The Hands That Were Forbidden to Fly
Nobushige-kun: Why are you staring at the front of the train?
Akugenta-kun: Thinking of Tadanao Miki. Before 1945, he designed aircraft for the Japanese navy. The Ginga bomber. And the Ohka, a rocket-powered aircraft built for a one-way mission.
Nobushige-kun: …
Akugenta-kun: After the war, Japan was forbidden to research, design, or build aircraft. Many engineers found work at the Railway Technical Research Institute. Miki applied aircraft design principles to railway vehicles, helping develop lighter, streamlined bodies.
Nobushige-kun: So they built trains instead?
Akugenta-kun: Tadashi Matsudaira had studied why aircraft wings shake until they break. At the railway institute, he applied that knowledge to the violent side-to-side motion of train wheels at high speeds.
Nobushige-kun: Wings, helping wheels.
Akugenta-kun: Shapes built for wind. Not a weapon. Just what they knew about air.
Nobushige-kun: And then?
Akugenta-kun: 1964. The Shinkansen began running. Since then, no passenger has been killed in a Shinkansen train accident.
Akugenta-kun: Thousands helped build it. These two were among them.
Nobushige-kun: So the hands that drew a plane that never came back…
Akugenta-kun: …drew a train that always does.