Wings for the Rising Sun: A Transnational History of Japanese Aviation
The history of Japanese aviation offers countless stories of heroic achievements and dismal failures, passionate enthusiasm and sheer terror, brilliant ideas and fatally flawed strategies.

In Wings for the Rising Sun, scholar and former airline pilot Jürgen Melzer connects the intense drama of flight with a global history of international cooperation, competition, and conflict. He details how Japanese strategists, diplomats, and industrialists skillfully exploited a series of major geopolitical changes to expand Japanese airpower and develop a domestic aviation industry. At the same time, the military and media orchestrated air shows, transcontinental goodwill flights, and press campaigns to stir popular interest in the national aviation project. Melzer analyzes the French, British, German, and American influence on Japan’s aviation, revealing in unprecedented detail how Japanese aeronautical experts absorbed foreign technologies at breathtaking speed. Yet they also designed and built boldly original flying machines that, in many respects, surpassed those of their mentors.

Wings for the Rising Sun compellingly links Japan’s aeronautical advancement with public mobilization, international relations, and the transnational flow of people and ideas, offering a fresh perspective on modern Japanese history.

1133142120
Wings for the Rising Sun: A Transnational History of Japanese Aviation
The history of Japanese aviation offers countless stories of heroic achievements and dismal failures, passionate enthusiasm and sheer terror, brilliant ideas and fatally flawed strategies.

In Wings for the Rising Sun, scholar and former airline pilot Jürgen Melzer connects the intense drama of flight with a global history of international cooperation, competition, and conflict. He details how Japanese strategists, diplomats, and industrialists skillfully exploited a series of major geopolitical changes to expand Japanese airpower and develop a domestic aviation industry. At the same time, the military and media orchestrated air shows, transcontinental goodwill flights, and press campaigns to stir popular interest in the national aviation project. Melzer analyzes the French, British, German, and American influence on Japan’s aviation, revealing in unprecedented detail how Japanese aeronautical experts absorbed foreign technologies at breathtaking speed. Yet they also designed and built boldly original flying machines that, in many respects, surpassed those of their mentors.

Wings for the Rising Sun compellingly links Japan’s aeronautical advancement with public mobilization, international relations, and the transnational flow of people and ideas, offering a fresh perspective on modern Japanese history.

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Wings for the Rising Sun: A Transnational History of Japanese Aviation

Wings for the Rising Sun: A Transnational History of Japanese Aviation

by Jürgen P. Melzer
Wings for the Rising Sun: A Transnational History of Japanese Aviation

Wings for the Rising Sun: A Transnational History of Japanese Aviation

by Jürgen P. Melzer

Hardcover

$60.00 
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Overview

The history of Japanese aviation offers countless stories of heroic achievements and dismal failures, passionate enthusiasm and sheer terror, brilliant ideas and fatally flawed strategies.

In Wings for the Rising Sun, scholar and former airline pilot Jürgen Melzer connects the intense drama of flight with a global history of international cooperation, competition, and conflict. He details how Japanese strategists, diplomats, and industrialists skillfully exploited a series of major geopolitical changes to expand Japanese airpower and develop a domestic aviation industry. At the same time, the military and media orchestrated air shows, transcontinental goodwill flights, and press campaigns to stir popular interest in the national aviation project. Melzer analyzes the French, British, German, and American influence on Japan’s aviation, revealing in unprecedented detail how Japanese aeronautical experts absorbed foreign technologies at breathtaking speed. Yet they also designed and built boldly original flying machines that, in many respects, surpassed those of their mentors.

Wings for the Rising Sun compellingly links Japan’s aeronautical advancement with public mobilization, international relations, and the transnational flow of people and ideas, offering a fresh perspective on modern Japanese history.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780674244412
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication date: 01/07/2020
Series: Harvard East Asian Monographs , #428
Pages: 370
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.25(d)

About the Author

Jürgen P. Melzer is Professor of Modern Japanese History at Yamanashi Gakuin University.

