‘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 7th 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.
