Prelude to Pearl Harbor: The air war in China 1937-1941
by Ray Wagner
Category: Aeronautics, Military

This report describes the fighting that developed Japanese naval air power from 1937 to 1941, and the way American military aircraft were also changed by the war in China. For the first time, carrier-based air strikes and long-range bombing attempted to destroy an enemy air force at the beginning of a war. The attacks did not succeed until land bases had been secured, but the military goals of the Japanese Navy in 1937 were similar to our own in the Persian Gulf War of 1991. Also, for the first time, a fighter designed for carrier operations won air superiority in combat, and success in 1937 led directly to the Zero fighter whose performance gave the Japanese Navy the belief it could control Pacific skies in 1941. The value of close-support of ground troops, the effects of sustained bombing of cities, and the different results of bombing by day or by night were demonstrated. American aircraft designers learned from the war in China the value of drop tanks, pilot armor, and heavy-caliber guns, as well as the best tactics for fighter pilots confronted by enemy planes with Zero's capabilities. We invite the reader to learn how the Sino-Japanese war of 1937-1941 pointed to the future of air warfare. Documents in the San Diego Aerospace Museum archives, some of them not published previously, enable us to describe this air war more accurately than has been possible before.