This book describes in considerable detail the people, events ships and
aircraft that shaped the 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 the First World War
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 World War Two. 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 the Second World War.
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.
