drowned. Kakamigaharashi kyōiku iinkai, Kakamigaharashi shi, 498.
A detailed account of the training program can be found in Polak, Fude to katana, 106–23.
National Archives of Japan, ref. 03011244800, manuscript numbers 1060–65.
Jones, Live Machines, 11.
Porte, “L’échec de la Mission militaire française,” n26, Rapport du COL Faure: “The Spad Lorraine aircraft have not arrived and cannot be used. … The Spad monoplanes which we requested for demonstration flights have not arrived … not even the silicon which we need for hydrogen production arrived.”
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū no gunbi, 109–10.
Report dated February 4, 1920, quoted in Polak, Fude to katana, 126.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū no gunbi, 91–96.
Faure pointed out that even in peacetime the average life span of an aircraft is six months. His figures for required aircraft and pilots concur with those given by Kusakari in his lecture. Kusakari attributes an average life span of only three months to a military aircraft during wartime.
Providing target information for the artillery was one of the first relevant uses of military aircraft.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū no gunbi, 94.
Nihon Kōkū Kyōkai, Nihon kōkūshi, 1:255.
Quoted in Polak, Fude to katana, 126.
Quoted in Polak, Fude to katana, 124.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū heiki, 57.
Nohara, Nihon gun’yōki jiten: Rikugun hen, 32.
Nohara, Nihon gun’yōki jiten: Rikugun hen, 33.
Nohara, Nihon gun’yōki jiten: Rikugun hen, 34.
3. Japan’s Army Aviation in the Wake of World War I
Hiromi Mizuno discusses the impact of World War I on Japanese science and technology in Science for the Empire, 13–14.
Barth, Dolchstoßlegenden und politische Desintegration.
Besides the Hans Grade plane, discussed in the first chapter, imports of German aviation technology had been limited to a Parseval airship in 1912 and a Rumpler Taube monoplane in 1913.
Katō Hiroharu, “Ōbei kakkoku gunji shisatsu jōkyō (tōmiyadenka e gokōen 6 gatsu 29 nichi)” [An inspection of the military’s condition in each Western Country—lecture to Crown Prince on June 29], 1920, JACAR ref. C11081069100.
A diagram of the Supreme War Council Military Representative gives the following numbers of officers in the Inter-Allied Aeronautical Commission of Control: Great Britain (sixty-six), France (sixty-two), Italy (twenty-six), United States (eighteen), Belgium (ten), and Japan (five). Supreme War Council Military Representative, “Regarding the Principles Which Should Govern the Distribution of the Aeronautical Material, Given Up or to Be Given Up by the Central Powers,” 1919, JACAR ref. B06150307700.
Hara Takeshi, “Tokumei zenkentaishi Matsui Keishirō ika 74mei o heiwajōyaku jishi iin toshite jōsō” [The ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary Matsui Keishirō and the following 73 members of the peace treaty enforcement committee report to the emperor], 1919, National Archives of Japan: Honkan-2A-019-00 • B00910100.
Members of the Supervisory Committee on German Aviation, “Ō dai 2 gō shi 30 Taishō 14 nen 4 gatsu 25 nichi Doitsu kōkūkai genkyō no ken hōkoku” [Europe No. 2-30: Report on the current situation of the German aviation industry, April 25, 1925], 1925, JACAR ref. C08040446100.
Koiso, Katsuzan kōsō, 402–10.
Junkers-Japan Archivmaterial Deutsches Museum, “Verwertung Flugzeuge Asien Japan,” folder 0705 T1 1919–1921.
Koiso, Katsuzan kōsō, 410.
“Doitsu kōkūkai no genkyō” [The current condition of the German aviation industry], 1922, JACAR ref. C08040371600.
“Arumi yori karuku hagane yori kataku” [Lighter than aluminum, harder than steel], Osaka Asahi Shinbun, October 1, 1926.
It should be noted that the alleged long-term durability of duralumin was put into question in 1924 when scientists at the US Bureau of Standards discovered a type of erosion inside the metal that reduced its strength. For details, see Schatzberg, Wings of Wood, Wings of Metal, 54–56.
Watanabe Kōtarō, “Kinzokusei hikōki ni kan suru kenkyū” [Research on allmetal aircraft], 1925, JACAR ref. C08040449800.
Navy Ministry, “Fuzoku kokusai kōkūkaigi kankei 43 satsu” [Attachment to the 43 volumes on the international aviation conference], 1926, JACAR ref. C04015196500.
Takada Yoshimitsu, “Doitsu kōkūkanshi geppō” [Monthly German aviation inspection reports], 1920, JACAR ref. C04015195400.
“Doitsu kōkūkai no genkyō.”
Watanabe Kōtarō, “Ō dai 2 gō shi 92 Furiidorihhisuhaahen kōkūseizōkaisha kenetsu hōkoku” [Europe No. 2-92: Inspection report on the Friedrichshafen Aircraft Manufacturing Company], 1924, JACAR ref. C08040441100.
Supreme War Council Military Representative, “Regarding the Principles Which Should Govern the Distribution of the Aeronautical Material, Given Up or to Be Given Up by the Central Powers,” 1919, JACAR ref. B06150307700, 198.
Article 224 provided the following numbers: France (30 percent), Great Britain (30 percent), United States (15 percent), Italy (15 percent), Japan (5 percent), and Belgium (5 percent).
Tanaka Giichi, “Senri kōkūki bunpai ni kan suru” [Distribution of war victory aircraft], 1919, National Archives of Japan honkan-2A-011-00, rui 01325100. The exchange rate is according to the Bank of Japan Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies.
Army Ministry, “Dai 49 gō Doitsu yori rengōkoku ni kōfu subeki kōkūki no ken” [No. 49 Aircraft to be handed over from Germany to the Allied Powers], 1919, JACAR ref. C08040384500.
Supreme War Council, “Regarding the Principles Which Should Govern the Distribution of the Aeronautical Material,” 194.
Army Ministry, “Dai 50 gō Doitsu yori rengōkoku ni kōfu subeki kōkūki no ken” [No. 50 Aircraft to be handed over from Germany to the Allied Powers], 1919, JACAR ref. C08040384600.
Foreign Ministry, “Rikugun ni oite ōshū hikōkisaibu no buhinfuzoku kikaitō kōbaigata no ken” [Purchasing aircraft parts and accessories confiscated by the army], 1920, JACAR ref. B07090277400, 286.
Foreign Ministry, “Rikugun ni oite ōshū hikōkisaibu no buhinfuzoku kikaitō kōbaigata no ken” [Purchasing aircraft parts and accessories confiscated by the army], 1920, JACAR ref. B07090277400, 288.
Foreign Ministry, “Rikugun ni oite ōshū hikōkisaibu no buhinfuzoku kikaitō kōbaigata no ken” [Purchasing aircraft parts and accessories confiscated by the army], 1920, JACAR ref. B07090277400, 289.
“Doitsu kōkūshi yatoiire ni kan suru ken” [The employment of German aviation engineers], 1920 JACAR ref. C03025180000.
For more details on the role of trading companies, see Miyamoto and Yoshio, Sōgō shōsha no keieishi.
The above numbers can be found in Rikugun Kōkū bu, “Senri hikōkikanran no ken” [The exhibition of aircraft obtained as war reparations], 1921, JACAR ref. C03025216900. Nihon Kōkū Kyōkai, Nihon kōkūshi, 1:369, maintains that the delivery consisted of forty-five different types of aircraft and 320 engines.
Haddow and Grosz, The German Giants, 273–74.
Nihon Kōkū Kyōkai, Nihon kōkūshi, 1:369.
Nihon Kōkū Kyōkai, Nihon kōkūshi, 1:314.
“Gozen hikō no yu-shiki teisatsuki” [The flight of a Junkers reconnaissance aircraft in the Imperial presence], Osaka Asahi, morning edition, October 25, 1922.