Table of Contents

List of Maps, Figures, and Tables xi

Acknowledgments xv

Preface xix

Note on Sources xxiii

Introduction: A New Perspective on Japanese Aviation History 1

Technology: Transnational Transfer and National Diffusion 2

Mobilizing the Public 4

Aircraft and Statecraft: Aerial Armament and International Diplomacy 5

Part I Early Japanese Aviation, 1877-1918

1 Powerful Images and Grand Visions 11

Early Gas Balloons: Low Tech, High Risk 13

Japan's First Balloon Launch 14

Balloon Fever Grips Japan 17

Balloons in the Russo-Japanese War and a Technological Dead-End 19

Two Reports about Western Aviation 22

The Road to Japan's First Motorized Flight 24

Conclusion 37

2 The French Decade 40

The Flying Baron Shigeno 41

The Qingdao Air War: Brief Encounters and a Lasting Myth 44

A Technocrat Shapes His Vision: Kusakari Shiro 50

Inoue Ikutaro: The Army Air Force's Mastermind 54

The French Aeronautical Mission to Japan 56

Reconsidering the Exclusive Devotion to French Aviation 64

Conclusion 65

Part II Germany and Japan's Army Aviation, 1918-37

3 Japan's Army Aviation in the "Wake of World War I 69

Early German Influence, 1919-25 71

The Army's Struggle over a New Air Doctrine 80

Squaring the Circle: Disarmament and Airpower Buildup 83

Visions of Internationalism and National Prestige: The "Visit Europe Flight" 86

Conclusion 93

4 On the Way to Independent Aircraft Design 96

Industrialists, Engineers, and Teachers 97

German Airliners into Japanese Bombers: Junkers in Japan 114

The Army's New Aircraft and the Manchurian Crisis 125

Conclusion 132

Part III Britain, Germany, and Japan's Naval Aviation, 1912-37

5 Navigating a Sea of Change 139

Japanese Observers in Britain during World War I 142

An Early Compromise: Ship-Based Floatplanes 144

A New Launching Technology 147

Redefining Naval Airpower: The Early Years of Carrier-Based Aircraft 149

The Arrival of the First British Aeronautical Engineers in Japan 151

The British Aviation Mission to Japan 154

Conclusion 167

Japan's Naval Aviation Taking the Lead 169

Toward an Autonomous Airpower: Large, All-Metal Flying Boats 170

The Next Generation of Japanese Aircraft Carriers 183

A Second Generation of Carrier Planes 186

A New Role for Carrier Aircraft: Preemptive Air Strikes 188

Britain's Waning Influence and a Fateful Legacy 191

Conclusion 194

Part IV Toward Pearl Harbor and Beyond, 1937-45

7 US Know-How for Japanese Aircraft Makers 201

Late Japanese Interest in US Aviation 202

US Aviation Technology Comes to Japan 205

A Craving for US Machine Tools 213

Know Your Enemy: US Assessments of Japanese Airpower 219

Japanese Perceptions of the US Aviation Industry 231

Conclusion 232

8 Jet and Rocket Technology for Japan's Decisive Battle 234

Early Japanese Experiments 236

German Technology to Japan 238

Japan's First Rocket Aircraft 241

One More Miracle Weapon: Jet Airplanes 248

The Maiden Flight of the Shusui 252

The Kikka's Maiden Flight 254

Suicidal Cherry Blossoms: The Oka Attack Aircraft 258

Conclusion 260

Epilogue 264

Technology Transfer: Causes, Conduits, and Consequences 265

The Media and the Public: Anxieties, Exhilaration, and Fervent Nationalism 268

International Relations: From Cooperation to Alienation and Conflict 269

Transwar Continuities and Postwar Disruptions: Japanese Aviation after 1945 271

Conclusion 282

Notes 285

Bibliography 313

Index 329

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