The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. 1 (archived PDF)

A I R W A R , 1 9 3 9 - 4 1
opened near Tokyo; two additional schools were established in 1 9 2 2 .
Organizational changes came with the expansion of the Japanese Army
Air Force, which soon occupied a place along with the infantry, field
artillery, and cavalry. Before the end of the 1930’s the post of Inspec-
tor General of Military Aviation had been created, making one com-
mander directly responsible to the Emperor for the training of the
air force.2
The Japanese Navy Air Force had a similar history in its origin,
development, and gradual assumption of importance. Naval officers
who had received aviation instruction in France and in the United
States established a training school at Oppama near Yokosuka in 1912.
The first Japanese aircraft carrier was completed in 1920, but little
progress in training and organization was made until 1 9 2 I when a
British mission of retired RAF officers and others arrived in Japan to
assist in reorganizing the naval air arm. Later British missions instructed
the Japanese force in aircraft inspection, tactics, gunnery, and arma-
ment. Though the London Naval Treaty of 1930 placed restrictions
on Japanese naval construction, the Japanese continued to expand
their naval air force, and four “replenishment plans” were approved
during the thirties. Night carrier training was begun in 1933, and both
carrier and shore-based strength of the naval air force continued to
grow.
The functions of the two Japanese air forces were clearly divided.
The army air force was designed solely to support the army ground
forces, while the naval air force, in addition to supporting the fleet,
was responsible for coastal defense, convoy protection, and sea and
antisubmarine patrols. There was apparently little co-operation be-
tween the two forces, for they had developed independently and they
were under the direction of respective army and navy commanders
who showed little desire to co-ordinate the activities of the air arms.
Despite the foreign influence which had aided in the establishment
of the air forces, the Japanese concept of air power and of the role of
the separate air arms did not constitute an exact copy of any foreign
nation. In organization and theory, as well as in the design and manu-
facture of aircraft, Japan adapted Western ideas to her own needs,
and the resulting mixture of Oriental and Western strains while bear-
ing resemblances to the air forces of other nations did not duplicate
any one of them.3
In the period 1937-41 Japanese air power received its first extended
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