Kuwabara, Kaigun kōkū kaisōroku, 195.
“Doitsu kōkūshi yatoiire ni kan suru ken” [The employment of German aviation engineers], 1920, JACAR ref. C03025180000.
Foreign Ministry, “Rikugun ni oite ōshū hikōkisaibu no buhinfuzoku kikaitō kōbaigata no ken” [Purchasing aircraft parts and accessories confiscated by the army], 1920, JACAR ref. B07090277400.
“Doitsu kōkūshi yatoiire ni kan suru ken.”
Army Air Section, “Gaikoku kōkūgijutsusha shōhei ni kansuru ken” [The invitation of foreign aeronautical engineers], 1923, JACAR ref. C03011780200.
Navy Ministry, “Kōkū ippan (8)” [Aviation general (8)], 1925, JACAR ref. C08051420300, 352.
“Mitsubishi zōsenjo ni oite Doitsu hikōki kōnyū no ken” [The purchase of a German aircraft by Mitsubishi Shipyard], 1924–25, JACAR ref. B07090278600, 328.
Navy Ministry, “Kōkū ippan (8),” 352.
“Mitsubishi zōsenjo ni oite Doitsu hikōki kōnyū no ken,” 329.
For an analysis of Douhet’s works, see Meilinger, “Giulio Douhet and the Origins of Airpower Theory,” 1–41.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū no gunbi, 233.
It is important to note that Douhet’s new ideas were not universally appreciated. In 1916 Douhet was court-martialed and imprisoned for his open criticism of Italy’s military leadership that in his view ignored the strategic advantage of large-scale aerial bombing.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū no gunbi, 208–9.
Polak, Fude to katana, 140.
Jauneaud, L’aviation militaire, 208–14.
Jauneaud’s enthusiasm for aerial armament was not shared by the French War Ministry, which in 1925 began its plans for the Maginot Line, consuming a huge part of appropriations at the cost of airpower expansion until 1940.
Ogasawara, Kōkū senjutsu kōjuroku, 1–31.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū no gunbi, 224.
Watanabe Kōtarō, “Ō dai 2 gō shi 11 Taishō 13 nen 12 gatsu 15 nichi Doitsu hikōki seinō bessatsu no tōri gohōkoku” [Europe No. 2-11: Report on the performance of German and French airplanes as shown in the attached document, December 15, 1924], 1924, JACAR ref. C08040448700.
Watanabe Kōtaro, “Ō dai 2 gō shi 41 Taishō 14 nen 7 gatsu 14 nichi shoruisōfuzuke no ken hōkoku” [Europe No. 2-41: Report of sending documents, July 14, 1925], 1925, JACAR ref. C08040445700.
Sugita, Nihon no seisenryaku, 36–37.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū no gunbi, 193.
Koiso, Katsuzan kōsō, 407.
Koiso and Musha, Kōkū no genjō, 74.
Ugaki, “Kokka sōdōin,” 263–84.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū no gunbi, 255–56.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū no gunbi, 238.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū no gunbi, 241.
Inoue, “Kōkūnihon no sōsho,” 1:248–58.
See Kasza, State and the Mass Media in Japan, 28–53.
National Archive of Japan JACAR ref. C03012294800, 393.
Details of the “visit Europe flight” can be found in Ōshū hōmon dai hikō and in Maema, Asahi Shinbun hōō daihikō, vols. 1 and 2.
The term “black ships” refers to Commodore Perry’s steamboats, which arrived in Japan in 1853. It became a synonym for foreign threat and national humiliation.
For the full text of “The Convention Embodying Basic Rules of the Relations between Japan and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,” see American Journal of International Law 19, no. 2, Supplement: Official Documents (April 1925): 78–88.
Ōsaka Honsha Hanbai Hyakunenshi Henshū Iinkai, Asahi Shinbun hanbai hyakunen shi, 321, gives the numbers: the planned budget was ¥400,000; the actual costs amounted to ¥636,194; the proceeds from donations were ¥356,820.
Nihon Kōkū Kyōkai, Nihon kōkū shi Meiji Taishō, 479.
Nihon Kōkū Kyōkai, Nihon kōkū shi Meiji Taishō, 580.
For Abe’s personal memoirs, see Abe, “Hatsukaze, Kochikaze hōōhikō no omoide,” 69–72.
Ōshū hōmon dai hikō kinen gahō, 1:5.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū heiki, 51.
4. On the Way to Independent Aircraft Design
Mikesh and Shorzoe, Japanese Aircraft, 144.
Taken from the memoirs of Tateyama Toshikuni, the former director of Kawasaki Heavy Industries. See, on this point, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Jūkō Gifu kōjō no omoide, 5.
Kawasaki jūkō Gifu kōjō gojūnen no ayumi, 7.
Senba, Hikōki ni miserarete, 36.
van der Mey, Dornier Wal, 15.
EADS Corporate Heritage, Archiv Dornier, folder Lizenz Japan.
Abe, Kawasaki Zōsenjo yonjūnenshi, 313, gives a 1925 net profit of ¥5,790,151. For comparison, during the same year, the company spent ¥8 million on research and development. See, on this point, Kawasaki’s semi-annual reports in the July 7, 1925, and January 4, 1926, Asahi Shinbun Tokyo, morning edition, 1.
EADS Corporate Heritage, Archiv Dornier.
Kawasaki Jūkōgyō kabushikigaisha, Kawasaki Jūkōgyō kabushiki gaisha hyakunenshi, 32.
Kawasaki Dockyard, “Manufacturing and selling of all-metal aeroplanes,” 1924, JACAR ref. C03012003600, 933.
“Kūchū no kaibutsu” [A monster in the sky], Asahi Shinbun, December 4, 1924; “Daiseikō ura ni migoto na hikōburi” [A very successful great flight performance], Asahi Shinbun, December 9, 1924.
“N” apparently standing for “Nippon” (that is, Japan).
EADS Corporate Heritage, Archiv Dornier, folder Lizenzvertrag.
Quoted in “Dornier Flugzeuge in Japan,” 54–55.
Military historians have pointed out the “irrationality” of oversized weaponry while acknowledging its overawing psychological impact. See van Creveld, Technology and War, 67–78.
Kawasaki Kōkūkikōgyō kabushikigaisha, Kōkūkiseisaku enkaku kitai no bu, 7.
Kawasaki Jūkō Gifu kōjō gojūnen no ayumi, 8.
These bombers were the US Boeing YB-9 and the British Avro Anson.
“The Kawasaki Aircraft Factory,” Kōbe Yūshin Nippō, April 9, 1932.
Board meeting, July 1924, Mitsubishi archive Tokyo, MHI-00339.
Mitsubishi archive Tokyo, MHI-00781. The contract was executed in English.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū heiki, 68–70. See also Nihon Kōkū Kyōkai, Nihon kōkūshi Shōwa zenkihen, 3–38.
An elongated wing generates less induced drag, which is a result of air flowing from the lower wing surface to the upper wing surface. Less induced drag results in fewer vortexes, thereby increasing an aircraft’s speed and flight range.
Nozawa, Nihon kōkūki sōshū: Mitsubishi hen, 44.
Nohara, Zukai sekai no gun’yōkishi: 8, 8.
Weckbach, Heilbronner Köpfe, 30.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū no gunbi, 279.
Sanuki, Sanuki Matao no hitorigoto, 264.
Aichi no kōkūshi, 144–45.
Mitsubishi Jūkōgyō KK, Ōjibōbō, 1:145.
DFVLR Historisches Archiv Berlin, letter by Baumann’s son Alex to Heinz Nowarra, September 30, 1982.
Kawasaki kōkūkikōgyō kabushikigaisha, Kōkūkiseisaku Gifu kitai no bu, 1946, Kakamigahara Aerospace and Science Museum, not cataloged, 7; and Doi, Hikōki sekkei, 44.
Vogt, Weltumspannende Memoiren, 65.
