This html article is produced from an uncorrected text file through optical character recognition. Prior to 1940 articles all text has been corrected, but from 1940 to the present most still remain uncorrected. Artifacts of the scans are misspellings, out-of-context footnotes and sidebars, and other inconsistencies. Adjacent to each text file is a PDF of the article, which accurately and fully conveys the content as it appeared in the issue. The uncorrected text files have been included to enhance the searchability of our content, on our site and in search engines, for our membership, the research community and media organizations. We are working now to provide clean text files for the entire collection.
70
U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, December 1872
Among the 180 naval aircraft that participated in the Naval Review off Yokohama on 25 August 1933 were the two Type 15-2 flying boats seen in the foreground.
ALL PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF MASANORI ITO
Nine years after the Wright brothers’ conquest of the air, the Imperial Japanese Navy’s first official flight took place. In June 1912, a naval aviation committee under Captain Ichizen Yamaji had been established at Yokosuka "to make a study of aircraft, investigate the types of planes most suitable for naval use, and research other matters concerning aviation.” In furtherance of these objectives, one member of the committee, Lieutenant Yozo Kaneko, went to France, and three others—Lieutenants Sankichi Kohno, Chuji Yamada, and Chikuhei Nakajima—to the United States. Lieutenant Kohno returned in the early fall with two 75-h.p. Curtiss seaplanes, and Lieutenant Kaneko brought back two Farman seaplanes with 75-h.p. Renault engines. These four craft were housed in a seadrome erected on the beach at Oppama, just north of Yokosuka.
On 2 November 1912, Lieutenant Kohno suffered a mishap while taxiing in one of the Curtiss aircraft. Three days later, Lieutenant Kaneko took off in a Farman, flew for 15 minutes, and reached an altitude of one hundred feet. This maiden seaplane flight marked an epoch for the Japanese Navy.
It was obvious that if seaplanes were to be used tactically they would have to move with the fleet, and thus plans were made for them to be carried on ships. For this purpose, the transport ship Wakamiya Mart/— converted to accomodate seaplanes—was added to the Navy lists in 1913. After her conversion, she became simply the seaplane tender UTakamiya, and she carried Farman planes in fleet maneuvers that fall.
Japan entered World War I against Germany on 23 August 1914, and, within two weeks, the Navy flew its first combat mission. At this time the Navy had 12 Farmans (five made in Japan), and 15 qualified pilots. The Wakamiya, carrying four planes, arrived in the vicinity of Tsingtao in early September. On the fifth of that month, Lieutenant Hideo Wade’s Farman—equipped with a simple land radio and machine gun, a bomb sight made of wire, and some bombs improvised from demolition shells—was lowered into the water and took off on a scouting and bombing mission over the city. By 6 November, the Wakamiya's four planes had made 50 sorties and dropped 192 bombs, driving the remnants of Germany’s Asiatic Fleet deep into Kiachow Bay. Thus, early, did the Japanese Navy realize the military potential and practicality of aerial power. This first military employment of airplanes
generated naval interest in their more important role of flying search missions at sea.
The naval aviation committee was reorganized in April 1916 and became the Yokosuka Naval Air Group. Its 30 planes were divided equally into three air units, as the navy’s first and foremost aerial organization.
An early engineering achievement was realized in 1917 when Lieutenant Kihichi Magoshi—a naval engineer in the small aviation workshop of the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal (Yokosuka Kaigun Zoheisho)—designed and produced a seaplane driven by a 200-h.p. Hispano- Suiza engine. It was designated Yokosho from the first two syllables and the final syllable of the arsenal’s name. The increased range and stability of this plane made it much more useful at sea than the Farman. Japanese factories were able to copy the engines as well as the fuselages of foreign-built planes. The Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Works at Kobe had succeeded during 1916 in producing aircraft engines similar to and the equal of the Renault.
An aviation section under Rear Admiral Shiro Yamanouchi was established at the naval technical center in 1918. A naval aviation experimental station was created the following year, equipped with Japan’s first wind tunnel. Thus was the foundation laid for the technical structure of naval aviation in Japan. A plan to expand its working strength was established in 1918 when ten seaplanes and six flying boats were allocated to form a new air group at Sasebo.
