1932 Yoshihara / Hōchi Shimbun Map, Ill-fated Solo Trans-Pacific Flight

This is an unrecorded 1932 or Showa 7 Hōchi Shimbun diazotype map of the northern Pacific with hand-written annotations tracing the proposed transpacific route of Seiji Yoshihara (吉原清治), the 'Japanese Lindbergh', from Oakland, California, to Tokyo. The flight was Yoshihara's second attempt, and the repeated failure dishonored him in the eyes of the Japanese public and government, crashing his promising aviation career. The map is accompanied by two period press-photos, one of Yoshihara, the other of his crashed plane at Oakland Airport. Both have annotations on the verso.

Yoshihara's Flight

Yoshihara's planned route is highlighted in pink and features manuscript notations highlighting seven waypoints along the route, with their English (or in some cases Russian) and Japanese names noted, along with the distances between each. Symbols, explained in the legend, refer to airports, cities, railways, rivers, wireless communications stations, and other features that would help navigate along the mostly chilly and desolate route.

Daring and ambitious, Yoshihara hoped to become the first Japanese national to fly solo across the Pacific. Unfortunately, during a 'test' flight, Yoshihara crashed just outside Oakland and broke an arm and a leg, ending his attempt before it began. The manuscript annotations here may be in Yoshihara's own hand. As a reverse cyanotype, this map was likely produced in a very limited run for route planning purposes, not commercial distribution.

The Lone Eagle of Japan

Seiji Yoshihara (吉原清治; 1905 - 1974) was born in the Japanese spa town of Fukuji, reportedly with a bold, if not fiery and reckless, character - something that plagued his life-long aviation career. As a young man, he became fascinated with aviation and was awarded a Japanese pilot's license in 1927. Yoshihara then traveled to Germany, where he studied for two years at the RWTH Aachen University Flight Institute, obtaining a German flight license. He became a national hero in 1930 after completing a 7,000-mile solo flight in an open-cockpit plane from Berlin to Tokyo.

Spurred by his success, Yoshihara planned even more ambitious aviation feats. The emperor of Japan offered a reward of 100,000 Yen to the first Japanese aviator to cross the Pacific, and the news conglomerate Hōchi Shimbun doubled down on it with an additional 25,000 Yen. In 1928, the Australian Charles Kingsford Smith and his crew flew from Oakland, California to Brisbane, but no one had successfully flew between the U.S. and Japan. In May 1931, Yoshihara made his first attempt, flying from Haneda Airfield in Tokyo towards the United States. Like Kingsford Smith, Yoshihara had to plan multiple stops to refuel, which in his case meant multiple difficult landings and takeoffs in the Aleutian Islands and Alaska. He took off in front of a large crowd, including Japanese and foreign dignitaries, politicians, and fellow aviation pioneers, but his plane encountered thick fog and engine troubles near the Kuril Islands and Yoshihara was only rescued hours later thanks to the fortuitous passing of Japanese fishing vessel. Several months later, in October 1931, the Americans Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon made a non-stop flight between Japan and the U.S. using a Bellanca aircraft that they modified (including jettisoning the landing gear!) to carry as much fuel as possible.

Following delays and disputes with the Japanese Civil Aviation Administration over the suitability of the aircraft sponsored by the Hōchi Shimbun, in 1932, Yoshihara attempted his previous trip in reverse, planning to use a flying boat to travel from Oakland to Tokyo. But this second attempt ended before it began. The seaplane's engine malfunctioned - apparently from taking off without first warming it up - and he crashed at Oakland airport. The failure was a blow to Japanese national pride, and both the public and his financiers were unwilling to support further attempts by Yoshihara. Despite his bravery and earlier successes, he was effectively scoured from records, and the 'Japanese Lindy' is almost unknown in Japan today. He did attempt other feats in aviation, especially with gliders, on shorter routes within Japan, and in 1937, he established a small airplane research institute to manufacture gliders. But Yoshihara otherwise vanished into obscurity and died in 1974 without much public notice.

Diazo Print or Whiteprint

The diazo print (whiteprint or diazo for short) is a photo reproductive technique best understood as a reverse cyanotype or blueprint. The process yields distinctive blue lines on white paper. Like cyanotypes, the diazo process gained popularity in architecture circles, where it was a simple and effective way to duplicate documents in the field. The earliest diazotypes appeared around 1880 and were adopted for military and field cartographic use from about 1895. The diazo process was commercialized in 1923, when the German firm, Kalle and Company, developed Ozalid, a patented diazo paper that made diazotyping even easier. By the 1950s, it supplemented cyanotypes as the reprographic technique of choice for technical drawings.

Publication History and Census

This map was published by the Hōchi Shimbun on March 1, 1932 (Showa 7), a few months before Yoshihara expected to begin his flight across the Pacific. With both attempts at a cross-Pacific flight, Yoshihara was celebrated in the national media and was the subject of posters, postcards, and other paraphernalia, mostly published by the Hōchi Shimbun. As a diazo, this map would not have been intended for commercial distribution and was almost certainly prepared for flight planning. This is the only surviving example.