The WIA's look at the history of JARL

In Australia, we are pretty much kept aware of the impact on and by Ham Radio and it's operators during the Second World War, so, this year we thought... hey, there are two sides to every story, what happened to those our fore-fathers QSO'd with prior to '39.

JAPAN - History of JARL
In Japan, unlicensed hams started their experiments and research around 1925. The Japan Amateur Radio League (JARL) was inaugurated in 1926. Kankichi Kusama (JXAX) received the first license for a private experimental station in the year 1927.

In those early days, experimental radio stations were subject to strict regulation of their frequencies, power output, and operating procedures, nevertheless, they increased to about 300 stations before the outbreak of
World War II. By that time, their skill had reached international standards.

Bob W7AVK recalls an "old timer" showing him a QSL card from JA land. It was for a contact in the middle of the 1930's and had a short note on the back saying - "Please do not return a QSL as ham radio was not allowed in Japan" -
It was signed by Yagi [of the antenna fame - later to become, after WWII, president of the JARL]

With the outbreak of World War II, private radio communications were totally banned in Japan and all private radio stations were ordered to halt operation and needless to say, JARL's activities were likewise suspended.

After the war, the ban was lifted for the reception of short waves but not for radio transmissions.

This state of amateur radio persisted for about a decade. The San Francisco Peace Treaty was the turning point.
At long last, 30 radio stations were granted provisional licenses in July, 1952, and this spurred a rapid increase in the number of amateur radio enthusiasts and the number of
stations surpassed 2,000 within a mere two years.

Thereafter, the number of amateur radio stations increased steadily year after year (reaching about 1.4 million by 1994).

1955 saw JARL's bid for reunion with IARU accepted.

(sourced from jarl)

Source: Wireless Institute of Australia

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