The Technological Transformation of the Imperial Japanese Navy and the Rise of Militarism
Introduction
In merely a few decades following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Imperial Japan transformed from a vulnerable country humiliated by unequal treaties, to a political, economic, and military power parallel to the Western countries. Since the Sea of Japan and Pacific Ocean isolated the Japanese Archipelago from rest of the world, only the development of superior naval technology could enable Japan to project power abroad. When Commodore Matthew C. Perry steered steam-powered warships into the Bay of Edo in 1853 and coerced Japan to open the country, Japan was still prohibiting the construction of large ships due to its policy of national …show more content…
The college of engineering consisted of five subfields — civil engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, metallurgy, and applied chemistry. This starkly contrasted to Germany, where engineering was excluded from the universities because “its practicality was deemed incompatible with the German ideal of personal cultivation.” In Japan, the field of engineering was highly respected because of its origins in the technologically advanced Western countries. When Tokyo University was established, most of its engineering professors were from the former samurai class, which demonstrated the social prestige associated with the Faculty of Engineering. The faculty of engineering played the most important role in all the imperial institutes of higher learning established subsequently as it always has the largest number of chairs as well as the largest amount of endowment. From 1878 to 1945, the Faculty of Engineering in Tokyo University received 31 percent of the total endowments and had 27 percent of all the appointed chairs. Furthermore, the employment rate of engineering graduates remained ninety percent, even during the Great …show more content…
The civilian companies were responsible for producing weapons in large quantity, such as the aircrafts, while the naval arsenal produced weapons that required resources and confidentiality. During World War II, more than ten thousand A6M Zero fighter aircrafts were produced by Mitsubishi Aircraft Company in less than four years. On the other hand, the IJN battleship Yamato, a battleship carrying nine 18-inch guns with a displacement of 70,000 tons, was laid down in the government-owned Kure Naval Arsenal (Kure Kaigun Kosho 呉海軍工廠) in 1937. At the time when Yamato entered service, she was superior than all of her counterparts in Western countries and she represented the pinnacle of the Japanese military industry. Since Yamato was the ultimate weapon of the Imperial Japanese Navy, this ambitious project was carried out in complete secrecy. The dry dock at the shipyard was deepened by a meter and protected by a special curtain to make the ship invisible from nearby hills. Such measure proved a great success as the Allied forces in World War II gained no detailed information about Yamato until the first surface combat engagement with her in
Introduction
In merely a few decades following the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Imperial Japan transformed from a vulnerable country humiliated by unequal treaties, to a political, economic, and military power parallel to the Western countries. Since the Sea of Japan and Pacific Ocean isolated the Japanese Archipelago from rest of the world, only the development of superior naval technology could enable Japan to project power abroad. When Commodore Matthew C. Perry steered steam-powered warships into the Bay of Edo in 1853 and coerced Japan to open the country, Japan was still prohibiting the construction of large ships due to its policy of national …show more content…
The college of engineering consisted of five subfields — civil engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, metallurgy, and applied chemistry. This starkly contrasted to Germany, where engineering was excluded from the universities because “its practicality was deemed incompatible with the German ideal of personal cultivation.” In Japan, the field of engineering was highly respected because of its origins in the technologically advanced Western countries. When Tokyo University was established, most of its engineering professors were from the former samurai class, which demonstrated the social prestige associated with the Faculty of Engineering. The faculty of engineering played the most important role in all the imperial institutes of higher learning established subsequently as it always has the largest number of chairs as well as the largest amount of endowment. From 1878 to 1945, the Faculty of Engineering in Tokyo University received 31 percent of the total endowments and had 27 percent of all the appointed chairs. Furthermore, the employment rate of engineering graduates remained ninety percent, even during the Great …show more content…
The civilian companies were responsible for producing weapons in large quantity, such as the aircrafts, while the naval arsenal produced weapons that required resources and confidentiality. During World War II, more than ten thousand A6M Zero fighter aircrafts were produced by Mitsubishi Aircraft Company in less than four years. On the other hand, the IJN battleship Yamato, a battleship carrying nine 18-inch guns with a displacement of 70,000 tons, was laid down in the government-owned Kure Naval Arsenal (Kure Kaigun Kosho 呉海軍工廠) in 1937. At the time when Yamato entered service, she was superior than all of her counterparts in Western countries and she represented the pinnacle of the Japanese military industry. Since Yamato was the ultimate weapon of the Imperial Japanese Navy, this ambitious project was carried out in complete secrecy. The dry dock at the shipyard was deepened by a meter and protected by a special curtain to make the ship invisible from nearby hills. Such measure proved a great success as the Allied forces in World War II gained no detailed information about Yamato until the first surface combat engagement with her in