At first the Navy’s aerial attention and interest was concentrated on seaplanes and balloons, but, as early as 1916, aviation experts foresaw the promise of carrier- based planes. Lieutenant Kaneko went again to England, this time to study air operations in the new aircraft carrier Furious. The army, also active in air efforts at this time, invited a French advisory mission to Japan. In 1920, on the advice of this mission, construction was begun on an airfield at Lake Kasumi- gaura, about 40 miles northeast of Tokyo. In this ideal location the first naval base for land planes was completed the following year. The lake provided all the essentials for a seadrome site as well, and facilities were installed for a flight school. It became the training ground for almost every prominentJapane.se naval pilot of World War II.
The faculty of this school, entirely British, consisted of some 30 World War I veterans, headed by Captain William Francis Forbes-Sempill.* They remained in
*Thc 19th Baron Scmpill, born in 1893, entered the Royal Flying Corps 1914, and transferred to Royal Naval Air Service in January 1916. He visited the United States on a special mission in Junc-July 1918 as a wing commander, and went to Kasumigaura in 1921 at the request of the Imperial Japanese Navy to provide assistance for the training and equipping of its fledgling air force.
In 1913, the transport ship Wakamiya Maru was converted to accommodate seaplanes and, the following year, she took a Farman plane on hoard during the siege of Tsingtao, China.
Three Japanese Navy first lieutenants learned flying and maintenance at the Curtiss company in 1912; one, Chikuhei Nakajima, right, became founder-president of the Nakajima Aircraft Company.
Officers of an advisory team from the French Air Corps posed with high-ranking Japanese naval and Army Air Corps officers in 1919. During its stay in Japan, the 60-man French team taught flying and the handling of wireless communication equipment.
Japan for a year and a half, teaching flying, navigation, reconnaissance, communication, photography, maintenance, parachuting, and carrier landings. Supervision was strict and the training program rigorous; but the effort paid off. The school achieved more than 4,000 hours of student flying time without a fatal accident. Japanese naval aviation was moving forward.
Plans were laid in 1920 to add nine naval air groups, for a total of 17. But the entire concept of naval aviation—let alone such involved components as procurement, training, and tactics—was still in its infancy and an increment of that magnitude was not then practical. The techniques and capacity of aircraft production were still poor, and flight training methods left much to be desired. Because aviation was not yet recognized as an essential element of naval power, the 17 air groups envisaged in 1920 were not achieved until ten years later.
As a result of the Washington Naval Disarmament Treaty in 1922, Japan had to rely upon a buildup of auxiliary ships and air forces. As a part of developing this air strength, the Navy concentrated on selecting only the finest young men to train for aviation assignments. By 1924, the Imperial Navy had 13 air groups,
and two new bases were established at Sasebo and Omura. (5ee Figure 1.)
The Japanese Navy—concerned enough to send investigators abroad repeatedly to study foreign aviation progress—was delayed by budgetary and other matters from actively entering into ship-borne aircraft development until 1921. That year, however, the Hosho, first ship in the world to be built from the keel up as an aircraft carrier, was launched. Japan’s first plane to be launched from a ship had been flown only the year before by Lieutenant Torao Kuwabara when he took off in a Sopwith fighter from a deck improvised on board the Wakamiya.
In the spring of 1921, the Nagoya plant of the Mistubishi Nainenki Company produced two Sopwith- style carrier planes: the Type-10 fighter and the Type-13 attack plane. One of these fighters, together with a Sparrow Hawk, took off from a flight deck installed on the light cruiser Kiso that same year. With the success of such tests, final training in restricted landings was completed at Kasumigaura under British instruction. Carefully selected pilots were soon ready to try landing on an aircraft carrier.
The first plane to land on the Hosbo’s flight deck was flown by a Sopwith test pilot named Jordan in February 1922. He was followed by a Lieutenant Shun- ichi Kira flying a Type-10 fighter. Both landings were made without benefit of any sort of arresting gear on the carrier deck.
The llosho joined the Combined Fleet on 1 September 1923, and participated in the annual fleet exercises and maneuvers that year, carrying six fighters and six attack planes. By 1927, the Combined Fleet’s battleships and cruisers were equipped with catapults and a total of 24 seaplanes.
