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This book describes in considerable detail the people, events ships and aircraft that shaped the Air Service from its origins in the late 19th century to its demise in 1945. The formative years began when a British Naval Mission was established in Japan in 1867 to advise on the development of balloons for naval purposes. After the first successful flights of fixed-wing aircraft in the USA and Europe, the Japanese navy sent several officers to train in Europe as pilots and imported a steady stream of new models to evaluate.During World War One Japan became allied with the UK and played a significant part in keeping the German fleets of ships and submarines at bay in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. However, in the international naval treaties that followed they felt betrayed, since the number of capital ships, battleships and cruisers, that they were allowed was below those of the USA and the UK.Aircraft carriers were not included, so a program of carrier building was started and continued until World War Two. At the same time they developed an aircraft industry and at the beginning of war their airplanes were comparable, and in some instances superior, to those of the British and Americans.Much prewar experience was gained during Japans invasion of China, but their continued anger with America festered and resulted in their becoming allied with Germany, Italy and the Vichy France during World War Two. There followed massive successful attacks on Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, the Southern Islands, Port Darwin and New Guinea.The British were decimated and the USA recoiled at the onslaught, taking over a year to regroup and take the war to the Imperial Japanese forces. Throughout the conflict many sea battles were fought and the name Zero became legendary. When Japan eventually capitulated after the Atomic bombs were dropped the Japanese Imperial Air Service was disbanded.

• Table of Contents; List of Illustrations; Preface; Acknowledgments;
• 1. The Navy Tests Its Wings: Japanese Naval Aviation, 1909-1921;
• 2. Airborne: Japanese Naval Aircraft and Naval Air Tactics, 1920-1936;
• 3. Flight Decks: Japanese Carriers and Carrier Doctrine, 1920-1941;
• 4. Soaring: Japanese Naval Aircraft and the Japanese Aircraft Industry, 1937-1941;
• 5. Attacking a Continent: The Navy's Air War in China, 1937-1941;
• 6. Forging the Thunderbolt: Japanese Naval Air Power as an Offensive System, 1937-1941;
• 7. Descending in Flame: Japanese Naval Air Power Destroyed.

• Appendix 1: Biographical Sketches
• Appendix 2: Glossary of Naval Aviation Terms;
• Appendix 3: Generic Organization of Japanese Naval Aviation;
• Appendix 4: Naval Aviation Vessels;
• Appendix 5: Naval Air Bases and Land-Based Air Groups;
• Appendix 6: Principal Naval Aircraft;
• Appendix 7: Naval Aircraft Designation Systems;
• Appendix 8: Principal Naval Aircraft Engines; Appendix 9:The Hineri-komi (""Turning-in"") Maneuver; Notes; Bibliography; Index; About the Author.

`A must-have for any serious scholar of the Pacific War' -Air & Space `An illuminating roadmap following the rise of Japanese naval aviation from its inception in 1909 to its devastating capability on the eve of the Pacific war' -Sea Power `Undoubtedly one of the most important books concerning World War II to appear in the last decade' -The Hook This acclaimed sequel to the Peattie/Evans prize-winning work, Kaigun, illuminates the rise of Japanese naval aviation from its genesis in 1909 to its thunderbolt capability on the eve of the Pacific War. In the process of explaining the navy's essential strengths and weaknesses, the book provides the most detailed account available in English of Japan's naval air campaign over China from 1937 to 1941. A final chapter analyzes the utter destruction of Japanese naval air power by 1944. Peattie traces the development of the Imperial Navy's land-based air power as well as the evolution of its carrier forces. He also treats the salient aspects of Japan's naval air service: training, personnel, tactics, doctrine, technology, and industrial base. In doing so, Peattie combines data found in previous handbooks with important new information derived from Japanese-language sources. Includes extensive appendices, detailed drawings and data on Japanese carriers and naval aircraft, and information on Japanese naval air bases and land-based air groups as of 7 December 1941. About the Author Mark R. Peattie is the author, co-author, and co-editor of many books, including the award-winning Kaigun: Strategy, Tactics, and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941, coauthored with the late David Evans.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)