Summary Japan's Project Z aimed to create long-range bombers to strike North America. Nakajima worked on Fugaku bombers with ambitious designs, including 40 machine guns. The project was canceled in 1944 as Japan lacked resources, focusing on homeland defense.
The United States enjoyed free reign in the strategic bombing of Germany and Japan in World War II . The US was largely able to bomb and reduce those countries' cities to smoldering ruins without fear of retaliation. While the Germans could bomb the United Kingdom to some degree, the United States was beyond the reach of Germany and Japan.
However, Japan tried to build a long-range bomber that it could use to bomb the US and bring the war to the American homeland. It was the United States and the United Kingdom (plus Germany to some degree) that dominated heavy and medium bomber production in the war . Imperial Japan's Project Z Project Z was Imperial Japan's World War II effort to develop a long-range intercontinental bomber to strike North America.
It was the Japanese counterpart to the German Amerikabomber project (where the Germans worked on developing a 7,000+ mile-range bomber to bomb New York City). The Germans built several prototype bombers to strike NYC, including the Messerschmitt Me 264. The United States also attempted to develop ultra-long-range bombers to strike Germany directly from North America, with the Northrop YB-35 and Convair B-36 being developed late in the war and post-war.
The project began in .