Japanese Tanks 1939–45

Osprey New Vanguard #137

by Steven J. Zaloga, Tony Bryan (Illustrator)

Contrary to popular belief, the Japanese Army widely employed tanks within the Pacific theater of war. This title details their key role in the conquests of Singapore and Malaya, as well as their later use in Burma, Saipan, and the Philippines, including in the amphibious assault of Corregidor. Tank development succeeded against the odds, with the programme often neglected to pursue the higher priority of warship development. Their use in the most difficult of terrain is a testament to their ingenuity.

Steven J Zaloga's book offers a rare insight into a largely overlooked subject and is rich with photographs and artwork, providing a wonderful resource for the construction and design of these fascinating tanks.

Genres: World War II, Military History, History, Japan, Military Fiction

48 pages, Paperback

First published August 21, 2007

About the author

Steven Zaloga is an author and defense analyst known worldwide for his articles and publications on military technology.  He has written over a hundred books on military technology and military history, including “Armored Thunderbolt: The US Army Sherman in World War II”, one of the most highly regarded histories of the Sherman Tank.  His books have been translated into Japanese, German, Polish, Czech, Romanian, and Russian. He was a special correspondent for Jane’s Intelligence Review and is on the executive board of the Journal of Slavic Military Studies and the New York Military Affairs Symposium. From 1987 through 1992, he was the writer/producer for Video Ordnance Inc., preparing their TV series Firepower.  He holds a BA in history from Union College and an MA in history from Columbia University.

Mr. Zaloga is also a noted scale armor modeler and is a host/moderator of the World War II Allied Discussion group at Missing-Lynx.com, a modelling website. He is a frequent contributor to the UK-based modeling magazine Military Modelling. He is a member of the Armor Modeling and Preservation Society.

Reviews

[Sleepy Boy · Rating 4 out of 5]

2025 re-read: Been on a tank kick, the bibliography led me to an excellent 5 volume set of books on Japanese AFV’s.

Very good snapshot of the Japanese armored units/forces in the interwar and WWII period. Not a lot of text but the art is excellent, it is however of the few things printed in English on this subject matter.

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an adequate book that summarises some of the main Japanese armoured fighting vehicles of the war. Unfortunately parts of the book are now dated due to recent discoveries in the Japanese archives (extensive information on the O-I "super-heavy" tank being just one example). Many armoured fighting vehicles that even saw combat are absent or mentioned in passing. That all being said, the artwork is wonderful and the book is a fine overview of a criminally understudied topic released at a time when there was almost nothing else available.

At this point works based on the same handful of English-language secondary sources and US intelligence/technical mission reports no longer cut it. Zaloga does make use of some Japanese literature, which is commendable (and more than can be said for other works). Currently the handful of Japanese-language researchers (primarily sponsored by game developers of all things) getting their hands dirty in the Japanese archives are at the leading edge, but at the time of writing there has yet to be a monograph extensively based on Japanese archival and secondary sources written in English. Only scattered blog posts and bits of information hidden throughout the internet. This just being one example:
http://sensha-manual.blogspot.ca/

This is a tentative recommendation. Don't expect it to be an exhaustive or current study of the subject. It is a basic overview with some nice artwork. However, beggars can't be choosers when it comes to books on Japanese armour in the English-language. We still await a "Japanese Cruisers of the Pacific War" for interwar and WWII Japanese armoured vehicles.

[Edwin Dyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall, the book is a adequate summary of the more common Japanese tanks during WW2, covering the main types of tanks which saw combat and their performance in battle. For me, the book was let down by not expanding on Japanese tank developments. Zaloga only gave a handful of sentences on tank destroyer projects such as the Ho-Ri 1 and Ho-Ri 2 (which did not get built) and the Ho-To and Ho-Ro tank destroyers which at least got to prototype stages. I could let that go except that there were no illustrations or photographs of these designs to give the reader an idea of what they looked like outside of written comparisons to German designs like the Elefant and Jagdtiger. At least for me, I've seen tons of images of the main Japanese tanks and removing one or two of those photographs to make way for even line art profiles of the projects would have been fantastic. Mind you, this is not to say you won't find more less commonly seen photographs in the book which is a plus. Another let-down was not discussing Japanese heavy and super-heavy tank designs such as the O-I of which the entire super-heavy tank programs got a single sentence. I do understand that information on such project tanks is difficult to find from original sources yet there are Japanese books on the topic of Japanese tank and tank destroyer projects, to include artwork and illustrations, that giving them more coverage in this book could have been possible.

[Michael Eklund · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice little book about the rather unknown subject of Japanese tanks during World War 2. Well, not a success story...

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for any one interested in WWII Japan, the often much forgotten Japanese tanks of WWII are showcased in great detail. This is a great book for modelers or World of Tanks players, as many of the tanks from the game are mentioned in this book.

[Steve Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the best researched Osprey books I've seen. Gamers, model makers,and WWII nerds will find it useful.