The carrier Akagi, originally laid down as a battle cruiser, was completed in 1927. She joined the Hosho to form Carrier Division 1 of Combined Fleet.
The 1920 plan for 17 air groups had been delayed for the most part by limitations in pilot training and aircraft production. In 1927, the Bureau of Aeronautics was created to expedite the progress of naval aviation. Through the energy and tireless devotion to duty of its first chief, Admiral Eisuke Yamamoto, the 17-group goal was achieved by 1930, when a new base was established at Tatcyama. Japan’s naval air groups were then distributed as shown in Figure 2.
72
U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, December 1972
Japan’s warship allotment under the 1930 London Naval Treaty did not provide sufficient strength for national security. To compensate for this shortcoming the high command formulated a plan to increase the air arm, which was unrestricted by the Treaty. This so-called First Replenishment Plan envisaged the addition of 28 naval air groups over a period of six years.
Figure Japanese Naval Air Groups, /924
AIRBASE |
YOKOSUKA |
KASUMIGAURA |
SASEBO |
OMURA |
TOTAL |
||||
Aircraft |
Croups |
Craft |
Groups |
Craft |
Groups |
Craft |
Groups Craft |
Groups |
Craft |
Carrier fighter |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 12(6)* |
1 |
12(6) |
Carrier attack |
1 |
12(6) |
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
12(6) |
Carrier recon. |
|
|
|
18(9) |
|
|
|
iy2 |
18(9) |
Seaplane |
1 |
8(4) |
1 |
8(4) |
1 |
8(4) |
|
3 |
24(12) |
Flying boat |
'/a |
2(1) |
|
|
'/a |
2(1) |
|
1 |
4(2) |
Float trainer |
|
|
14 |
6(3) |
|
|
|
‘/a |
6(3) |
Land trainer |
|
|
2 |
24(12) |
|
|
|
2 |
24(12) |
Experimental |
|
|
1 |
12(12) |
|
|
|
1 |
12(12) |
Balloon |
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
|
Dirigible |
|
|
1 |
|
|
|
|
1 |
|
Total |
3% |
22(11) |
7 |
68(40) |
l'/a |
10(5) |
1 12(6) |
13 |
112(62) |
* Reserves in parentheses
Japanese Naval Aviation 73
Unavoidable compromises, however, reduced the number of additional air groups to 16, and, of these, two "'ere delayed until 1938. The resulting six-year plan thus provided for only 14 new air groups—half of the original intention.
Severely limited by the Treaty in number of capital ships, the Japanese Navy concentrated on all available means for counteracting the superior battleship strength of the United States. This included every kind of tactical study, including a concept first conceived by Admiral Yamamoto: aerial attack on capital ships. The first practical attempt was carried out in August 1930, when the superannuated cruiser Akashi, veteran of the Russo-Japanese War, was set up as a target for bomb attack by planes. Despite a number of direct bomb hits, the Akashi remained afloat, and was finally dispatched by torpedoes from a destroyer. This experience led to increased naval emphasis on the importance of torpedoes and included experiments in launching diem from airplanes. Experiments, research, and the development of torpedo-attack planes continued steadily until the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Naval treaties limited only warship strengths, but national fiscal policies placed stringent curbs on all naval spending. Compared to the shipbuilding budget, which was reduced only 30%, the naval air budget was heavily cut. The situation reflected Japan’s general lack of appreciation and understanding of air power. This budget cut raised many problems in the procurement
of supplies and the building of airfields, and advocates of naval air power had reason to feel they were being neglected.
The 14 new air groups comprehended a total of 176 planes. The largest number of groups (6) were allocated to carrier-based attack planes, followed by flying boats (4), carrier-based fighters (2), reconnaissance seaplanes (1%), and experimental planes (%).
An independent naval air arsenal was established in 1932 near the Yokosuka Air Group headquarters, and Rear Admiral Kenji Maebara became its chief. That same year, Vice Admiral Shigeru Matsuyama was named to head the Bureau of Aeronautics, and Rear Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto was appointed as chief of the technical section. In naval aviation circles these three officers became known as "The Triumvirate.”
