They Lost…but gained more

Nissan, Honda, Toyota, Mitsubishi, Suzuki… You name any Japanese car manufacturer and I can guarantee you that they are successful. This thought occurred to me and it made me think; "why are they so successful?"

I did a couple of hour's research and slowly the reason became clear. They lost the Second World War. Yup! that’s it. Because they lost they are now one of the leading countries in technology and engineering. The reason for this is actually quite simple when you think about it.

When they surrendered, their armaments factories were shut down, their top military brains were suddenly out of work. So they quickly decided to put all they know-how into making cars and other tech related products.

It was the exact same thing when with the Germans. Look at them now. During WW2 their Auto Union factories were used to make armoured cars and tanks, when they lost all the thinking turned to making products for the home market and for export to try and rekindle their economy.

It makes perfect sense when you think about it but has a bit of a sting to it when you think that British car production pretty much went down the tubes after the war because money was being pumped into the military to stand up to the Warsaw pact forces instead of filling the fast production lines which were left dormant.