This cross section of vehicles of the Imperial Japanese military should be an eye opener. Japan was not quite so "armor less" as most people might believe. In fact, Japan had at it's disposal a wide variety equipment. People tend to use Soviet or German tanks when making comparisons of armor power, protection, and quality. It should be remembered that each started the war with much smaller tanks and firepower. The difference in development was application and terrain. Japan's conquests, with the exception of China, were mostly jungle which did not favor large armor formations. It was felt that there was less need to develop a large armored force or heavy tanks. Armor development was hindered by steel production and military priorities. Armor Tactics were generally under developed as a result.  Considering the thin armor protection that Japanese tankers had to put up with, along with cramped fighting conditions, Japanese tankers acquitted themselves well in combat.

After WW1 Japan showed an interest in tanks and obtained a variety of models. These units included the British Heavy Mk V and the Medium A. Japan also purchased the very popular FT-17 which they called Ko-Gata Sensha. In 1927 they purchased it's successor, the Renault NC-1 from the French which they called the Otsu-Gata Sensha. Sensha means battle wagon. Both of these models were still in active Japanese service in 1940. Additional units and parts came from the takeover of French holdings in South East Asia. Japan produced it's first home grown tank in 1922 which was a multi-turret design and weighed 22 tons. Later, the Japanese purchased some Vickers 6 ton tanks and the Carden-Loyd tankette and used these as a basis for further developement on their part. Major Tomio Hara designed a bellcrank scissors suspension which paired the bogie wheels and connected them to a coil spring mounted horizontally outside the hull. This suspension became almost a standard on many Japanese models and can easily be seen on the Type 89 medium tank. By 1937, Japan fielded 1060 tanks in 8 regiments. Even with the success of the tank in China, the Japanese still did not see the tank as a battle winner. Tanks were rarely allowed independent action and were largely tied to infantry units in the French system of tank deployment. The standard thought was to use them as moble pillboxes. In the period between 1931 and 1938 the Japanese built nearly 1700 new tanks and this made them the 4th largest tank producer in the world. The peak of Japanese tank production was in 1942 but declined afterward owing to war material priorities. Once the grave mistake was realized as to the true potential of the tank, the Japanese were completely unable to catch up.

This page placed in honor of Memorial Day - 1999