Among the many aircraft manufacturers in Japan during the 1930s, the leading producers of naval planes were Mitsubishi, Nakajima, Aichi, and Kawanishi. The Triumvirate’s first major move was to insist that naval planes be designed and built in Japan, and experimental orders were placed with the four big manufacturers. The first contingent of these planes was delivered in 1932, and tested at the naval air arsenal under supervision of the Yokosuka Air Group. Upon approval, they were accepted as standard naval equipment and designated "Type 7,” since they appeared in the seventh year of the Showa era (reign of Emperor Hirohito). The prototype of the famous Zero fighter was a Type-12 (1937) plane. Under Triumvirate leadership, Japanese
4
U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, December 1972
Figure 2—Japanese Naval Air Groups 1930
AIRBASE |
YOKOSUKA |
KASUMIGAURA |
SASEBO |
OMURA |
TATE YAM A |
TOT/4/. _____ |
|||||
Aircraft |
Groups |
C«//* |
Groups |
Craft |
Groups Craft |
Groups |
Craft |
Groups |
Craft |
Groups |
Craft |
Carrier fighter |
% |
3(6) |
|
|
|
1 |
6(12) |
>/2 |
3(6) |
2 |
12(24) |
Carrier attack |
% |
3(6) |
|
|
|
1 |
6(12) |
i |
6(12) |
2% |
15(30) |
Carrier recon. |
% |
3(6) |
iy2 |
9(18) |
|
|
|
|
|
2 |
12(24) |
Seaplane |
% |
2(4) |
iy2 |
6(12) |
l>/2 6(12) |
|
|
i |
4(8) |
4'/2 |
18(36) |
Flying boat |
% |
1(2) |
|
|
y2 U2) |
|
|
i |
2(4) |
2 |
4(8) |
Trainer |
|
|
3 |
18(36) |
|
|
|
|
|
3 |
18(36) |
Experimental-)- |
|
|
1 |
12(12) |
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
12(12) |
Total |
2% |
12(24) |
7 |
45(78) |
2 7(14) |
2 |
12(24) |
3% |
15(30) |
17 |
91(17°) |
* Reserves in parentheses
f Both balloons and dirigibles were found to be impractical as weapons and thus were excluded from regular tactical groups. They were attached to thc Kasumigaura Air Group for purely experimental purposes.
■
TaJP*«*i»SE
Carrier torpedo bombers (Type 13) make practice rum.
Japan’s first aircraft carrier, the Hosho
Japanese Naval Aviation 75
naval aviation emerged from its formative, imitative stage, and took long steps toward independence in plane production.
In March 1934—when the first Vinson Naval Expansion Plan was approved in the United States—the Japanese Navy pushed a program for the completion °f six additional air groups by the end of 1937. Considering the two air groups still uncompleted under 'he first replenishment plan, this meant a total of eight f>foups to be added in just three years. The new plan called for three groups of carrier-based fighters, two- arid-a-half groups of medium attack planes, and a unit °f large flying boats. This amounted to a total of 105 planes, 25 of which would be in ready reserve.
* bis seemingly impossible task became even more difli- cult when the completion date was advanced by one ^ar. This was but a sample of the pace maintained °ver the next five years, with a new replenishment plan ■drnost annually, and a consequent increased demand ^■ trained pilots and aviation technicians. The program
was further hampered throughout by demands from private industry, the army, and even the navy itself, which ordered that fleet carriers and plane-carrying battleships and cruisers maintain a full wartime complement of aviation personnel at all times.
The Carrier Task Force. The Shanghai Incident of 1932 led to Japan’s first carrier task force operation. On this occasion, Carrier Division 1 (Hosho, Kaga) and the seaplane tender Notoro, all of the Third Fleet, moved into action in the vicinity of Shanghai. Planes from these ships battled in the air over the city and, in one case, shot down a Boeing fighter piloted by Robert Short, an American in the hire of the Chinese Air Force. These actions over Shanghai provided Japan’s first combat experience in the use of carrier-based planes.
