Description
Book SynopsisThe role of engineering communities in taking Japan from a defeated war machine into a peacetime technology leader.
Naval, aeronautic, and mechanical engineers played a powerful part in the military buildup of Japan in the early and mid-twentieth century. They belonged to a militaristic regime and embraced the importance of their role in it. Takashi Nishiyama examines the impact of war and peace on technological transformation during the twentieth century. He is the first to study the paradoxical and transformative power of Japan's defeat in World War II through the lens of engineering.
Nishiyama asks: How did authorities select and prepare young men to be engineers? How did Japan develop curricula adequate to the task (and from whom did the country borrow)? Under what conditions? What did the engineers think of the planes they built to support Kamikaze suicide missions? But his study ultimately concerns the remarkable transition these trained engineers made after
Trade Review
An extremely well-researched study that is of great value to historians of twentieth-century Japan and historians of aviation. -- D. Colin Jaundrilll Military History Nishiyama is to be praised for the variety of sources he uses to study the role of engineers in the creation of modern Japan, both in times of war and peace. In particular, his work has benefited from personal interviews and correspondence with 18 former military engineers and their relatives, many connected with the Shinkansen project. This, along with reference to biographies and autobiographies, allows the author to construct a more human account of these technical problem solvers and their ability to adapt to the new demands of peacetime. -- M. William Steele American Historical Review Nishiyama's work provides us with an important foundation that challenges historians of technology of modern Japan and beyond to combine top-down and bottom-up methodologies in new and innovative ways. -- Aaron Stephen Moore Technology and Culture How Japan came to develop such a train [the Romance Car SE3000] and its successor, the famous Shinkansen "bullet train," is the subject of [this] fascinating book by Takashi Nishiyama. -- Charles Day Physics Today ... Nishiyama's study represents a substantial contribution to the history of modern Japan. Journal of Japanese Studies ... Engineering War and Peace in Modern Japan should be read by anyone interested in a complex aspect of the Pacific War and its consequences. Michigan War Studies Review ... This is a useful study and should be read by those interested in engineering cultures, postwar demilitarization, and the politics of technological innovation. The Historian ... This is a useful study and should be ready by those interested engineering cultures, postwar demilitarization, and the politics of technological innovation. The Historian
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Notes on Transliteration
Introduction Technology and Culture, War and Peace
1. Designing Engineering Education for War, 1868–1942
2. Navy Engineers and the Air War, 1919–1942
3. Engineers for the Kamikaze Air War, 1943–1945
4. Integrating Wartime Experience in Postwar Japan, 1945–1952
5. Former Military Engineers in the Postwar Japanese National Railways, 1945–1955
6. Opposition Movements of Former Military Engineers in the Postwar Railway Industry, 1945–1957
7. Former Military Engineers and the Development of theShinkansen, 1957–1964
Conclusion: Legacy of War and Defeat
A Note on the Appendix and Sources
Appendix: List of Informants
Notes
Bibliography
Index
