Imperial Japanese Naval Aviator 1937-45

by Osamu Tagaya, John White (Illustrator)

Overview

The fateful attack on Pearl Harbor forced the Western world to revise its opinion of Japan's airmen. Before the war, Japanese aviators had been seen as figures of ridicule and disdain; yet the ruthless skill and efficiency of their performance in December 1941 and the months that followed won them a new reputation as a breed of oriental superman. This book explores the world of the Imperial Japanese Naval airman, from the zenith of his wartime career until the turning of the tide, when the skill and experience of the average Japanese airman declined. Cultural and social background, recruitment, training, daily life and combat experience are all covered.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781782000655
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	06/20/2012
Series:	Warrior , #55
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	64
File size:	10 MB

About the Author

The son of a former officer of the Japanese Naval Air Technical Arsenal, Osamu Tagaya has written several books on Japanese aviation including one for the Smithsonian Institution. Born in Japan and educated in the US, as well as having lived in the UK, Osamu brings unique bilingual and broad cultural perspectives to his lifelong aviation research. This is his second book for Osprey.

John White is a commercial illustrator with many years' experience of working with advertising agencies, design firms, publishers and large corporate accounts. He has received awards from The Broadcast Design Association and The National Naval Aviation Museum, and his paintings have appeared in Aviation Art magazine, Aviation History magazine, and on the History Channel. John and his wife Margery live in Charlotte, North Carolina.
John White was born in Knebworth, Hertfordshire, in 1941. After school in NW London he achieved a scholarship to Harrow Collage of Art. He then took up an apprenticeship with the Forestry Commission in Lincolnshire, before qualifying for a place at the FC Forester Training School at Benmore in Argyllshire to study botany and dendrology. He remained with the Forestry Commission, joining their research division in 1962 and following the late Alan Mitchell as Research Dendrologist. He retired in 1996. He has contributed to many publications on the subject of northern hemisphere trees, and illustrated his own Forest and Woodland Trees for OUP in 1995.

Table of Contents

	History	4
	Chronology	10
	Recruitment and Training	10
	Flight Training	18
	Carrier Qualification	21
	Belief and Belonging	22
	Spirit of the Imperial Japanese Naval Airman	25
	Dress and Appearance	26
	Weapons and Equipment	27
	Armament
	Bombs and torpedoes
	Wireless equipment
	Daily Life and Front-Line Duty	31
	Tactics	45
	Fighters
	Horizontal bombers
	Torpedo bombers
	Dive bombers
	The Imperial Japanese Naval Airman in Combat	50
	Glossary	58
	Bibliography	59
	Color Plate Commentary	60
	Index	64