The second such experience came in 1937 with the China Incident. On 15 August, planes of Carrier Division 2 (Akagi, Kaga) bombed enemy bases around
Planes
Carrier division |
Ship |
Fighter |
Dire bomber |
Toipedo bomber |
Total |
1 |
Akagi |
18(3) |
18(3) |
27(3) |
63(9) |
|
Kaga |
18(3) |
18(3) |
27(3) |
63(9) |
2 |
Soryu |
18(3) |
18(3) |
18(3) |
54(9) |
|
Hiryu |
18(3) |
18(3) |
18(3) |
54(9) |
4 |
Ryujo |
18(3) |
|
18(3) |
36(6) |
|
Kasuga Man/ |
— |
— |
— |
— |
5 |
Zuikakti |
18(3) |
27(3) |
27(3) |
72(9) |
|
Shokaku |
18(3) |
27(3) |
27(3) |
72(9) |
|
Total |
126(21) |
126(18) |
162(21) |
414(60) |
76 U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings, December 1972
Hangchow. Chinese air forces were not strong enough to strike at the carriers in either of these cases, so the action was confined to aerial combat.
Out of these beginnings came Japan’s naval air strength which played such a major role in World War II. In April 1941, the First Air Fleet was activated. By November 1941, this organization, containing the ships and planes which achieved Japan’s early successes of the war, was constituted as in Figure 3.
It was the ships of Carrier Divisions 1, 2, and 5 which launched the planes for the attack on Pearl Harbor, opening World War II in the Pacific Ocean, and leading to the ultimate destruction of Japanese naval aviation. Its fate may be summarized with a listing of all Japanese aircraft carriers by name, in order of date of completion, with their tonnage (standard displacement), maximum speed (in knots), wartime plane capacity (reserves given in parentheses), and a note as to their outcome. (See Figure 4.)
At the start of World War II, Japan had ten aircraft carriers, and 15 were added through wartime construction and conversion. By war’s end only three were still afloat. The airplane score for the Japanese Navy was equally astonishing. In December 1941, the Navy had 2,120 planes of all types. Wartime construction
added 32,377 for a total of 34,497. At the end of the war there were 7,307 navy planes, 27,190 having been lost, for an average loss of more than 20 planes each day during the three years and eight months of conflict.
From a humble and modest beginning naval aviation in Japan made meteoric progress—but came to a miserable demise.
Captain Toshikazu Ohmac graduated from the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in 1922, and the Japanese Naval War College in 1934. He served as a staff officer in the Eighth Fleet (1942), Southeast Area Fleet (1943), Mobile Fleet (1944), and as chief of the naval operations section in Imperial General Headquarters (1945). Since World War II he has been a consultant on military history for the Japanese Demobilization Bureau, the U. S. Army, the U. S. Navy, and especially for Rear Admiral S. E. Morison’s History of United States Naval Operations in World War II. Captain Ohmac has contributed several articles to Naval Institute Proceedings.
Figure 4
NAME |
COMPLETED |
TONNAGE |
SPEED |
PLANES |
NOTE |
Hosbo |
12/27/22 |
7,470 |
25.0 |
15(16) |
World’s first ship designed and built as an aircraft carrier. Used only in training, never in combat. Slightly damaged at Kure by air attack 7/24/45. |
Akagi |
3/25/27 |
26,900 |
31.0 |
66(25) |
Converted battle cruiser. Scuttled 6/5/42 after two bomb hits in Battle of Midway. |
Kaga |
3/31/28 |
26,900 |
27.5 |
72(18) |
Converted battleship. Sank 6/5/42 after fuel explosions induced by four bomb hits in Battle of Midway. |
Ryujo |
5/9/33 |
8,000 |
29.0 |
36(12) |
Built as a carrier. Sunk 8/25/42 at Battle •of Eastern Solomons. |
Sotyu |
12/29/37 |
15,900 |
34.5 |
57(16) |
Built as a carrier. Sunk 6/5/42 in Battle of Midway. |
Hiryu |
7/5/38 |
17,300 |
34.3 |
57(16) |
Built as a carrier. Sunk 6/5/42 in Battle of Midway. |
Zuiho |
12/27/40 |
11,200 |
28.0 |
27(3) |
Converted from submarine tender Takasaki. Sunk 8/25/44 by air attack in battle off Cape Engano. |
Shokaku |
8/8/41 |
25,675 |
34.2 |
72(12) |
Built as carrier. Hit by four submarine torpedoes and sunk 6/19/44 in Battle of Philippine Sea. |
Captain Roger Pincau is on active duty as director of the Navy Memorial Museum, located in the Washington Navy Yard. He was managing editor of the Smithsonian Institution Press and prepared two major Smithsonian exhibits (1965-1972); social sciences officer (1961-1965) and in Far East intelligence (1957-1961) at the Department of State, and assisted Admiral S. E. Morison with History of United States Naval Operations in World War II (1947-1957). A graduate of the University of Michigan, George Washington University Law School, and the U. S. Navy Japanese Language School, he has translated, edited, or co-authored several books and numerous articles including several in the Proceedings.