Vogt, Weltumspannende Memoiren, 60.
Anderson, The Airplane, 261.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū no gunbi, 282.
Abe, Kawasaki Zōsenjo, 87.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū no gunbi, 280.
Doi, Hikōki sekkei, 53.
Vogt, Weltumspannende Memoiren, 70.
Interview with Doi Takeo in “Sekkei wa aato obu conpuromaizu.”
Tsuji and Kurita, Hondo bōkū sakusen, 9.
Inoue and Ugaki, “The competition of the trial single-seat fighter aircraft,” 1926–27, JACAR ref. C01003741300, 9–10.
Doi, Hikōki sekkei, 58.
Nakajima Chikuhei, “Request for having foreigners enter and leave the country,” 1927, JACAR ref. C04015990700.
This aircraft was the Dornier Do H Falke (falcon), a 1922 design. 50 Jahre Dornier, 21–25.
Doi, Hikōki sekkei, 62–63.
Mitsubishi Jūkōgyō KK, Ōjibōbō, 1:45.
Nowarra, Die Flugzeuge des Alexander Baumann, 131.
Vogt, Weltumspannende Memoiren, 71.
Doi, Hikōki sekkei, 66–73.
NACA was established in 1915 to coordinate and supervise aeronautical research. In 1920 NACA began its own research activities, making use of increasingly sophisticated wind tunnels: A 1.5-meter-diameter wind tunnel started operation in 1920, a variable-density wind tunnel in 1923, and a full-scale wind tunnel in 1930. For the early years of NACA, see Roland, Model Research, 1:1–98. More on the airfoil can be found in Higgins, “The Characteristics of the N.A.C.A. M-12 Airfoil Section.”
With a load factor of fifteen, an aircraft can hold out against an acceleration force fifteen times greater than its weight.
Doi, Hikōki sekkei, 70.
“A World Record Set by a Military Aircraft,” Asahi Shinbun, November 5, 1930.
“The Army Adopted Kawasaki’s New Fighter Aircraft / Able to Fly within One Hour between Tokyo and Osaka / Special Speed Performance,” Yomiuri Shinbun, October 22, 1931, 7.
“The Power of Our Air Force Will Protect the Skies,” Yomiuri Shinbun, April 9, 1933, 9.
Nozawa, Nihon kōkūki sōshū: Kawasaki hen, 62; and Nozawa, Nihon kōkūki sōshū: Nakajima hen, 44.
The expression “Manchurian lifeline” was first used by Japanese politician Matsuoka Yosuke (1880–1946) in January 1931 and served as a metaphor for the vital importance of northeast China for Japan. For more on this topic, see Young, Japan’s Total Empire, 88.
Doi, Hikōki sekkei, 58–62.
Francillon, Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, 114.
Nihon no kōkū runesansu, 81.
Kōno Fumihiko, Giken Andō gishi yori chōshu shita Mitsubishi kankei jiki shisakuki no gaiyō [An outline by the army engineer Andō about a new generation of experimental aircraft], 1939, Mitsubishi Nagoya Aerospace Museum, not cataloged.
“Rikukūgun ni shinei sekai saidai no chōjū bakugekiki” [The army air force’s new and powerful machine, the world’s largest super heavy bomber], Yomiuri Shinbun, June 9, 1932, 7.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū no gunbi, 263; and Asada, From Mahan to Pearl Harbor, 55.
Jōhō, Rikugunshō gunmukyoku shi, Jōkan, 287–88; and Kawata, “Report on the martial spirit among the US service personnel,” 1923, JACAR ref. C03022632000.
Jōhō, Rikugunshō gunmukyoku shi, Jōkan, 292.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū no gunbi, 263.
Koiso and Musha, Kōkū no genjō to shōrai, 43.
Koiso and Musha, Kōkū no genjō to shōrai, 8.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū heiki, 81–83.
Army Special Bureau of Aviation, “Kyūnishiki kyūbakugekiki seishi ni kan suru ken” [Establishment of the standard of the Type-92 Heavy Bomber], 1933, JACAR ref. C01003983200, 649.
Army Special Bureau of Aviation, “Kyūnishiki kyūbakugekiki seishi ni kan suru ken” [Establishment of the standard of the Type-92 Heavy Bomber], 1933, JACAR ref. C01003983200, 658–62. For the army’s 1928–31 budget, see JACAR ref. C12121666100.
Budraß, “Rohrbach und Dornier,” 218; and Budraß, Flugzeugindustrie und Luftrüstung, 241.
Wagner, Hugo Junkers, 295–303.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū no gunbi, 365.
Katsuragi, Rekishi no naka no Nakajima hikōki, 146; Army Special Bureau of Aviation, “Kyūnishiki kyūbakugekiki seishi ni kan suru ken.”
As it turned out, the new German coalition government under Hermann Müller made substantial budget cuts in the Transocean Program in 1929 that also affected Junkers’s G 38 project.
Junkers-Japan Archivmaterial Deutsches Museum, “Verwertung Flugzeuge Asien Japan,” folder 0705 T4 1928 I; and Mitsubishi Tokyo Archive MHI-339.
Mitsubishi shashi, 35:246.
Junkers-Japan Archivmaterial Deutsches Museum, “Verwertung Flugzeuge Asien Japan,” folder 0705 T5 1928 II and MHI 1642.
Junkers-Japan Archivmaterial Deutsches Museum, “Verwertung Flugzeuge Asien Japan,” folder 0705 T6 1929 I.
Nohara, Zukai sekai no gun’yōkishi, 6, 43.
Army Special Bureau of Aviation, “Kyūnishiki kyūbakugekiki seishi ni kan suru ken,” 683.
Army Special Bureau of Aviation, “Kyūnishiki kyūbakugekiki seishi ni kan suru ken,” 683.
Aichi no kōkūshi, 152.
Junkers-Japan Archivmaterial Deutsches Museum, “Verwertung Flugzeuge Asien Japan,” folder 0705 T9 1931–1933.
Kariya, Nihon rikugun shisakuki monogatari, 79–91.
Army Special Bureau of Aviation, “Kyūnishiki kyūbakugekiki seishi ni kan suru ken,” 686–89.
“Sekai ni hokoriuru chōbakugekiki seisaku” [The production of a Superbomber of which we can be proud before the whole world], Asahi Shinbun, February 14, 1931, 3.
Ministry of Army Newspaper Group, “Sending Issue on Crackdown of Article on Aircraft Examination,” 1935, JACAR ref. C01004075900.
Army Special Bureau of Aviation, “Releasing Military Secret of Aviation Equipment Model 92 Heavy Bomber Construction,” 1938, JACAR ref. C01001635900.
Nozawa, Nihon kōkūki sōshū: Mitsubishi hen, 39.
“Mitsubishi ni okeru kitaisekkei shisaku no hensen,” 156.
Matsuoka, Mitsubishi hikōki monogatari, 176.
Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Jūkō Gifu kōjō no omoide, 54–55.
Mitsubishi Tokyo Archive MHI-339.
According to Nozawa, 118 Ki-1 and 174 Ki-2 were produced. Nozawa, Nihon kōkūki sōshū: Mitsubishi hen, 60, 93.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū no gunbi, 329.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū no gunbi, 337.
Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Rikugun kōkū no gunbi, 341.
According to Japanese newspaper reports the army air force’s activities had such an impact that Chinese general Ma Chan-shan (1885–1950) implored the Japanese not to let their aircraft fly anymore. Yomiuri Shinbun, November 15, 1931.
For the “news war” over covering the events in Manchuria, see Young, Japan’s Total Empire, 57–88.
Fujii, “Shōwa shoki sensōkaishiji,” 39–55.
An approximate translation; gō is a name suffix for vehicles.
The phonograph is available at the library of Showa-kan (National Showa Memorial Museum), Tokyo, item no. 009132.
Yomiuri, December 9, 1931.
