Aviation

This theme covers military aviation in wartime Japan: Army and Navy airfields and air units, the schools that trained aircrew, the factories that built airframes and engines, and the technical establishments that developed new aircraft. Japan had no independent air force; air power was divided between the Army and the Navy, each with its own aircraft types, factories, training system and base network, and their rivalry over materials and technology ran through the war.

Aviation was critical to Japan's military strategy. The industry relied on imported Western technology and licensed production in the 1920s and achieved design independence from the mid-1930s. Companies like Mitsubishi, Nakajima, and Kawanishi — and Kawasaki, Aichi and Tachikawa — produced fighters, bombers, and reconnaissance aircraft. Navy land-based bombers flew trans-oceanic raids in the war with China, and the Zero fighter of 1940 held an advantage in range and manoeuvrability early in the Pacific War. But Japanese aircraft generally lacked armour protection, high-powered engines came slowly, and trained pilots could not be replaced as fast as they were lost. Output peaked in 1944 at roughly 28,000 aircraft; from the end of that year B-29 raids on airframe and engine plants, the Tōnankai earthquake and shortages of fuel and aluminium sent production sharply down. Major aircraft factories were located across the Kanto, Chubu, and Kansai regions. By late war, dispersed underground production became common to evade Allied bombing, air power was increasingly used for special attacks, and the jet-powered Kikka did not make its first flight until August 7, 1945.

Aviation is a key to understanding Japanese society under total war. Aircraft factories were among the largest concentrations of mobilised students, the Women's Volunteer Corps, conscripted workers and Korean labourers; airfield construction often involved land requisition and labour service by residents and pupils; and the youth pilot and Yokaren systems sent teenagers into the air war. After the war GHQ banned all aviation activity in Japan until 1952, and former aeronautical engineers moved into the car and railway industries.

Under this theme visitors will find the remains of runways, hangars and headquarters buildings; concrete aircraft shelters scattered among fields and housing; engine test cells and underground factory tunnels; former flying schools; and aviation museums displaying restored aircraft and wreckage.