Japanese Naval Aviation 77
Name |
COMPLETED |
TONNAGE |
SPEED |
PLANES |
NOTE |
^u>kaku |
9/25/41 |
25,675 |
34.2 |
72(12) |
Shokaku sister ship. Sunk by air attack 10/25/44 in battle off Cape Engaiio. |
Taiyo |
9/5/41 |
17,830 |
21.0 |
23(4) |
Converted from merchant ship Kasuga Maru in 1942. Sunk 8/18/44 west of Luzon by submarine torpedo. |
Shoh0 |
1/26/42 |
11,200 |
28.0 |
27(3) |
Converted from submarine tender Kenzaki. Sunk 5/7/42 at Battle of Coral Sea. |
Junyo |
5/3/42 |
24,140 |
25.5 |
48(5) |
Converted from merchant ship Kashiwara Maru. Damaged 12/9/44 west of Kyushu by submarine torpedo. |
Uny0 |
5/31/42 |
17,830 |
21.0 |
23(4) |
Converted from merchant ship Yahata Maru. Sunk 9/17/44 off China coast by submarine torpedo. |
Hiy0 |
6/31/42 |
24,140 |
25.5 |
48(5) |
Converted from merchant ship Izumo Maru. Sunk 7/20/44 by air and submarine attack in Battle of Philippine Sea. |
Qlttyo |
12/25/42 |
17,830 |
21.0 |
23(4) |
Converted from merchant ship Ni/la Maru. Sunk 12/3/43 by submarine torpedoes southeast of Hachijojima. |
fyuho |
12/28/42 |
13,360 |
26.5 |
24(7) |
Converted from submarine tender Taigei. Damaged 3/19/45 by air attack at Kurc. |
^'yoda |
10/31/43 |
11,190 |
29.0 |
30(0) |
Converted from seaplane tender. Sunk 10/25/44 by bomb hits in battle off Cape Engaho. |
Kaiy0 |
11/23/43 |
13,600 |
23.0 |
24(0) |
Converted from merchant ship Argentina Maru. Foundered 7/24/45 in Inland Sea. |
Uinyo |
12/15/43 |
17,500 |
21.0 |
27(6) |
Converted from German merchant ship Schamhorst. Sunk 11/17/44 by submarine torpedo west of Quelpart Island. |
Pilose |
1/1/43 |
11,190 |
29.0 |
30(0) |
Converted from seaplane tender. Sunk 10/25/44 by bomb hits in battle off Cape Engano. |
r«sbo |
3/7/44 |
29,300 |
33.3 |
63(21) |
Built as a carrier. Sunk 6/19/44 by submarine torpedoes north of Yap. |
lj»ryu |
8/6/44 |
17,150 |
34.0 |
57(8) |
Built as a carrier. Sunk 12/19/44 by submarine torpedo northwest of Formosa. |
|
8/10/44 |
17,150 |
34.0 |
57(8) |
Built as a carrier. Damaged 7/24/45 by bombs at Kure and capsized. |
^atsuragi |
10/15/44 |
17,150 |
34.0 |
57(8) |
Built as a carrier. Damaged 7/24/45 by bombs at Kure. |
^'nano |
11/19/44 |
62,000 |
27.0 |
42(5) |
Converted from Yamato-class battleship during construction. Sunk 11/29/44 on |
maiden voyage by submarine torpedoes south of Honshu.