Japan's Skies, Reopened — The Postwar Revival of Aviation

In August 1945, when the war ended, the shadow of aircraft vanished from Japan’s skies. By order of the General Headquarters of the Allied Powers—commonly known as GHQ—not only military aircraft but civilian ones too were grounded; the very act of Japanese people flying aircraft was halted. In a country once said to possess aviation technology rivaling the world’s best, blueprints were burned, engineers scattered into other lines of work, and even the places to study flight were closed off. After this era, sometimes called the seven blank years, a long run-up was needed before Japan could reclaim its own wings. This story begins at the moment that closed-off sky began to open once more.

The Seven Closed Years

Defeat, for Japan’s aviation, was not merely a matter of aircraft no longer being able to fly. Under the sweeping policy of dismantling military power, GHQ is said to have strictly restricted Japanese people from manufacturing, operating, and even researching aircraft. Every endeavor connected to the sky was, for a time, severed from society.

During this period, it was foreign airlines that flew over Japan. Anyone wishing to travel abroad had no choice but to rely on foreign wings. To hold sovereignty over one’s own sky yet lack the means to traverse it—for a people on the verge of independence, this was a situation that reminded them daily of the absence of full sovereignty. Aviation is often spoken of as a symbol of national strength and independence. That is precisely why reclaiming the sky took on a meaning beyond the mere rebuilding of an industry.

Seven years was a heavy void for technology. At a time when, around the world, aircraft were beginning to evolve from propellers to jets, Japan was left behind by that current. Even when the time to fly again arrived, the first wings were not built by Japanese hands; they had to begin by borrowing from abroad and entrusting the controls to foreign pilots.

1951, Into the Sky Once More

The turning point came in 1950. GHQ signaled a policy of easing the ban on operations by Japanese airlines, and preparations for a revival began to move. Early in 1951, a preparatory office for founding Japan Airlines opened, and after applying for a license, the former Japan Airlines Co. was established in August of that year. It was the moment the closed-off sky finally began to return to Japanese hands.

Then, on October 25, 1951, the first postwar domestic scheduled commercial flight departed Haneda. The aircraft bore the name Mokusei-go. It was a Martin 2-0-2, leased together with its crew from Northwest Airlines of the United States. Japan Airlines handled the commercial side, while the actual flying was performed by the foreign crew of the contracted operator—a fresh start, so to speak, on borrowed wings. Even so, the fact that Japanese aviation once again had a route of its own is said to have given people great hope. From Haneda to Itami, and on to Itazuke in Kyushu—that flight path was a thin but certain line, drawn across the seven blank years.

Yet the joy of the revival did not last long. In April of the following year, 1952, the Mokusei-go, flown by the contracted operator’s crew, crashed near Izu Oshima. The event, in which many lives were lost, dealt a deep shock to a Japanese sky that had only just begun to move. How to build a system that could secure safety with their own hands—behind the elation of the revival, the weight that the enterprise of aviation carries was thrust upon them all too soon. Japan Airlines later waited out the end of the consignment contract and stepped into independent operations with newly purchased aircraft, advancing from borrowed wings toward wings of its own.

The Birth of a National Flag Carrier

In what form should the revived aviation be nurtured? Here the nation made a choice. In October 1953, a special law called the Japan Airlines Company Act was enacted, and a new Japan Airlines, with government investment, was established. Combining government funds with the business of the former company, it was reborn, it is said, as a firm holding considerable capital. It was a so-called semi-public, semi-private structure—private in form, yet with the state deeply involved.

There was a clear reason for this form. The aviation business requires enormous funds and a high standard of safety, and international routes mean facing foreign countries as the face that represents the nation. For a postwar Japan only just born, bearing that on the strength of a single private company alone was difficult. That is precisely why the state became its backer, positioning Japan Airlines as the national flag carrier—the airline representing the country. The reborn Japan Airlines began its journey as the company entrusted with the domestic trunk lines and, in time, as the sole carrier responsible for international routes.

That said, the deep involvement of the state meant being protected and bound at the same time. Routes and fares could not be separated from national policy, and there were limits to the company’s freedom of judgment. The semi-public, semi-private mechanism was the foundation that supported the postwar fresh start, but it was also the beginning of a question that would be revisited in later eras. Even so, through these events of 1953, Japan at last came to hold, with pride, wings that represented its own sky.

And so, beyond the seven closed years, Japan’s skies returned once more to Japanese hands. From the thin flight path of the Mokusei-go to a semi-public, semi-private national flag carrier—that journey was by no means one of fair winds alone. Yet when the wings representing this country rose into the sky, Japanese aviation at last readied itself to head toward the next chapter.