Yomiuri, December 9, 1931.
Chūgai Shōgyō Shinpō, January 11, 1932.
An entire chapter in the popular book Warera no kūgun [Our airforce] (published in 1932) was devoted to the first thirty-six donors. See Shōnen kokubōkai, Warera no kūgun, 114–20.
For an account of how the army’s promotion policy obstructed the buildup of professional expertise, see Ishida and Hamada, “Kyūnihongun ni okeru jinji hyōkaseido,” 55.
Koiso, Katsuzan kōsō, 425.
Humphreys, The Way of the Heavenly Sword, 79–107. For details on Araki’s clash with the army’s “total war officers,” see Barnhart, Japan Prepares for Total War, 34–37.
Akimoto, Kyojinki monogatari, 160.
Izawa, Nihon Rikugun jūbakutai, 51.
Akimoto, Kyojinki monogatari, 160.
The only other country that made use of its bombers before 1931 was Great Britain. Between 1919 and 1932, the Royal Air Force deployed their bombers for antiguerrilla
For more on the development of the army’s air doctrine and its impact on aircraft procurement policy, see Mizusawa, Gunyōki no tanjō, 32–43.
Sawai, Kindai Nihon no kenkyū kaihatsu taisei, 233–54.
For critical comments on the incompetent leaders of the Army Aviation Headquarters, see Hata, Itō, and Hara, Gensui Hata Shunroku kaikōroku, 469–79.
In 1943 Nakajima also began two long-range bomber projects. The Nakajima G10N Fugaku, a six-engine aircraft designed to bomb the United States, never made it beyond the drawing board. The G8N Renzan, a four-engine bomber for the navy, made a successful test flight in 1944, but due to material shortage, it did not enter series production. See Torikai, ed., Shirarezaru gunyōki kaihatsu, 1:9–16, 1:73–124.
5. Navigating a Sea of Change
For more details on the debate about an independent Japanese Air Force, see Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Kaigun kōkū gaishi, 74–79.
“Nachlass Kissel Flugmotoren,” 30.12.38, Mercedes Benz Archive, Stuttgart.
According to Eiichiro Sekigawa, the naval arsenals produced a third of the navy’s aircraft between 1920 and 1930. Sekigawa, Pictorial History of Japanese Military Aviation, 33
Wieselsberger had already supervised the installation of a wind tunnel at the navy’s Tsukiji Aircraft Test Laboratory in 1922. He led the construction of wind tunnels at Tokyo Imperial University’s Aeronautical Research Institute, the army’s Air Technical Research Institute, Mitsubishi, and Aichi Tokei. See Suikōkai, Kaisō no Nihon Kaigun, 476. For a description of six major Japanese wind tunnels in operation by 1931, see “Wind Tunnels in Japan.”
For a thorough discussion of the issues shaping interwar military innovation, see Williamson, “Innovation: Past and Future,” 300–328.
Millet, “Patterns of Military Innovation,” 335–36.
I am using the term doctrine in the sense of “fundamental principles by which the military forces or elements thereof guide their actions in support of national objectives,” as defined in Joint Chiefs of Staff, Department of Defense Dictionary, 78.
The Japanese Diet approved the eight-eight fleet program in 1920. However, budgetary restrictions during the postwar recession and the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty resulted in the program’s cancellation. For more on the navy’s eight-eight project see Schencking, Making Waves, 214–17.
Watabe, Nihon no hikōkiō Nakajima Chikuhei, 119–22.
Nihon Kaigun Kōkūshi Hensan Iinkai, Nihon Kaigun kōkūshi 1, 107–10.
Nihon Kaigun Kōkūshi Hensan Iinkai, Nihon Kaigun kōkūshi 1, 110.
JACAR ref. C11080598300, C11080598500.
JACAR ref. C11080598500.
The credit for the first landing on an anchored ship’s deck goes to US pilot Eugene Ely (1886–1911), who landed on the Navy battleship Pennsylvania in 1911.
JACAR ref. C10100792400, C10100792500, C10100792600.
Nozawa, Nihon kōkūki sōshū: Yunyūki hen, 173.
Nozawa, Nihon kōkūki sōshū: Nakajima hen, 120.
Edagawa, Aichi Tokei Denki 85-nenshi, 90.
“Imperial Maritime Defense Volunteer Association purchased an all-metal aircraft from Germany,” Asahi Shinbun, February 10, 1923, 5. For further details on the association, see Giyū zaidan kaibō gikai no mokuteki shimei.
Nozawa, Nihon kōkūki sōshū: Yunyūki hen, 86.
Asada, From Mahan to Pearl Harbor, 107.
Heinkel, Stürmisches Leben, 75.
Nozawa, Nihon kōkūki sōshū: Yunyūki hen, 89.
Duppler and Forsmann, Marineflieger, 18.
Nihon no kōkū runesansu, 29–30.
Miki Tetsuo, “Aichi Tokei Denki no hikōki,” 101.
Edagawa, Aichi Tokei Denki 85-nenshi, 138.
Heinkel, Stürmisches Leben, 130.
Heinkel, Stürmisches Leben, 164.
Details on the development of Japanese catapults can be found in Nihon Kaigun Kōkūshi Hensan Iinkai, Nihon Kaigun kōkūshi 3, 772–74, and in Okamura, Kōkū gijutsu no zenbō, 2:309.
Acceleration by early catapults could result in g-loads in excess of four times an aircraft’s weight.
An article about the Tondern raid appeared in Asahi Shinbun (Tokyo), July 23, 1918, morning edition.
There seems to be some irony in the fact that the first US aircraft carrier bore the name of Samuel Langley (1834–1906), an aviation pioneer whose attempts at manned flight ended up with him in the Potomac River.
Nihon Kaigun Kōkūshi Hensan Iinkai, Nihon Kaigun kōkūshi 1, 194.
Bach, Luftfahrtindustrie im Ersten Weltkrieg, 176.
Fearon, “The Formative Years of the British Aircraft Industry,” 493.
Hoare, “Ernest Cyril Comfort,” 190.
Mitsubishi Archives, Tokyo, MHI-00781.
Mitsubishi Jūkōgyō KK, Ōjibōbō, 3:67.
Ferris, “Armaments and Allies.”
Quoted in Till, Air Power and the Royal Navy, 91.
JACAR ref. C08021355900.
Nagura and Yokoi, Nichi-Ei heiki sangyōshi, 379.
For the Tracey mission, see Asakawa, “Anglo-Japanese Military Relations, 1800–1900,” 19–20, and Shinohara, Nihon Kaigun oyatoi gaijin, 92–100. More on the Douglas mission can be found in Gow, “The Douglas Mission,” 144–57.
Quoted in Nihon Kaigun Kōkūshi Hensan Iinkai, Nihon Kaigun kōkūshi 3, 269.
Nihon Kaigun Kōkūshi Hensan Iinkai, Nihon Kaigun kōkūshi 1, 75.
US Military Attaché London, May 27, 1921, U.S. Military Intelligence Reports Japan, 1918–1941, reel 27.
Quoted in Till, Air Power and the Royal Navy, 64.
For a detailed account (which makes no reference to Japanese sources), see Ferris, “A British ‘Unofficial’ Aviation Mission,” 419–39.
In January 1918, the Air Ministry was put in charge of the newly established Royal Air Force, putting the ministry’s leaders at the same level as the Royal Navy’s Admiralty Board and the British Army’s Imperial General Staff.
Brackley, Brackles, 169.
National Archives Kew KV2-871, 61.
Forbes-Sempill, “The British Aviation Mission,” 556.
Comment of the US military attaché in London on “Japanese Aeronautical Activities,” U.S. Military Intelligence Reports, reel 27.
For a complete list, see Forbes-Sempill, “British Aviation Mission,” 560.
Asahi Tokyo, April 17, 1921, evening edition, 2.
Japan Gazette, September 3, 1921.
