The Great Kanto
Earthquake and Rapid Increase in U.S. Vehicle Imports
Kiichiro was caught in Tokyo during the Great Kanto
Earthquake of September 1, 1923. At the time the earthquake struck, he was
visiting a high school and university friend, Hideo Kobayashi, who worked at
the Ministry of Railways1, to discuss automobiles. Risaburo Oshima recalls
traveling to Tokyo to search for Kiichiro, to no avail. While he was waiting
and worrying, Kiichiro came home, covered in dirt.
For Kiichiro, September 1 would always be a day he
associated with automobiles. Ten years later, on September 1, 1933, the
Automotive Production Division-which would eventually become the Automotive
Department-was established within Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Ltd.
The railway system was devastated by the Great Kanto
Earthquake, and automobiles played a key role in transportation. Many of the
lives saved from the fires that struck following the earthquakes were due to
automobiles, and trucks were also widely used, from the post earthquake
clean-up through to reconstruction. This event made many people realize the
practical public role and convenience that automobiles, previously regarded as
a luxury item, could offer.
Entaro bus
As significant time was required to mend the railway system,
the Tokyo Municipal Electric Bureau ordered 800 truck chassis from U.S.
manufacturer Ford Motor Company. The completed chassis reached Yokohama Port in
January 1924 and were immediately fitted with rough canvas top bodies for
operation as municipal buses. These buses came to be known by the nickname
"entaro bus".
The surge in demand for automobiles following the earthquake
was met by U.S. automakers, whose mass production systems gave them an
advantage in both supply capability and cost. American vehicles were 20-30
percent cheaper than European cars, and orders arrived in three months. Due to
these factors, automobile orders were dominated by U.S. automakers, while
European cars, which took six months to deliver, faded from the market.
Assembly Production
by Ford and General Motors
Assembly line at Ford Japan
In response to the Japanese demand for automobiles, Ford established
Ford-Japan (Yokohama, capital: 4 million yen) in December 1924. Assembly
production commenced the following year in March 1925. General Motors also
established a subsidiary, GM-Japan (Osaka, capital: 8 million yen), which began
assembly production in April 1927.
Kiichiro Toyoda's friend Hideo Kobayashi relates the
situation in the book "The Automotive Industry and Transportation" as
follows. It can be assumed that Kiichiro held a similar view.
The U.S. car companies Ford and General Motors have established
Ford-Japan and GM-Japan with large assembly plants in Yokohama and Osaka
respectively. These two major players have an almost complete monopoly on
automobile sales in Japan.
The France-produced Panhard et Levassor, a gasoline-powered
vehicle, is first imported in Japan in 1898. In 1907, Komanosuke Uchiyama, an
engineer from Tokyo Motor Vehicle Works, completed the first Japanese-made
gasoline engine automobile, the "Takuri".
Several efforts were made to produce vehicles in Japan over
the next twenty years. However, as the overall level of Japan's industrial
technology at the time was immature, conditions were not suitable for
establishing an all-round automotive industry, and ventures to produce vehicles
domestically were unsuccessful. Among the efforts undertaken, two ventures that
had a considerable influence on the eventual establishment of the domestic
automotive industry were Kwaishinsha Motor Car Co., Ltd. and Hakuyosha Company.
Kwaishinsha Motor Car Works was founded in the Azabu Hiroo
district of Tokyo in July 1911 by Masujiro Hashimoto, who was originally from
Nukata-gun (now Okazaki City) in Aichi Prefecture. While assembling, selling
and repairing foreign cars, he studied automobiles, and in 1914 completed his
first passenger car, the DAT.
In 1918, Kwaishinsha Motor Car Works became a joint-stock
company, Kwaishinsha Motor Car Co., Ltd., and in 1922 the DAT 41 model
passenger car won a gold award at the Peace Commemoration Tokyo Exposition.
