HISTORY OF TOYOTA.

 

The history of Toyota started in 1933 with the company being a division of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works devoted to the production of automobiles under the direction of the founder's son, Kiichiro Toyoda. Kiichiro Toyoda had traveled to Europe and the United States in 1929 to investigate automobile production and had begun researching gasoline-powered engines in 1930. Toyoda Automatic Loom Works was encouraged to develop automobile production by the Japanese government, which needed domestic vehicle production, due to the war with China. In 1934, the division produced its first Type A Engine, which was used in the first Model A1 passenger car in May 1935 and the G1 truck in August 1935. Production of the Model AA passenger car started in 1936. Early vehicles bear a striking resemblance to the Dodge Power Wagon and Chevrolet, with some parts actually interchanging with their American originals.^[2]
Although the Toyota Group is best known today for its cars, it is still in the textile business and still makes automatic looms, which are now computerized, and electric sewing machines which are available, worldwide.
Toyota Motor Co. was established as an independent and separate company in 1937. Although the founding family's name was written in the Kanji (rendered as "Toyoda"), the company name was changed to a similar word in katakana (rendered as "Toyota") because the latter has 8 strokes which is regarded as a lucky number in East Asian culture.^[3] Since Kanji are essentially Chinese characters, in Chinese speaking markets, the company and its vehicles are still referred to by the original Kanji name (simplified Chinese:; traditional Chinese: pinyin: fēng tián), but with Chinese pronunciation.
During the Pacific War (World War II) the company was dedicated to truck^{[citation needed]} production for the Imperial Japanese Army. Because of severe shortages in Japan, military trucks were kept as simple as possible. For example, the trucks had only one headlight in the center of the hood. The war ended shortly before a scheduled Allied bombing run on the Toyota factories in Aichi.