I guess that pic itself answers that.

I’m sure there’s a “whaaaa???” going on in some of your heads right now, because I’m sure the answer is “of course the Japanese army had tanks.”

But like the tree falling in the woods, if nobody talks about it, how can we know?

Seriously. I don’t think I’ve ever even heard mention of any Japanese tanks being used, or what their specific designations were. I’ve heard plenty about Japanese planes, like the famous Zero, the Betty, the Val dive bomber (Americanized designations, of course). And as a Navy nut, I’ve definitely heard of the ships and the tactics there (and some interesting design innovations by the Japanese).

When I’m hanging around military history buffs and they start talking tanks, I hear names like Sherman, T-34, Panzer, etc. They talk about great tank battles and commanders, and how the technology evolved in the war.

But even with these war-gamers and military buffs, I can’t recall one mention of Japanese land hardware, let alone a tank.

Maybe it’s because in the U.S. we focus on the island hopping campaigns. I bet most Japanese tanks would’ve been used in China for all those long fighting years. Maybe there were other mobile armored fighting tech on those tiny islands to take the place of tanks.

Did the Japanese have their own tanks? If you Google the question, several items pop up about Japanese tanks…but I guess that leads to the bigger question: why are Japanese army tanks and hardware not really known or mentioned?

Does anybody actually know anyone who can name a Japanese tank from WW2? Any great tank battles of the Pacific Theater to research and discuss along with the ones like Kursk, El Alamein, Sicily, The Battle of the Bulge?

Anybody know about this one? It’s been bugging me a while about what they are and why we don’t know more about ’em.