However, business was constantly slow, and Kwaishinsha was forced to close its
operations in 1925 after suffering a fatal blow from the rapid increase in U.S.
vehicles following the Great Kanto Earthquake.
In September 1926 Jitsuyo Jidosha Seizo Co., Ltd. bought the
rights to manufacture DAT vehicles, and established DAT Jidosha Seizo Co., Ltd.
Although Masujiro Hashimoto joined the company as senior managing officeer, he
left the automotive industry when it was absorbed by Tobata Casting Co., Ltd. in June 1931. The compact passenger car developed by DAT Jidosha Seizo, named
the Datsun, was continued by Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
Meanwhile, in June 1912 Junya Toyokawa2 established the
Hakuyosha Company and operated a manufacturing business producing machine tools
and other items at the company's plant in Sugamo-machi, Tokyo. In 1921 Toyokawa
built two domestic vehicles, a model named the Ales, and exhibited this car at
the 1922 Peace Commemoration Tokyo Exposition the following year, winning a
silver award.
Otomo vehicle (a reproduction created by the Toyota Automobile
Museum, at the National Museum of Nature and Science)
Toyokawa also successfully created a prototype for the
'Otomo' model in 1924. Approximately 230 Japan-made Otomo vehicles (equipped
with an air-cooled 980 cc OHV engine) were produced before production ended in
the spring of 1928. The Hakuyosha Company ultimately closed as assembly
production of U.S. vehicles gained speed.
Hakuyosha Company employed several people who would go on to
play key roles in the automotive industry, including Higuma Ikenaga3, Shuji
Ono4, and Shisaburo Kurata5, who joined the Automotive Department of Toyoda
Automatic Loom Works.
Building a Chukyo
Detroit-Development of the Atsuta Passenger Car
In May 1930 the Domestic Production Promotion Committee, an
advisory body to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, presented a plan for
establishing a domestic automotive industry. It was precisely this time that
Kiichiro Toyoda was thinking of diversifying the Toyoda business and
considering entering the spinning machine and automobile manufacturing
businesses.
With the move towards domestic automotive production
gathering momentum, Nagoya City Mayor Isao Oiwa advocated building an
automotive industry in the Chukyo region of central Japan. This plan, which was
also known as the Chukyo Detroit Project, aimed to utilize the machine industry
in the Chukyo region to develop an automotive industry (thereby turning Chukyo
into "another Detroit"). The region was looking to develop an
industry to replace the textile and ceramics industries prevalent in the area,
a view that was also shared by Kiichiro Toyoda, who, considering the future of
the textile industry, was thinking of a foray into the automotive industry.
Several machine companies based in Nagoya City participated
in the Chuyko Detroit Project following introduction from Mayor Oiwa, and the
project was led by Kamataro Aoki, the president of Aichi Tokei Denki Co., Ltd.
Development of a prototype passenger car modeled on the U.S. Nash vehicle
commenced in the summer of 1930, with participant companies taking
responsibility for different areas of development. Okuma Iron Works Co., Ltd.
developed the engine and transmission devices, Nippon Sharyo, Ltd. created the
frame and body, Okamoto Bicycle Works provided the wheels and braking system,
while Toyoda Loom Company was responsible for the cast parts. Two prototype
vehicles were completed in March 1932.
Named the Atsuta, the vehicle was fitted with a large
water-cooled eight-cylinder, 3.94 liter 85 hp engine. The reason a large
passenger car was produced was "to build a quality luxury car to distance
domestic vehicles from the threat of mass-produced U.S. models".1
Atsuta passenger car
(from Kogyo Hyoron magazine, May 1932)
Compared to the price of a mass-market Ford model (which
sold for 3,000 yen at the time), the Atsuta was more than twice as expensive,
costing 6,500 yen. However, it cost even more to build: 9,200 yen. The Chukyo
Detroit Project was unable to turn a profit and was thus ultimately cancelled.
Source: TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION
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