FM23 IJA TANK CREW #2

Formally, the Empire of Japan entered World War II with the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, but from 1937, Japan carried out large-scale military operations in China. The Japanese land forces at that time were known as the Imperial Japanese Army. Imperial Japanese Army, Japanese Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun) and at the end of 1941 had 51 divisions which, together with numerous separated units, had a strength of approximately 1.7 million people. It should be emphasized that the development of armored weapons in the Japanese army in the 1920s and 1930s was much slower than in European countries - it concerns both the development of doctrine and technical equipment. Only the experience of the war with the Soviet Union (1938-1939) partially changed this state of affairs. However, the limited capabilities of the Japanese industry and the placing of greater emphasis on the development of the navy and aviation led to the fact that the Japanese production of tanks was very low in the period 1941-1945, and the quality of the produced equipment differed from that of American or Soviet vehicles. The main types of Japanese tanks in World War II include, first of all, such vehicles as: Type 89 Chi-Ro, Type 95 Ha-Go or Type 97 Chi-Ha. Japan also developed some experimental tanks (e.g. the Type 5 Chi-Ri medium tank), but they didn't make it past the drawing board or the prototype stage. It is also worth adding that Japanese tanks were built primarily to support infantry activities, and not to conduct independent maneuvering activities. They were also poorly suited to fighting enemy tanks.