Forbes-Sempill, “British Aviation Mission,” 568.
Brackley, Brackles, 174.
Brackley, Brackles, 175.
Quoted in Hoare, “Ernest Cyril Comfort,” 186.
Matsuoka, Mitsubishi hikōki monogatari, 36.
Asahi Tokyo, February 23, 1923, evening edition, 2.
Nozawa, Nihon kōkūki sōshū: Mitsubishi hen, 112.
Genda, Kaigun Kōkūtai shimatsuki, 1:33.
Kimura and Tanaka, Nihon no meiki hyakusen, 51.
Genda, Kaigun Kōkūtai shimatsuki, 1:34.
Brackley, Brackles, 195.
Brackley in a letter to General W. Caddell, in Brackley, Brackles, 177–78.
Forbes-Sempill, “British Aviation Mission,” 584.
Ferris, “A British ‘Unofficial’ Aviation Mission,” 428.
O’Brien, The Anglo-Japanese Alliance, 262.
Fearon, “Aircraft Manufacturing,” 218.
For the British judgment of the Japanese Army, see Ferris, “ ‘Worthy of Some Better Enemy?,’ ” 223–56.
Brackley, Brackles, 132.
Forbes-Sempill, “British Aviation Mission,” 568.
Report, May 31, 1923, Air Ministry, quoted in Till, Air Power and the Royal Navy, 64.
Wada, Kaigun kōkū shiwa, 167.
Itō, Daikaigun o omō, 339.
British documents related to the Sempill spy case were released only in May 2002. The National Archives, Kew, “William Francis Forbes-Sempill,” KV 2/871, 1921–1926.
Forbes-Sempill, “British Aviation Mission,” 582.
Forbes-Sempill, “British Aviation Mission,” 582.
Brackley, Brackles, 146–47.
National Archives Kew KV2-871, 158.
National Archives Kew KV2-871, 10.
National Archives Kew KV2-871, 171.
The Japanese turned down the offer to purchase the British carrier aircraft Plover. Mitsubishi imported the 385 horsepower Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar engine but installed it on only one single-passenger aircraft.
6. Japan’s Naval Aviation Taking the Lead
Quoted in Nish, Alliance in Decline, 390.
Nish, Alliance in Decline, 207.
The US military attaché to London reported in May 1921: “The F-5 Boat is not now highly thought of and is obsolescent if not practically obsolete. It is of no great value except for training purposes as it takes too long to get off the water with anything like a full load.” Lester (ed)., U.S. Military Intelligence Reports, reel 27, frame 140.
Budraß, “Rohrbach und Dornier,” 210.
Takada Yoshimitsu, “Doitsu kōkū kanshi geppō” [Monthly German aviation inspection reports], 1920, JACAR ref. C04015195400.
Kuwabara, Kaigun kōkū kaisōroku, 197.
Nihon no kōkū runesansu, 111.
For details, see Ebert, “Rohrbach,” 4–5.
Budraß, “Rohrbach und Dornier,” 210.
Adolf Rohrbach, “Gründung und wirtschaftliche Entwicklung der Rohrbach-Metall-Flugzeugbau GmbH August 1922–Dezember 1923,” 1924, BA-MA RH8-3606.
Mitsubishi Jūkōgyō KK, Ōjibōbō, 1:19.
For Hattori Jōji’s vivid account of the humble beginnings of Mitsubishi’s aircraft department, see Mitsubishi Jūkōgyō KK, Ōjibōbō, 1:28.
Moriya, Meikōkōsakubu no senzensengoshi, 17–19.
Adolf Rohrbach,“Gründung und wirtschaftliche Entwicklung.”
Board meetings, July 1922 to December 1923, Archives at the Mitsubishi Economic Research Institute (MERI), Tokyo, MHI-00342.
Quoted in Budraß, “Rohrbach und Dornier,” 211.
Adolf Rohrbach, “Ganzmetall-Grossflugboote” 1924, BA-MA RH8-3606.
“Close-Hauled,” Flight, November 6, 1924, 714.
Multiple authors, “Mitsubishi zōsenjo ni oite Doitsu hikōki kōnyū no ken” [The purchase of a German aircraft by Mitsubishi Shipyard], 1924–25, JACAR ref. B07090278600, 0334.
Adolf Rohrbach, “Die Zukunft des Marineflugwesens. Vortrag vor der Admiralität der Kaiserlichen Japanischen Marine,” 1925, BA-MA RH8-3606.
Percentage from BA-MA RH8-3606. Archives at the Mitsubishi Economic Research Institute (MERI), Tokyo, MHI 00220, gives a stock distribution of 100:100:500 among Adolf Rohrbach, Rohrbach Metallflugzeugbau, and Mitsubishi.
“Mitsubishi ni okeru kitaisekkei shisaku no hensen,” 56.
Mitsubishi Nainenki, R gata hikōtei zumenyō goi.
Nozawa, Nihon kōkūki sōshū: Kawanishi Hiroshō hen, 178.
Nihon Kaigun Kōkūshi Hensan Iinkai, Nihon Kaigun kōkūshi 1, 510–11.
Sanuki, Sanuki Matao no hitorigoto, 260.
Wagner quoted in Hirschel and Prem, Aeronautical Research in Germany, 270.
Former Vice-Admiral Funakoshi was chairman of the board of directors of the Mitsubishi-Rohrbach aircraft company. The quotation is taken from Mitsubishi Jūkōgyō KK, Mitsubishi Jūkōgyō, 640.
Mitsubishi shashi, 34:7139.
Von Kármán, Wind and Beyond, 131.
Ikari, Saigo no nishiki taitei, 41–42; Sekkeisha no shōgen, 2:241.
Comparable flying boats were the British Short Sunderland and the US Consolidated PB2Y Coronado. Although the speed and load capacity of these two planes were comparable to the H6K, their flight ranges (2,850 kilometers and 1,700 kilometers, respectively) were inferior.
Shin Meiwa Kōgyō Kabushiki Kaisha Shashi Henshū Iinkai, Shashi, 97.
Francillon, Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, 312.
“The navy’s aircraft—building a new project for next year,” Yomiuri Shinbun, February 19, 1923, 2.
The Washington Naval Treaty determined the “standard displacement” of a vessel as “displacement of the ship complete, fully manned, engined, and equipped ready for sea … but without fuel or reserve feed water on board.” It therefore differs from a fully tanked ship’s actual weight. To make things even more complicated, one “ton” is defined as 1,016 kilograms.
Notes on the Case of Squadron Leader Rutland, RAF National Archives Kew KV2-328, 221a.
Letter to MI1. National Archives Kew KV2-328, 223a.
Ikari, Kaigun kūgishō, 22–24.
National Archives Kew KV2-328, 227a.
Nihon Kaigun Kōkūshi Hensan Iinkai, Nihon Kaigun kōkūshi 1, 196–97.
Nihon Kaigun Kōkūshi Hensan Iinkai, Nihon Kaigun kōkūshi 1, 274.
BA-MA RH 8 I/3679.
Deutsches Museum Archiv FA 001 / 0821 07.1935–03.1939.
Matsuoka, Mitsubishi hikōki monogatari, 240.
Nakajima’s designers incorporated features of the Boeing F2B and the Bristol Bulldog.
Nihon Kaigun Kōkūshi Hensan Iinkai, Nihon Kaigun kōkūshi 1, 39–47.
Nihon Kaigun Kōkūshi Hensan Iinkai, Nihon Kaigun kōkūshi 1, 202–29.
Okumiya and Horikoshi, Zero!, 74–75.
Nozawa, Nihon kōkūki sōshū: Nakajima hen, 144.
Peattie, Sunburst, 39.
Munson, Bombers between the Wars, 11–112.
Nozawa, Nihon kōkūki sōshū: Aichi, Kūgishō hen, 78–79.
Nozawa, Nihon kōkūki sōshū: Nakajima hen, 144.
