Japan being the last of the great combatants
of the Second World War to industrialise but air power proved vital to its war
effort. The Japanese launched their entry into
the War with a ranged surprise attacks against the Allies.
In December 1941, most famously of all, the Americans were caught off guard
at Pearl Harbor, with two waves of attacks led by 350
fighters and bombers launched from six aircraft carriers.
21 American ships were lost or damaged
and over 2,000 American sailors killed.
A few hours earlier and 7,000 miles away
the Japanese had turned their attention to the British Commonwealth Forces
stationed in Malaya, now Malaysia, landing troops by sea.
The resulting Malaya campaign lasted for over two months
and things didn't go well for the British.
On 10 December, just two days after Pearl Harbor,
Japanese aircraft attacked and sank HMS Prince of Wales
and HMS Repulse, two of the most powerful Royal Navy warships in the area.
This and Pearl Harbor demonstrated spectacularly
that ships were very vulnerable to aerial attack and the Japanese
had made the right decision to invest as much
in air power as they had. Aircraft also proved critical for control of the
Malayan Peninsula. With the bulk of the RAF tied up with
defending the British mainland the Allies were outnumbered nearly two
to one in the air. Obsolescent types like the Brewster
Buffalo were no match for more modern nimble Japanese fighters. Intelligence
also played a key role in the Malayan Campaign.
Not only had the Japanese established effective spy networks
in the months previous to their surprise attack, they also make good use of
reconnaissance aircraft like this KI-46 Dinah.
Either very lightly or in some cases completely unarmed
the Dinah was designed to fly so high and so fast
that it was out of danger while it took photographs of Allied positions.
With its thin wing, narrow and streamlined fuselage
and fully retractable main and tail wheels it was designed to rip
through the air and in the early stages of the Asia-Pacific war
the Allies had nothing which could catch it.
The Japanese rolled down the Malayan Peninsula
driving the British Commonwealth Forces in retreat to Singapore,
which itself fell to the Japanese in February 1942.
Thanks to airpower and aircraft like the Dinah, the Japanese held the upper hand
in the Second World War until the tide really started to turn
against them in 1944, with the British pressing into Burma and
the Americans from across the Pacific. With the
Americans launching increasingly deadly attacks
with long-range bombers against Japanese cities on the home
islands, the Japanese took desperate steps. Previously unarmed Dinahs were
fitted with cannon and used as bomber destroyers.
The Kawasaki KI-100, this aircraft behind me,
was also rushed into production. It was the most advanced Japanese fighter
to be produced in the War, but arrived too late
to alter the outcome. The Dinah and KI-100 at Cosford today
were captured by the British after the Japanese surrender and recovered
from Singapore and Saigon respectively before being returned to the U.K
for evaluation, eventually becoming museum objects.
They are the only survivors of their types anywhere in the world.
They are displayed together with a Yokosuka Ohka, a human guided bomb
designed for suicidal kamikaze attacks, another sign of Japanese desperation
in the closing stages of the War. Again, captured at Singapore,
it was taken to the Rocket Propulsion Research Establishment at Westcott in
Buckinghamshire, before becoming a museum object by 1963.
Taken together all three aircraft make the RAF Museum Cosford
one of the best places in the U.K. to see Japanese aircraft from the Second World War.