Imperial Japanese Airways

[1] 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.

[2] 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.

[3] By 1943, the airline flew a circular military convoy route from Taiwan through the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and southern China.

Civil aviation to and from Japan was restored in 1947 with flights operated by Northwest Orient Airlines and Pan American Airways from Haneda.