Project Z: Air War Japan 1946

Following the disastrous defeat of the Japanese naval forces at the Battle of Midway the head of the Nakajima Aircraft Company drew up a new battle plan. He clearly understood that the enormous industrial capacity of America would soon make the war unwinnable for Japan if the current war strategy did not change.

In August 1943 after consultation with his board and design staff Nakajima approached the Japanese military bureaucracy with a series of radical changes to alter what he felt was the current defeatist Japanese war strategy. With these changes in place Nakajima was confident Japan could regain the superiority in the war.

Project Z was born from one of these proposals. Project Z was the codename for the long range heavy bomber project designed to strike back at the American mainland and cripple the American economy.


This book describes how the Japanese aircraft industry as a whole attempted to stave off defeat by adopting new technologies and the latest aeronautical developments. In a blending of fact and fiction the air combat scenarios over Japan and the Pacific theatre are described.