Japanese Airfield Equipment #1

Japanese Airfield Equipment #1: The Japanese Navy needed equipment to pull their heavy flying boats, especially Kawanishi H6K (Mavis) and Kawanishi H8K (Emily), out of the water and to handle them on land. For this purpose they used 4-wheel (50hp) or 6-wheel (80hp) tractors built by "KATO WORKS CO., LTD." (AKA"Nippon Torakuta Kabushiki Kaisha").
The company is still manufacturing heavy construction and agricultural equipment.
Hasegawa included one in 1/72 in their Emily kit (if I remember correctly).

An excellent photo from the collection of "LIFE" magazine. Note the Kato tractor pulling Mavis.

A Kato tractor makes a brief appearance above during a  rainy scene in the movie "Nankai no Hanataba" (Flower bouquet of the South Seas) of 1942. Inspired by the movie Kato Works released a number of ads in magazines of the time like the ones we feature below.

"KATO TRACTORS - Equipment for: Heavy Lifting, Public Works, Farming.

Wheel or track tractors."

 "Our company recommends with utter confidence this solid-tire-type vehicle able to pull super heavy objects."

"HEAVY! FORCE! KATO Tractors"