Aircraft Books - Japan - History and Models (1/2)

A Postcard History of Japanese Aviation - 1910-1945

Provides a unique view of the development of military and commercial aviation in Japan from the pioneering years before World War I to the end of World War II.

This book makes extensive use of Japanese aviation postcards to show how aviation in Japan grew from a dependence on foreign aircraft designs and engineers in the early years to an independent industry that produced world-class airplanes. It uses more than 250 postcards to trace the history of Imperial Japanese Army and Navy aviation, and commercial aviation, during this thirty-five year period.
Each of the book's four chapters begins with a narrative survey of key developments during the period covered. The postcards, some in color and some in black and white, show both military and commercial airplanes, many famous and some less so. Of particular interest to those interested in Japanese military aviation in World War II will be a number of postcards of wartime propaganda art.

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Imperial Japanese Army Flying Schools 1912-1945

The book details the history of Imperial Japanese Army Flying Schools from 1912 to 1945, covering not only the formation of the schools, but also evolution of the training aircraft and the training of pilots, other aircrew, and ground crew maintenance personnel.

Includes numerous photographs, many of which have not been seen before in any English language publication. In addition the wide variety of aircraft types used and the different markings they carried add much colour interest to inspire modellers in a completely new field and are illustrated by some 400 colour art profiles.

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The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Imperial Naval Air Service

This book describes in considerable detail the people, events ships and aircraft that shaped the Japanese Imperial Naval Air Service from its origins in the late 19th century to its demise in 1945.
The formative years began when a British Naval Mission was established in Japan in 1867 to advise on the development of balloons for naval purposes. After the first successful flights of fixed-wing aircraft in the USA and Europe, the Japanese navy sent several officers to train in Europe as pilots and imported a steady stream of new models to evaluate. During WW I Japan became allied with the UK and played a significant part in keeping the German fleets of ships and submarines at bay in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
However, in the international naval treaties that followed they felt betrayed, since the number of capital ships, battleships and cruisers, that they were allowed was below those of the USA and the UK. Aircraft carriers were not included, so a programme of carrier building was started and continued until WW II. At the same time they developed an aircraft industry and at the beginning of war their aeroplanes were comparable, and in some instances superior, to those of the British and Americans.

Much pre-war experience was gained during Japan's invasion of China, but their continued anger with America festered and resulted in their becoming allied with Germany, Italy and the Vichy France during WW II. There followed massive successful attacks on Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, the Southern Islands, Port Darwin and New Guinea. The British were decimated and the USA recoiled at the onslaught, taking over a year to regroup and take the war to the Imperial Japanese forces. Throughout the conflict many sea battles were fought and the name Zero became legendary. When Japan eventually capitulated after the Atomic bombs were dropped the Japanese Imperial Air Service was disbanded.

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The Setting of the Rising Sun - Japanese Military Aviation 1877-1945

'Tora, Tora, Tora!' The reports came back of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. The attack was the culmination of over fifty years of progress in Japanese military aviation, from kites, balloons and gliders to the Zeros, Kates and Vals that sank so many American vessels and destroyed so many aircraft on 7 December 1941.

Telling the story of Japanese military aviation from the mid-Victorian era, a time when Japan was only just beginning to open up to the rest of the world, Terry Treadwell illustrated the story with a fascinating selection of images of the personalities and aircraft involved in the development of aircraft by the Japanese.
Creating some of the iconic designs of the Second World War, it is hard to believe that the Japanese created so many classic military aircraft, but they understood the need for aircraft carriers, for long-range bombers and for fighters as comfortable on the deck of an aircraft carrier in a choppy ocean as for the ability to land and take off in rough jungle airstrips.
Borrowing German technology, the Japanese even created their own jets, including suicide flying bombs as well as a version of Messerschmitt's infamous Me163 rocket fighter.

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US Navy Ships vs Kamikazes 1944-45 (Osprey)

The ineffectiveness of conventional air attacks on US Navy surface ships, particularly heavily defended targets like carrier task groups, forced the Japanese to re-evaluate their tactics in late 1944. The solution they arrived at was simple - crash their aircraft into American ships.
This notion of self-sacrifice fit well within the Japanese warrior psyche and proved terrifying to the American sailors subjected to it. These tactics brought immediate results, and proved effective until the end of the war.

This book examines this terrifying new way of waging war, revealing how the US Navy was forced to adapt its tactics and deploy new weapons to counter the threat posed by kamikaze attacks, as well as assessing whether the damage caused to American naval strength by the loss of so many pilots and aircraft actually had a material impact.

Contents: Introduction - Chronology - Design and Development - Technical Specifications - The Strategic Situation - The Combatants - Combat - Statistics and Analysis - Aftermath - Bibliography - Index.

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