Thursday August 1, 2013
In ACCT 3314 I introduce the class by noting that by Year 1970 the US had lost the manufacturing lead it had coming out of WW II. See the previous post on the B 24 to see what I mean. Soldiers coming back from Viet Nam brought Sansui, Yamaha, and other high quality stereos as well as Nikon and Canon cameras. The words was out, quality was on display in Japanese products.
In addition two other events crystallized Japanese quality at that time. Sony made the Trinitron television, a clearly superior product. In 1969 Honda introduced the CB 750. The bike was so far ahead of British and American rivals there was simply no comparison. You had to kick start a Trimuph Motorcycle, on the Honda you just pressed a button for the electric start. A Honda 750 ran like the proverbial Singer Sewing Machine, though most of you reading this have probably never observed one of those in action either. A Singer Sewing Machine in its day was a metaphor for mechanical harmoney, an assemblage of parts working to produce a smooth inerplay of metal on metal. In contrast a Harley or Trimuph bike sounded like a concrete mixer thrashing against itself with every turn.
Here is a two minute video that effectively traces the history of Honda, from motorbikes to the current jet airplane and robot.
Datsun followed the Honda with its Datsun 240 Z, another low priced knock of a Jaguar XKE, and another huge sell out hit for Japan. Rather than re design its cars and cycles, American took the band aid approach to clearning up emissions with air pumps and such. in the end the two of the Big Three went Bankrupt and Ford ended awash in debt to stay afloat.
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