Sunburst: The Rise of Japanese Naval Air Power, 1909-1941 - Hardcover

This study illuminates the rise of Japanese naval aviation from its genesis in 1909 to its devastating strike on Pearl Harbor in 1941. It provides an account of Japan's naval air campaign over China from 1937 to 1941 and concludes with a revealing chapter on the utter destruction of Japanese naval air power by 1944, in the process explaining its essential strengths and weaknesses. The author traces the development of the Navy's land-based air power as well as its carrier forces, covering training, personnel, tactics, doctrine, technology and the industrial base, combining data found in previous handbooks with new information from Japanese sources. Appendices include biographical summaries of important personnel mentioned in the text, detailed drawings and data on Japanese carriers and naval aircraft, and information on Japanese naval air bases and land-based air groups as of 7 December 1941.

Mark R Peattie is a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University with a Ph.D in Japanese history from Princeton University. He is the author or co-author of seven books including Kaigun: Strategy, tactics and Technology in the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941.