JAPANESE AIRCRAFT

This is an astonishing book - filled with illustrations, photographs, profiles and specific terms - about the Japanese aircrafts during the Second World War.

Although the Allied Nations have been at war with Japan in the Pacific and the Far East since 1941, and a state of war has existed between China and Japan since the Japanese attack in Manchuria in 1931, little genuine interest has been taken in this theatre of war, and for the most part only utterances of ill - founded statements have been made to the effect that the Japanese are a race of copyists and that " ... we will soon knock hell out of them ". With this lack of general interest it is perhaps not surprising that attempts to teach recognition of Japanese aircraft have proved extremely difficult.

When Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour and British, United States and Dutch territory in the Far East and Pacific, little was known of the enemy aircraft put into service later than 1938, and opinion differ as to whether or not the Allies had heard of the so - called " Zero " fighter, destined to become the best known of Japan's aeroplanes, and for a number of years the mainstay of Japanese Naval Air Fighter strength. The purpose of this book is threefold :

1. To present as complete and accurate a record of Japanese service aircraft as possible, with the hope that all the Allied forces, both in service and under training, will learn to recognize them positively and rapidly ;
2. To create an interest in the war against Japan, especially in the air ;
3. Having aroused this interest, to supply the necessary informations about the equipment of the Japanese Army and Navy Air Services, and the theatre in which they operate.