%0 PDF %T Japan's "Carrier Revolution" in the Interwar Period %A Tsukamoto, Katsuya. %D 2017-04-19T18:08:21.236Z %8 2017-04-19 %R http://localhost/files/bv73cc42w %X Abstract: Carrier aviation has been considered as one of the most successful cases of revolutions in military affairs (RMA) in the period between the Frist and Second World Wars. During those two decades, only three navies, Japan, the United States, and Great Britain, successfully built and operationalized large fleet carriers. However, compared with the U.S. and British cases, the Japanese case has been understudied in the literature of RMA. In order to fill this void, this dissertation considers two related research questions. First, what factors made the "carrier revolution" possible for the Japanese Navy, and second, to what extent do the different approaches account for their relative degrees of strategic success achieved by aircraft carriers? This study argues that, while technological opportunities and the external environment provided an initial push for the "carrier revolution," organizational innovation is a critical intervening variable in accelerating the process of RMA. Given the lack of civilian control over the military and the relative autonomy enjoyed by the Japanese Navy during the interwar period, senior officers in the Japanese Navy recognized a structural change in the security environment, invented a "new theory of victory" and adapted their organization by their own initiative. The Japanese Navy underwent a process of innovation by expanding its officer corps through creating a new career path and establishing their organizational base, the Naval Aviation Department. A distinctive organizational culture developed within naval aviation encouraged vigorous training and experimentation, which drove military innovation more profoundly than in any other branches of the Japanese Navy. However, the specific ways the organizational innovations were implemented critically affected the degree to which the Japanese Navy achieved the RMA during the Pacific War. In particular, the Japanese Navy's practice of funding personnel only after its procurement budget was approved and the commitment to ensuring the promotion of Naval Academy graduates up to the rank of Captain contributed to limiting the organizational representation of aviators within the navy, which, in turn, had serious adverse implications for the development of carrier aviation.; Thesis (Ph.D.)--Tufts University, 2016.; Submitted to the Dept. of Diplomacy, History, and Politics.; Advisor: Toshi Yoshihara.; Committee: Robert Pfaltzgraff, Jr., and Stephen Rosen.; Keywords: International relations, and Military studies. %[ 2022-10-11 %9 Text %~ Tufts Digital Library %W Institution