Chapter 181 – The Navy and Kawanishi Aircraft

“What do you mean?”

When he began his explanation, it was something I couldn’t ignore.

In December 1930, Rear Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku became the director of the Navy Aviation Bureau and began planning an expansion of aviation forces that were not restricted by the London Naval Treaty.

Up to that point, no problem. It was the obvious choice. If anything, I wanted him to push even harder. As expected of Isoroku, he was enough to make you swoon.

But Mitsubishi, which had major dealings with the Navy, was a large corporation and therefore would not submit to Navy control. So the Navy looked for a company they could control. Nakajima Aircraft was out of the question. The others were unimpressive.

That was when they set their sights on Kawanishi Aircraft, a company that had been building flying boats