Established in the aftermath of World War Two, Japan Airlines has had a long and sometimes turbulent history as the flag carrier for the island nation.
The idea for starting an airline came from an unlikely place, as once peace was restored, American administrators in Japan saw a need to establish an air transportation system to rebuild the country.
In 1951, permission was given to start a domestic airline and potential investors applied for a licence to conduct domestic aviation services. Japan Air Lines – as it was known then – received this approval on May 22, 1951.
After setting up offices in different Japanese cities, the fledgling carrier started hiring the first 15 flight attendants on August 20, 1951.
There was one small issue with the whole operation and that was that no Japanese pilots were licensed to fly passenger aircraft.
To solve this, JAL signed a deal with US carrier Northwest Orient Airlines which would see its crew operate the flights.
On October 25, the airline launched the first civil aviation service in Japan since the end of the war. A Martin 2-0-2 flew a Tokyo to Fukuoka service that went via Osaka.