Miki, “Aichi Tokei,” 102.
For the important role of dive bombers in the attack on Pearl Harbor, see Israel, Marineflieger einst und jetzt, 176.
Heinkel, Stürmisches Leben, 170.
JACAR ref. C04015838300.
Takeda, Zerosen no ko, 42.
Nihon Kaigun Kōkūshi Hensan Iinkai, Nihon Kaigun kōkūshi 1, 287.
JACAR ref. C11080535800.
JACAR ref. C11080535800.
Genda, Kaigun kōkūtai shimatsuki, 1:70.
Marder, Old Friends, New Enemies, 344.
Genda, “Evolution of Aircraft Carrier Tactics,” 23–28.
JACAR ref. C13072074800.
Genda, Kaigun kōkūtai shimatsuki, 2:9–10.
John Ferris brings forward a similar argument, referring to “military ethnocentrism.” See Ferris, “Double-Edged Estimates,” 91–108.
“Handbook on the Air Services of Japan,” 1939, in Lester (ed.), U.S. Military Intelligence Reports, Japan, 1918–1941, reel 31, 110a.
The aircraft bought from Great Britain after 1930 were the de Havilland D. H. 83 Fox Moth (1932) and the Airspeed Envoy (1935).
For a case study of the dive bomber project, see Nishiyama, Engineering War and Peace, 53–56.
Nihon Kaigun Kōkūgaishi Kankōkai, Umiwashi no kōseki, 39.
Till, Air Power and the Royal Navy, 93.
For an overview of British interwar aviation, see Edgerton, England and the Aeroplane, 28–59.
Göring quoted in Duppler and Forsmann, Marineflieger, 38.
7. US Know-How for Japanese Aircraft Makers
According to Bōeichō bōeikenshūjō senshi shitsu, Kaigun kōkū gaishi, 228, the night air raid on Singapore started on December 8, 1941, at 3:45 am local time.
Informational Intelligence Summary no. 85: Flight Characteristics of the Japanese Zero Fighter (Washington, DC: Intelligence Service, US Army Air Forces, 1942), 2–3.
Simonson, “The Demand for Aircraft and the Aircraft Industry,” 363.
Dickey, The Liberty Engine, 9, 66–67.
Pattillo, Pushing the Envelope, 32.
Hounshell, From the American System to Mass Production.
Army Aviation Headquarters, “American Military Aircraft and Engines 1928,” JACAR ref. C01007438000, 1088.
I take the expression from Green’s “A Little of What the World Thought of Lindbergh,” in Lindbergh, “We,” 233–318.
In 1939, US engineers calculated that an increase in cruising speed of 1 mph to be worth US$2,500; a decrease of one pound in aircraft weight would save US$75. See Wright, “American Methods of Aircraft Production,” 139.
Okamura, Kōkū gijutsu no zenbō, 1:34–35.
Ono, Beikoku kōkūkōgyō ni tsuite, 35.
For a detailed account of Tani’s aerodynamic research, see Hashimoto, Hikōki no tanjō, 247–96. See also Mizusawa, Gunyōki no tanjō, 157–62.
“Report No. NY269, Report on Nakajima Aircraft Co. Purchases of Machine Tools and Aircraft Accessories in the U.S. 7,” in Beikoku Shihōshō, 2:240.
Katō, Sakuma Ichirō den, 105–18.
Ikari, Kaigun gijutsushatachi no Taiheiyō sensō, 146.
US Military Intelligence Reports, reel 30, 817.
Nakagawa and Mizutani, Nakajima hikōki enjin-shi, 41.
The army named the engine Ha-8.
Okamura, Kōkū gijutsu no zenbō, 1:467.
Hallion, “Airplanes That Transformed Aviation.”
“Nihon demo seisaku Dagurasu-ki no kenri 800000 en nari” [Even produced in Japan, the Douglas aircraft’s production license costs ¥800,000], Asahi Shinbun, June 17, 1935.
“Report No. NY360, Confidential Report on Industrial Purchases in USA from 1935–41 by 588 Japanese Concerns,” in Beikoku Shihōshō, 2:48–50.
US Military Intelligence Reports, reel 30, 787.
“Purchase and Experimentation of Foreign Transport Planes and Engine,” US Military Intelligence Reports, reel 30, 957.
Francillon, Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War, 499–501.
“Report No. NY269, Report on Nakajima Aircraft Co. Purchases of Machine Tools and Aircraft Accessories in the U.S.,” in Beikoku Shihōshō, 2:300.
“Report No. NY272, Report on Japanese Army Arsenals,” in Beikoku Shihōshō, 2:104.
The DC-4E’s successor, the DC-4A (or DC-4), was a downsized version that together with its military version, the C-54 Skymaster, became a best-seller.
“Report No. NY269, Report on Nakajima Aircraft Co. Purchases of Machine Tools and Aircraft Accessories in the U.S.,” in Beikoku Shihōshō, 2:304.
Anderson, The Airplane, 260.
Sumitomo seimitsu kōgyō shashi, 10–17.
US Military Intelligence Reports, reel 28, 218.
Nohara, “Kokusan puropera monogatari,” 81–91.
Wright, “American Methods of Aircraft Production,” 139. A summary of this article was published in Nihon kōkūgakkaishi, vol. 6., no. 51 (July 1939): 763.
Wright, “American Methods of Aircraft Production,” 131–224, 144–45.
Sawai, “Amerikasei kōsakukikai no yunyū,” 1.
Nelson, Industrial Architecture of Albert Kahn, 168–69.
Direct negotiations with the architectural firm Albert Kahn, Inc., which had designed the Pratt & Whitney plant, failed in 1937. For more on this point, see Fukao Junji, Fukao’s Counseling Reports, 1937, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Komaki Archive, not cataloged.
Mitsubishi Jūkōgyō KK, Ōjibōbō, 1:472.
Kōno Hiroshi, Ōbeikōkūkōgyō shisatsuhōkoku [Inspection Report about the US and European Aviation Industry], 1939, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Komaki Archive, not cataloged, 11.
Kōno Hiroshi, Ōbeikōkūkōgyō shisatsuhōkoku, 11.
In all likelihood, Kōno was alluding to President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1938 announcement to build up an air force of 10,000 aircraft. See, for example, Kennedy, American People in World War II, 4.
Kōno Hiroshi, Ōbeikōkūkōgyō shisatsuhōkoku, 16.
Roosevelt’s address of October 5, 1937, on the world political situation.
Tow, “The Great Bombing of Chongqing,” 256–82. For Chinese air defense efforts, see Baumler, “Keep Calm and Carry On,” 1–36.
American Committee for Non-Participation in Japanese Aggression, America’s Share in Japan’s War Guilt, 74.
Letter by Joseph Green, Office of Arms and Munitions Control to Okura & Company, dated July 1, 1938, reproduced in Ono, Beikoku kōkūkōgyō, 38–39, emphasis added.
Aviation weapons cooperative group, US, Beikokukōkūheiki kōbaidan gyōmu hōkoku sōfu no ken [Sending operation report of American ordnance purchase group], 1940, JACAR ref. C01004910000.
Files of US Consular Reports, Tokyo, to the State Department from 1937.
US Military Intelligence Reports, reel 31, 21–29, Memos: “Visit of Japanese Aviation Inspection Group to the US, May 13–Jul 26, 1937.”
A May 16, 1938, Asahi article recognized Okada’s distinguished service to the project.
“Report No. NY272, Report on Japanese Army Arsenals,” in Beikoku Shihōshō, 2:163.
US Military Intelligence Reports, reel 28, 339–43, G-2 Report, “Expansion of Aviation Manufacturing Industry.”
US Military Intelligence Reports, reel 31, 31.
Nozawa, Nihon kōkūki sōshū: Yunyūki hen, 148–49.
“Report No. NY272, Preliminary Examination of San Francisco Office Files of Mitsui and Mitsubishi,” in Beikoku Shihōshō, 2:167; and “Report No. NY272, Report on Japanese Army Arsenals,” in Beikoku Shihōshō, 2:165.
