Question for Shinpachi

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It is interesting that Sempill is regarded as a traitor when he did not imagine that his country and Japan would go into the war.
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Thanks for posting that letter, Shinpachi; very interesting. This regarding Sempill as a traitor has come from misguided and poorly intentioned sources like that so-called documentary. Unfortunately the British press also picked up on that angle when the MI-6 documents were made public at the National Archive. Sadly, this is how the ill-informed public regard the situation and thus pay little thought to the truth. Its an attempt to use WW2 hatred toward the Japanese as some kind of reason for vilifying him and Frederick Rutland, which is incredibly insensitive of the press, but there you go.
 
Thank you, nuuumannn, for your input at #18.

Mikesh Abe 'Japanese Aircraft, 1910-1941' is available on amazon.uk from just under £50 upward. That price is one of the reasons why I did not purchase the book, speculatively, in an endeavour to find answers to my questions.

I now realise that my inability to read Japanese means that I cannot pursue this particular line of research deeper using the internet. I have found nothing on the internet, in English, concerning the Kasumigaura Flight School and the IJN Flight School. I have looked at Google maps for the location of Kasumigaura Airfield but, to me, this seems to be some distance inland from the nearest shore of Kasumigaura Lake. Thus I wonder if I'm looking in the wrong place? Maybe in the early 1930s the Kasumigaura Flight School was not based there? Perhaps it was at a location near to the lake and thus accessible from a beach? Whilst the JAA front page is available in English, if I go beyond that I encounter pages in Japanese. But then, that's quite appropriate and to be expected. However I found myself wondering whether, if I had any command of the Japanese language, the JAA Library and/or Aviation Heritage Archive might be my next port of call. So all considered, I've probably taken this line of research as far as it is feasible for me to do. Thus I thank all those who have enabled me to get this far.
 
Thanks for your kind comments, nuuumannn and avion ancien.

If Isoroku Yamamoto had known that Sempill would be blamed as a traitor, he might have reconsidered his Pearl Harbor Operation.
Sempill and his men were respected by IJN men so much.

Since 1930, Kasumigaura has been famous for Naval Aviator Preparatory Course Trainee called "Yokaren" but the airfield was originally built and opened in 1916 for training the initial naval airmen of not only land planes but float planes. The British Air Mission led by Sempilli also used there from 1921 to 1923.
 
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You're welcome, Shinpachi and avion ancien.

Avion, regarding research into Kasumigaura, might I suggest a trip to the British National Archive, where papers on the British Mission to Japan can be found. This is a subject in which I too, have an interest following on from my research into the career of the Sopwith Cuckoo torpedoplane, of which 6 were sent to Japan with the mission. Here are a couple of images taken from different articles of Kasumigaura from the air. The quality isn't good because they are scanned from photocopies:





Here are a couple of pages from a book held in a library in the UK, where I found information on the mission. Shinpachi, this being in Japanese might require your assistance in translating:



The cover image shows one of three Blackburn Swifts, serialled 1 to 3 dropping a torpedo with a Cuckoo behind.



Finally, another of the Swift and Cuckoo.

 
It's a forgotten era in my country. All knowledge, experience and wisdom that Sempill and his men left for us have gone away.
What has been left is his disgrace? Impossible
An IJN airman's memoir tells he was a severe man in training but happily smiled when his Japanese students had done well.

I will try translation the photos in this weekend, nuuumannn.
Thanks for sharing!

Photo: From an IJN airman's memoir

 
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Thanks for the pic of the Cuckoo, Shinpachi. I have in my collection a number of Cuckoo images, but not seen this one before. I also have a couple of Gloster Sparrowhawks taking off from the battleship Yamashiro from the collection of Sydney Manton, who was a pilot on the mission.

There were a couple of notable British names among those who went as part of the mission, including George Volkert, who was a designer for Handley Page and became Chief Designer after Gustav Lachmann, (whose last design with HP was the teutonic looking Hampden - Lachmann was German) and went on to design the Halifax bomber.

Also Herbert Brackley who flew HP.O/100 bombers on missions with 7 Sqn during WW1, he also became Chief Superintendant of Imperial Airways after his return from Japan.

Another was Thomas Orde-Lees, who was a member of Ernest Shackleton's abortive Antarctic mission before the war. He did work on parachuting with the RNAS during the war and was sent to Japan with that knowledge in mind.
 
Thanks for that link, Shinpachi, I've never see a link to the Japanese Archives before.

Have you used them for many aviation-related topics? For example, is there information on individual wartime units?
 
The National Diet Library basically requests users to visit its library in Tokyo because it takes time to scan all docs.
In my impression, less than 2% are digitized so far but it may be worth try research with such a key word like 航空隊 編成 (Flight Squadron Organization) for example.
As you would see here are as many as 146 results for the 航空隊 編成 but the digitized (remarked with a thumbnail) are very few.

Yes, I sometimes use the service.
 
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nuuumannn said:
Here are a couple of pages from a book held in a library in the UK, where I found information on the mission. Shinpachi, this being in Japanese might require your assistance in translating
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Here you are, nuuumannn.
This has been a good opportunity for me to learn our forgotten history.
Thanks

 
Shinpachi, Thank you very much, or should I say domo arigato gozaimasu. I can't write it in Japanese, I'm afraid. I have a couple of other pages to scan, but only if you are willing; I don't want to take up too much more of your time.

This has been a good opportunity for me to learn our forgotten history.
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History is always enlightening, I find. Every time I go through my notes, I learn something new.
 
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