I was today years old when I learned that in April 1945 there was an air raid by B-29’s on propeller manufacturer called Japan Music and Japan Musical instrument or “Nippon Gakki” which is now called Yamaha.The raid on the Yamaha factory scored no hits and hence caused no damage to the factory. This became important to Yamaha after the war because they moved their metal casting and machining tools to the countryside for safe keeping in case the occupation forces wanted to confiscate them. In 1953 they received permission to use them again and chose motorcycle manufacturing which began in late 1954.

Though the one I once owned was red, that reality gave me a lot of fun as a younger man…