Aviation weapons cooperative group, US, Beikokukōkūheiki kōbaidan gyōmu hōkoku sōfu no ken [Sending operation report of American ordnance purchase group], 1940, JACAR ref. C01004910000, 503.
“Report No. NY272, Report on Japanese Army Arsenals,” in Beikoku Shihōshō, 2:166–68.
US Military Intelligence Reports, reel 28, 175. There is some irony: as could be seen in the 1925 Mitchell trial, many US military officers were not aware of the “power of bombing,” either.
US Military Intelligence Reports, reel 28, 362.
Gunkihogohō [Military Secrets Act], 1937, JACAR ref. A03022076900.
US Military Intelligence Reports, reel 27, 617–22.
US Military Intelligence Reports, reel 27, 752–61.
Yamawaki Masataka, “Wright Engineers at Nakajima,” 1939, JACAR ref. C01007348500, 502.
Sutton and Parke, Kōkūhatsudōki tairyōseisan ni kan suru kōshūroku [A course on the mass production of aero-engines], Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Komaki Archive, not cataloged.
US Military Intelligence Reports, reel 31, 226–30 (June 23).
In addition to the aforementioned reports, see the magazine Flying and Popular Aviation that bluntly stated in January 1941: “Japan Is Not an Air Power”; and Lucien Zacharoff’s article on “Japanese Air Power,” Aviation (September 1941)
Quoted in Yamazaki, Nippon ga nekkyō shita daikōkū jidai, 132.
US Military Intelligence Reports, reel 29, 1026–27, report quoting a British aeronautical expert.
For more details on the Kōkenki project, especially the involvement of Tokyo Imperial University, see Tomizuka, Kōkenki sekai kiroku juritsu e no kiseki.
Morikawa, Sora no eiyū.
US Military Intelligence Reports, reel 31, 114.
US Military Intelligence Reports, reel 31, 164.
Quoted in Yamazaki, Nippon ga nekkyō shita, 169.
G3M bombers engaged in the December 1941 sinking of the British warships Prince of Wales and Repulse. In October 1939, the first prototype of the G3M’s successor, the experimental G4M, was completed.
US Military Intelligence Reports, reel 31, 177.
US Military Intelligence Reports, reel 31, 186; and Mitsubishi Jūkōgyō KK, Ōjibōbō, 1:285. The Nippon’s Kinsei engine was made by Mitsubishi.
“Report No. NY-369,” in Beikoku Shihōshō 1:1.
“Report No. SF146, Preliminary Examination of San Francisco Office Files of Mitsui and Mitsubishi,” in Beikoku Shihōshō, 2:87.
“Report No. NY272, Report on Japanese Army Arsenals,” in Beikoku Shihōshō, 2:165.
Coox, “Flawed Perception,” 239–54; May, Knowing One’s Enemies; Kotani, Japanese Intelligence in World War II.
For instance, there was a less than 15 percent error in the number of the US Navy’s airplanes (estimated at 4,535 against an actual 5,291). Japanese Military and Naval Intelligence Division, Japanese Intelligence Section, G-2. Reports. Pacific War (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1946), 46.
Japanese Military and Naval Intelligence Division, Japanese Intelligence Section, G-2, 48.
“Kaigai no America kōkūkai (jō)” [America on the opposite shore: Its aviation (1)], Asahi, October 26, 1941, 5.
The article’s estimate for US annual aircraft production was astonishingly close to the actual number of about 12,800 aircraft. See, on this point, Pattillo, Pushing the Envelope, 125.
May, Knowing One’s Enemies, 446, 452.
Japanese Military and Naval Intelligence Division, Japanese Intelligence Section, G-2, 47.
Japanese Military and Naval Intelligence Division, Japanese Intelligence Section, G-2, 46.
“Inakasumō ga yokozuna ni idonda yōna mono,” in Mitsubishi Jūkōgyō KK, Ōjibōbō, 3:94.
Katō, Sakuma Ichirō, 152.
8. Jet and Rocket Technology for Japan’s Decisive Battle
Cohen, Japan’s Economy in War and Reconstruction, 48–109.
Such a view is advanced, for instance, in United States Strategic Bombing Survey, The Japanese Aircraft Industry.
See, on this point, Matogawa, “Senzen no Nihon no roketto kenkyū”; and Grunden, Secret Weapons and World War II, 129.
Naitō, Kimitsu heiki funryū, 75.
US Naval Technical Mission to Japan, Japanese Metallurgy—Article 1, High Temperature Alloys for Gas Turbines, Rocket Nozzles and Lines (n.p., 1946), 7–10.
Okamura, Kōkū gijutsu no zenbō, 1:478.
In 1940, in the wake of a major reorganization, the Yokosuka Naval Air Arsenal (Kaigun Kōkūshō) changed its name to Naval Air Technical Arsenal (Kaigun Kōkū Gijutsushō).
Fujihira, Kimitsuheiki no zenbō, 52–54.
“Ne” stands for the first syllable of nenshō funsha suishinki (combustion jet propeller).
For a detailed analysis of early German jet and rocket technology, see Schabel, Illusion der Wunderwaffen, 35–62, and von Gersdorff and Grasmann, Flugmotoren und Strahltriebwerke, 181–244.
On April 26, 1939, a Messerschmitt Me 209 powered by a twelve-cylinder DB 601 piston engine had set a speed record of 755 kilometers per hour.
Okamura, Kōkū gijutsu no zenbō, 1:479.
For the German-Italian-Japanese project of a transcontinental air service see Herde, Der Japanflug.
“Abkommen über wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit,” signed on January 20, 1943. For more on this topic, see Martin, Deutschland und Japan im Zweiten Weltkrieg, 152–71.
Braun, “Technologietransfer im Flugzeugbau zwischen Deutschland und Japan,” 336.
The contract’s title is a classic example of German officialese: Vereinbarung über die gegenseitige Zurverfügungstellung von Nachbaurechten und Rohstoffen zwischen Deutschland und Japan. For a reprint of the document, see Martin, Deutschland und Japan, 251.
Iwaya, “Roketto ki Shūsui ni tsuite,” 82–88.
Fujihira, Kimitsuheiki no zenbō, 15.
Nagamori, Ichi chūdoku gijutsushikan no omoide, 13.
Fujihira, Kimitsuheiki no zenbō, 43.
The original meaning of Shūsui is “a clear stream in autumn.” In its figurative sense, it translates to “cold steel” or “polished sword.”
Nihon Kōkū Gakujutsushi Henshū Iinkai, Nihon kōkū gakujutsushi, 26.
Makino, Saishū kessen heiki Shūsui, 17–18.
Both quotations from Nagoya Kōkūuchū Shisutemu Seisakujo, Shūsui, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Komaki Archive, not cataloged, n.d.
Nihon Kōkū Gakujutsushi Henshū Iinkai, Nihon kōkū gakujutsushi, 26–27.
Shibata, Yūjin roketto sentōki Shūsui, 48.
Shibata, Yūjin roketto sentōki Shūsui, 33.
Iwaya, “Roketto ki Shūsui,” 87.
Nihon Kōkū Gakujutsushi Henshū Iinkai, Nihon kōkū gakujutsushi, 26–27.
Okamura, Kōkū gijutsu no zenbō, 1:253–55.
Iwaya, “Roketto ki Shūsui,” 86.
Iwaya, “Roketto ki Shūsui,” 88.
United States Strategic Bombing Survey, The Japanese Aircraft Industry, 31, speculates on the “political implications” of these unrealistic production targets.
Okamura, Kōkū gijutsu no zenbō, 1:255; and United States Strategic Bombing Survey, Nippon Airplane, 6.
Okamura, Kōkū gijutsu no zenbō, 1:482.
Mitsubishi Jūkōgyō KK, Ōjibōbō, 2:63.
