[kasey_junk]

Were the Japanese auto manufacturers a large player prior to the war? I thought the domestic production there was essentially nothing before the ramp up to war in the 30s.

[zucchini_head]

I'de say it was rather large, since looking around, it's believed that it was very big pre-WWiII, but a quick look for numbers isn't revealing any good sources. I suppose it'll just have to float around as a "general belief" that the Japanese automotive industry was "rather big" pre-WWII.

WWII definitely effected the US less than a lot of countries though that is for sure. But I think certain industries benefited more from USA's post-war advantage than others (automotive maybe being an example).

[maxerickson]

Japan was not a big player in the global auto marketplace prior to World War II.

Toyota had made less than 2000 vehicles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_AA#Toyota_passenger_car...

Neither was Germany. Hitler started pushing the people's car in 1934 or so.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen#1932.E2.80.931938:_...

They were building nice cars in Germany, they just weren't building a lot of them.

Meanwhile Ford had produced ~15 million Model Ts and 4 million Model As prior to 1932 (when production of the Model A was stopped).