Japanese Printer Companies in WWII "Fire Balloon"

Brother during World War II was know as Nippon Sewing Machine Manufacturing Company in 1934. Prior to 1934 they were known as Yasui Sewing Machine Co, and was founded by Kaneschi Yasui. When the started in 1941 Nippon Sewing Machine Manufacturing Company aka Brother Sales Ltd had to switch from manufacturing commerical sewing machines to indsutrial sewing machines. Not much information was available if Brother produced any additional products for the war effort. However, it was noted that many of their factories received extensive war damage.

Epson started in 1941 as Daiwa Kogyo LTD and was located in Suwa, Nagano, Japan. Not much information was available for Daiwa Kogyo during the war effort, however Daiwa Kogyo was part of the Sieko conglomerate. Sieko like many other Japanese companies were ordered to produce military items sucn as time fuses and ammunition.

Now, here's something I never knew in doing some research on timing fuses.

"From late 1944 until early 1945, the Japanese launched over 9,000 of these fire balloons, of which 300 were found or observed in the U.S. Some guesswork gives the total number that made the trip at about 1,000. Despite the high hopes of their designers, the balloons were relatively ineffective as weapons, causing only six deaths and a small amount of damage, and they survive in memory mostly as an ingenious and dangerous curiosity."

Geez, I wonder if this can still happen today, could these ballons go undetected?? Want to read more about the Fire Balloon!

Hitachi started in 1910 by Namihei Odaira, they specialized in manufacturing small 5 horsepower electric motors. In 1920 the name was chamged to Hitachi, LTD.

"The rise of the Japanese military government in the 1930s forced some changes at Hitachi. Although Odaira struggled to maintain corporate independence, his company was nonetheless pressured into manufacturing war material, including radar and sonar equipment for the Imperial Navy. Odaira, however, was successful in preventing Hitachi from manufacturing actual weapons.

World War II and its aftermath devastated the company. Many of its factories were destroyed by Allied bombing raids, and after the war, American occupational forces tried to disband Hitachi altogether. Founder Odaira was removed from the company."

-=Good Selling=-