The Japanese automobile industry has become a symbol of the nation's stellar postwar growth, but few may be aware that its rise owes much to the engineers who helped develop military aircraft during the war.
Suddenly unemployed upon Japan's August 1945 surrender and subsequent demilitarization under the Allied Occupation, the country's top engineering talents migrated to what was then a fledging auto industry, bringing with them a slew of vital technologies.
They helped domestic automakers successfully ride the motorization wave. Car ownership, which stood at some 1.78 million units in March 1965, has grown more than 30-fold to roughly 56 million units today, according to Automobile Inspection & Registration Association statistics.