Mitsubishi Jūkōgyō KK, Ōjibōbō, 2:77–78.
Mitsubishi Jūkōgyō KK, Ōjibōbō, 2:80.
Mitsubishi Jūkōgyō KK, Ōjibōbō, 2:69; and United States Strategic Bombing Survey, Mitsubishi, 18.
Makino, Saishū kessen heiki Shūsui, 17–18.
Mitsubishi Jūkōgyō KK, Ōjibōbō, 2:66.
US Naval Technical Mission to Japan, Target Report Miscellaneous Reports of Various Japanese Naval Research Activities (n.p., 1946), 51.
Iwaya, “Roketto ki Shūsui,” 84.
German Technical Aid to Japan, 46–64.
Asahi Shinbun, November 13, 1944.
US Naval Technical Mission to Japan, Target Report Japanese Fuels and Lubricants, Research on Rocket Fuels of the Hydrogen Peroxide-Hydrazine Type (n.p., 1946).
Okamura, Kōkū gijutsu no zenbō, 1:481.
Ishizawa, Kikka, 105.
Ishikawajima was the obvious choice. Its turbine branch was already established in 1936.
Fujihira, Kimitsuheiki, 62. For the dramatic shift of the navy’s budget from vessels to aircraft, see Koyama, Nihon gunji kōgyō no shiteki bunseki, 300–309.
US Naval Technical Mission to Japan, Target Report Miscellaneous Reports of Various Japanese Naval Research Activities (n.p., 1946), 37ff.
Fujihira, Kimitsuheiki, 64–66.
Ishikawajima delivered its first Ne-20 jet engine to the Yokosuka arsenal on August 1, 1945. Ishikawajima Jūkōgyō Kabushiki Kaisha 108-nenshi, 885.
Okamura, Kōkū gijutsu no zenbō, 1:248–51.
Nohara, Nihon gunyōki jiten: Kaigun hen, 1910–1945, 162–63.
Okamura, Kōkū gijutsu no zenbō, 1:251.
Nihon Kaigun Kōkūshi Hensan Iinkai, Nihon Kaigun kōkūshi 3, 548–49.
Quoted in Nihon Kaigun Kōkūgaishi Kankōkai, Umiwashi, 260.
Nihon Kōkū Gakujutsushi Henshū Iinkai, Nihon kōkū gakujutsushi, 27.
Shibata, Yūjin roketto sentōki Shūsui, 72.
Mitsubishi Jūkōgyō KK, Ōjibōbō, 2:72; and Iwaya, “Roketto ki Shūsui,” 87.
Air Technical Intelligence Group, “General Design and Development of Mitsubishi Aircraft Engines” (n.p., 1945), 5.
Nihon Kaigun Kōkūgaishi Kankōkai, Umiwashi, 266–69.
Quoted in Nihon Kaigun Kōkūgaishi Kankōkai, Umiwashi, 268–69.
Nagoya Kōkūuchū Shisutemu Seisakujo, Shūsui, n.d., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Komaki Archive, not cataloged, 315.
For an account of these engineers’ moral dilemma, see Nishiyama, Engineering War and Peace, 72–79.
Naitō, Thunder Gods, 48.
Naitō, Thunder Gods, 119.
German Technical Aid to Japan, 90.
Quoted in Naitō, Ōka: Hijō no tokkō heiki, 163.
US Naval Technical Mission, Target Report Japanese Fuels (n.p., 1946), 11.
Kimura, Hikōki no hon, 151. Kimura was in charge of designing the Ōka rocketpowered attack plane.
“On the day of defeat, we burned all classified documents,” Asahi Shinbun, September 21, 2010.
Mitsubishi Jūkōgyō KK, Ōjibōbō, 2:75.
H. S. Tsien, Technical Intelligence Supplement, 1946, 160.
Mitsubishi Jūkōgyō KK, Ōjibōbō, 2:74; and Yokoyama, Yuyama, Akojima, and Moriya, “The Rocket Fighter Shusui,” 274.
German Technical Aid to Japan, 6, 45.
ONI Special Activities Branch (IOP 16-Z), Interrogation Nirschling, 1945, n.p.
Butler, War Prizes, 239, 252, 255; Chambers, Wings of the Rising Sun, 264–71.
Epilogue
There seems to be no shortage of biographies in this field—some largely factual, some wildly (self-)aggrandizing. To name a few: de Havilland, Sky Fever; Doi, Hikōki sekkei 50 nen no kaisō; Dornier, Aus meiner Ingenieurlaufbahn; Freudenthal, Flight into History; Heinkel, Stürmisches Leben; Horikoshi, Eagles of Mitsubishi; Nowarra, Flugzeuge
I borrow this expression from Staudenmaier, Technology’s Storytellers, 61–64.
Philosopher Joseph Agassi, as quoted in Staudenmaier, Technology’s Storytellers, 81.
For more on the emergence of the “rational inventor” in the wake of the Second Industrial Revolution, see Mokyr, Lever of Riches, 113–48.
For more on the Japanese engineers’ “self-assessment and soul-searching,” see Maema, Jetto enjin ni toritsukareta, 180–99.
I took this and the previous quotation from Shiga Fujio in his preface to Fujihira, Kimitsuheiki no zenbō.
Mizuno argues in a similar way in Science for the Empire, 173.
By 1949, more than 10,000 scientists had joined the federation. See Nakayama, Science, Technology and Society, 18–20.
Quoted in Morris-Suzuki, Technological Transformation of Japan, 163.
SCAP (General Headquarters Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers), “SCAPIN 301 Commercial and Civil Aviation,” Instruction Note 301, November 18, 1945.
For more details, see Koch, Rüstungskonversion in Japan, 75–82.
Nishiyama, Engineering War and Peace, 157–83.
Caspary, Kooperation und Konkurrenz, 47–112.
Quoted in Maema, Jetto enjin, 218.
Kawasaki joined the Nihon Jet Engine Company in 1956.
Shibata, “Chōsensensōgo no America no taigaienjo,” 184.
Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies, Nihon no kōkū uchū kōgyō, 14–15.
Takeda, Burūinparusu, 106–7.
See the Japan Air Self-Defense Force’s website at http://www.mod.go.jp/asdf/pr_report/paperplane/index39.html.
A turboprop is a jet engine that uses a turbine to drive a propeller.
Maema, Kokusan ryokyakki MRJ hishō, 16.
Caspary, Kooperation und Konkurrenz, 152.
See Samuels, “Rich Nation, Strong Army,” 210–14; Caspary, Kooperation und Konkurrenz, 125–82; Yokokura, YS-11 Tobe!; Maema, YS-11 jō; Maema, YS-11 ge.
Nihon Kōkū Kyōkai, Nihon kōkūshi: Shōwa sengo hen, 556.
Ann Crittenden, “C.I.A. Said to Have Known in 50’s of Lockheed Bribes,” New York Times, April 2, 1976.
Quoted in Itō and Itō, Nihon kōkūshi nenpyō, 254.
Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies, Nihon no kōkū uchū kōgyō, 34–36.
At that time, besides Japan, only the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, France, and Sweden had developed supersonic aircraft.
For a comprehensive study on the FS-X project, see Lorell, Troubled Partnership.
Ishihara, The Japan That Can Say NO, 44.
The concept of technonationalism comes from Samuels, “Rich Nation, Strong Army.”
Quoted in Caspary, Kooperation und Konkurrenz, 271.
Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies, Nihon no kōkū uchū kōgyō, 53–56.
Here is yet another example of the intriguing ambiguity of the Japanese language: using a different first logographic character with the same pronunciation, the expression for “quasi-national production,” junkokusan, can be also understood as “purely domestically produced.”
“MRJ no jūchū” [Accepting orders for the MRJ], Nihon Keizai Shinbun, October 31, 2017.
Fukunaga, Gunyōkiseizō no sengo shi, 92–95.