This book provides a unique view of the development of military and commercial aviation in Japan from the pioneering years before World War I to the end of World War II. There are comparatively few books in English that illustrate aviation in Japan in the years before World War II. This is the first book to make extensive use of Japanese aviation postcards to show how aviation in Japan grew from a dependence on foreign aircraft designs and engineers in the early years to an independent industry that produced world-class airplanes. The book uses more than 250 postcards to trace the history of Imperial Japanese Army and Navy aviation, and commercial aviation, during this thirty-five year period. Each of the book's four chapters begins with a narrative survey of key developments during the period covered. The postcards, some in color and some in black and white, show both military and commercial airplanes, many famous and some less so. Of particular interest to those interested in Japanese military aviation in World War II will be a number of postcards of wartime propaganda art.

Edward Young has had a life-long interest in aviation history. He graduated from Harvard College with a degree in Political Science. Asian aviation and World War II in the Pacific and the CBI have been the focus of much of Mr. Young's research and writing. He is a regular volunteer at the Museum of Flight in Seattle and lectures on aviation history in the Seattle area.