Pearl Harbor On December 7, 1941, Japan initiated an attack on Pearl Harbor, entering World War II. Yoji Ito was made a department head at the NTRI and was promoted to captain. In the war years, he was responsible for many developments in VHF RRF systems, but was most proud of his microwave equipment. He personally led the development of Japan's first airborne microwave RRF system. This was a 25-cm (1.2-GHz) set producing 2 kW and weighing about 70 kg (150 lb). It was designed for the Gekko night-fighter. He was also involved with Japan's countermeasures equipment, particularly receivers to warn when vessels or aircraft were being observed by American radars. Return to magnetrons Development at the NTRI continued on magnetrons, resulting in higher and higher power. Yoji Ito and others eventually came to believe that this device might be used as a weapon, encouraged by an earlier newspaper article telling of Nikola Tesla inventing a beam that would "bring down squadrons of aircraft 250 miles away." In 1943, work began in highest secrecy on a Ku-go (Death Ray) device. Laboratory A special laboratory was set up near Shimada, in the Shizuoka Prefecture, for developing a high-power magnetron that, if not as powerful as Tesla had boasted, might at least incapacitate an aircraft. A number of Japan's leading physicists were involved. A 20 cm magnetron producing 100 kW was achieved, and by the end of the war a 1000 kW (1 MW) unit was undergoing preliminary testing. At that time, the development was terminated and the hardware as well as all documentation was destroyed. Disbanding of the Japanese military With the surrender of Japan on August 15, 1945, all organizations, facilities, and projects related to the military in Japan were disbanded. Scientists and engineers, as well as military technical officers, engaged in communications and radar formed the base for Japan's future electronics industry. Captain Yoji Ito was among this large group of individuals. Koden In 1947, with the hope of making a peaceful contribution of technologies cultivated in his naval days, Dr. Ito founded the Koden Electronics Company Co., Ltd., an affiliate of JRC. Among early products that they conceived was a series of radio direction finders for use in small boat navigation, along with an electronic fish-finder that revolutionized the Japanese commercial fishing industry. Unfortunately, Ito died in 1955, but the firm continues as a worldwide supplier of marine