Rome–Tokyo Raid
It was organised by Gabriele D'Annunzio and Harukichi Shimoi and completed by the aviators Guido Masiero and Arturo Ferrarin together with their respective engineers Roberto Maretto and Gino Capannini.
Gabriele D'Annunzio conceived the idea of the Rome–Tokyo Raid in March 1919:[1] it was born from his meeting during the First World War with the Japanese poet Harukichi Shimoi, who had enlisted in the Arditi.
[2][3][4][5] D’Annunzio, a veteran of the Flight over Vienna, originally intended to undertake the expedition himself and for this reason he was helped and supported by the Italian government, which saw it as a possible means of distracting him from the Fiume adventure.
On 23 February they left for Basra, where Ferrarin waited for Masiero for three days before resuming the flight for Bandar Abbas, though he was interrupted by bad weather which forced him to land at Bushehr.
[4][5] From there Ferrarin wanted to reach Karachi directly but, due to an engine problem, he was forced to land near a village inhabited by rebels who opposed British rule.
After a long stop in there, waiting in vain for his other companions, Ferrarin resumed his flight in the direction of Akyab (one source states that he was flying a new plane, since his original one had been irreparably damaged by the carelessness of the local staff)[9] and from there reached Yangon,[4][5] the last staging post under British control - for the Baghdad to Burma stretch, the British authorities had given the pilots full support, providing help for repairs and guidance on routing.
[10] From Qingdao he reached the Chinese capital Beijing, where he spent a week, honored by the local population and authorities, then he left again for Kow Pangtzu, near Shenyang then for Sinŭiju in Korea, at that time an integral part of the Japanese empire.
[4] On orders from the Japanese authorities, Ferrarin was forced to follow a longer and more northern route than the one he envisaged because there was an absolute ban on flying over the strongholds of Pusan and Tsushima.
[4] Landing in Yoyogi Park,[2] Ferrarin reached the last leg of the journey, Tokyo where, in addition to the usual crowds that had met him at all his stops since he arrived in China, he had the honor of being received by the royal prince Hirohito and by Empress Teimei.
[4] In Japan, the Empress Teimei decreed that funeral rites should be conducted in their honor at a temple in Tokyo, in the presence of the Italian pilots who had arrived safely.
