Expanding on the lead article in March 2020’s REFLECTIONS, Northwest played a crucial role in re-starting commercial aviation in Japan. At the end of World War II, local aviation of any kind was forbidden in the country while matters of resettlement, reconstruction, reparations, and government reformation was undertaken. As Japan’s industrial and financial base started to regain its footing, and its transportation infrastructure was brought back on-line, General MacArthur’s administration issued its order SCAPIN 2106 in June 1950 to authorize the creation of a new domestic airline.
Foreign carriers who had been flying into Japan since 1946 were invited to form a new joint-stock company. BOAC and QANTAS declined to participate, but Northwest, Pan American, Canadian Pacific, Philippine Air Lines, and Civil Air Transport – Taiwan created a ‘study group’ named JDAC – Japan Domestic Air Corporation.
We can infer the meetings of JDAC did not go well, as there was no movement on financing, staffing, facilities, or aircraft for the whole back half of 1950. Northwest certainly had been studying the country’s airfields and traffic potential with an eye for both transpacific and intra-Asia commerce; Pan Am was working its connections back in Washington to bottle up Northwest’s Asian traffic rights and had no desire to let NWA gain any more ground on what Juan Trippe considered his exclusive territory. PAL and CAT had their own unique struggles at home while also trying to extend links to California. And Canadian Pacific was busy on two fronts trying to establish itself as a true domestic competitor to Trans-Canada as well as extend its impressive overseas network. Faced with the lack of international cooperation, the Occupation amended its order on January 27, 1951to permit Japanese investment in JDAC.
Local financing and seats at the table broke the logjam. JDAC used Northwest’s network study to form the operational plan; JDAC would arrange aircraft leases and Northwest would supply pilots and pilot training. The aircraft would be from NWA, but to assuage the interested parties’ competitive concerns, would be sold or leased to Orvis Nelson’s Transocean Airlines (TALOA) and then put in service for JDAC. TALOA would also provide the maintenance and relevant training, although Northwest ended up providing some training as well.
Northwest was happy to get the Martin 202 off its property after the airframe’s defects and string of crashes. Between August and October, 1951, seven of the Martinliners were sold outright to TALOA and another eight leased to them. Of the leases, seven ended up being sold to Pioneer in Texas (with the eighth being a hull loss in New Mexico in November 1951.) The remaining five 202s went to California Central in the fall of 1951.
Japan Air Lines’s first flight was October 25, 1951, with routes from Tokyo-Haneda southwest to Osaka and Fukuoka, and north to Sapporo. JAL’s fleet started with three of the Martinliners and added two more in early 1952. JAL also leased a DC4 from TALOA in November 1951.
There was a Martinliner crash on April 9, 1952 onto the mountain of Oshima Island, along the Haneda-Osaka corridor, killing all 37 aboard. This experience as well as Northwest’s unfortunate history with the type may have influenced JAL’s decision to standardize on the DC4.
On October 25, 1952, JAL purchased its own aircraft for the first time, an ex-Northwest DC4, and by the end of 1952 had returned all the Martinliners to TALOA, having six DC4s in its fleet. It took longer for the pilot corps to rebuild from scratch, understandably, and it was not until September 1955 until all domestic flights were crewed by Japanese nationals.
