Prince of the Air: Around the World in 33 Days

PRINCE OF THE AIR is a chronicle of an around-the-world race by a Japanese in 1928 when travel by rail and sea was time consuming and sometimes unpredictable, and air travel was in its infancy. Jiji Shimpo Newspaper, the leading newspaper in Japan at the time, called out to the citizens of Japan to participate in a history-making race around the world by Japanese. Toichiro Araki responded to the challenge and was one of the two racers chosen from several hundred candidates. He had just established the first Efficiency Management Institute in Tokyo to spread the teachings of F. W. Taylor's statistical control management and Frank Gilbreth's 'Time and Motion' study he learned in America when he was a foreign student. He wanted to prove to the nation, which was still backward in their industrial development, that great things could be accomplished by efficient management of time and materials. This race offered that opportunity. This race around the world was very different from any previous races. First of all, this was the first time a non-Caucasian had undertaken such a race. The mission of the race was to promote global goodwill and to teach insular Japanese about the world outside of Japan. Also, there were many rules and restrictions, such as having to meet and get signatures of the mayors of five major cities in the world, using ordinary means of travel (no private charters), by first class, and a limit of money that they could use. He met formidable challenges every step of the way. No sooner did he overcome one obstacle than another was waiting for him. He almost had a 'showdown' with a U. S. mail plane pilot who refused to fly in the fog. When he arrived in New York City in a small mail plane, James Walker, the then mayor, called him, 'Prince of the Air.' Araki managed to waken the Lord Mayor of London, who 'never sees anyone before 9:00 a.m.' at 7:30 a.m. to meet with him. He was almost pulled off of a train at the border of Germany and Poland because he did