This book 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. There are comparatively few books
in English that illustrate aviation in Japan in the years before World War
II. This is the first book to make 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. The book 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 colour 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.
