Toyota History

Doug - The commentator and the storyline is very American-centred. Had to laugh at his comment, "in 1958, Toyota only sold ONE FJ40 for the entire year" . He forgot to mention, that single sale was only in America.

In Australia, Landcruisers were available from 1956, and by 1958, they were selling quite well, despite the still-strong anti-Japanese sentiment amongst Australians.

In America, the anti-Japanese sentiment was even stronger - and with a Japanese company launching a sales assault upon the "worlds greatest auto manufacturer", it's little wonder Toyota only sold one FJ40 in America in 1958.

What a lot of people don't know, is that the Japanese got their big leg-up into 4WD and truck manufacturing, via the U.S. military, during the Post-WW2 Occupation of Japan by the Allies.

The American senior military commanders rapidly realised, once they had occupied Japan, that there was an immediate need for jobs and income for the demoralised and beaten Japanese.

These commanders realised the Japanese were good workers, and had attention to detail, so they organised the Japanese to carry out major reconditioning and repair of the vast numbers of Jeeps, trucks and other military equipment, that had all suffered badly from their treatment during the War.
The extensive reconditioning and repair work on these trucks and Jeeps was carried out by the Japanese, under contract to the U.S. military.

The Americans understood that the Asian region was still volatile with major unrest, with Korea being a major problem - and they understood that there was likely to be a need for a lot of U.S. military assets to be ready for another conflict in the region, soon.

The Japanese were very quick learners, coupled with intensive education from the U.S. military engineers, on how American equipment was constructed, and how to repair it.

The Japs rebuilt multiple tens of thousands of U.S. military equipment items, mostly trucks and Jeeps, between 1947 and 1950, when that reconditioned equipment was then moved to South Korea, to support the Korean War.

But once the U.S. military reconditioning contracts were completed, the Japanese realised there was a substantial market for 4WD's and trucks, so they turned their recently-gained mechanical and engineering knowledge to producing their own models of 4WD's and trucks.

There is one simple reason why the first FJ Landcruiser engines were virtually a copy of the 235 cu in Chev "Blue flame" engine - it was the engine the Japanese had learnt all about in fine detail, as to its design and repair, when they reconditioned tens of thousands of U.S. Army Chev trucks for the Americans, between 1947 and 1950.

Cheers, Ron.