With the start of the
Second Sino-Japanese War, there was a tremendous need for air transport capability by the Japanese military, which had traditionally drawn on the resources of the civilian national flag carrier,
Japan Air Transport, for its charter requirements. As Japan Air Transport's capacity was limited, conflict arose between the
Imperial Japanese Army and
Imperial Japanese Navy over priority, and the government saw the need for the creation of a single, national
monopoly. The government bought a 50 percent share of Japan Air Transport, and renamed it the
Dai Nippon Kōkū in December 1938. In the late 1930s, Dai Nippon Kōkū operated an extensive international network with a combination of foreign and domestic aircraft. The airline was linked with
Manchukuo National Airways for routes in
Chosen and
Manchukuo, and also had routes in the Japanese occupied portions of mainland
China. Internally, Dai Nippon Kōkū linked the
Japanese home islands with the
Kwantung Leased Territory,
Korea,
Taiwan,
Karafuto, and
Saipan and
Palau in the
South Seas Mandate. The airline served the west and central Pacific areas using converted military
flying boats. By 1943, the airline flew a circular military convoy route from Taiwan through the
Philippines,
Indonesia,
Singapore,
Thailand and southern China. Operations continued until the
surrender of Japan in August 1945, despite heavy losses. Haneda Airport was seized by Allied forces in September, and the airline was formally disbanded in October. During the
Allied occupation, surviving aircraft and equipment were confiscated, and domestic
civil aviation in Japan was banned until the formation of
Japan Air Lines in 1951. Civil aviation to and from Japan was restored in 1947 with flights operated by
Northwest Orient Airlines and
Pan American Airways from Haneda. ==Fleet==