Figure 1.--Here a Japanese tank moves forwards, but only afrr a bridge was built fir it (June 30, 1941). Here a road existed. As Japan moved deeper into China they go into areas where there were not even roads that could be used. Or the physical barriers could not be crossed with a simple wooden bridge. Japan won almost all of the battles fought with the Chinese, but they could not win a battle if they cold not move there army tiard the Natonalists stroingold. Then after America entered the War, the Chinese were able to defend their cities from the Japanese bombing.

Only three Asian countries played important roles in World War II: China, India, and Japan. Japan's major goal was to turn China into a colony. And India was a colony. Only Japan actually manufactured and deployed tanks. China was a much larger country with substantial resources. It was not yet an industrialized country capable of designing and manufacturing tanks. The Japanese armor were light tanks that were effective in China because the Chinese did not have any number of tanks or anti-tank guns, even for the thin-skied Japanese tanks. They could resist machine gun fire, but nothing heavier. The Japanese tanks could be useful in infantry assaults, and thus played a role in the Chinese campaign. This was the case in the first year of the war in China when the Nationalist Army attempted to fight conventional battles. This was disaster and the Nationalist forces were routed in a series of battles. Once the Nationalists withdrew into the interior, the tanks became useless. The rugged Chinese terrain and lack of infrastructure meant that the Japanese could not deploy their army and tanks to engage the nationalists. They could bomb the Nationalist by air, but not move in force on the ground into the interior. They had some success in the first 6 months of the Pacific war when the Japanese encountered poorly armed Allied forces (December 1941-May 1942). This changed dramatically on Guadalcanal when the Japanese first encountered well-armed combat forces with better tanks. The Japanese tanks were useless against American, British, and Soviet tanks and anti-tank guns. The American tanks had trouble with German tanks, but not wuiththe Japanese tanks. As a result, there were few tank battles in Asia and the Pacific. The largest occured on Saipan (June 1944) and the Japanese tanks were easily destroyed by American armor.

China

The Germans before the rise of the NAZIs provided military advise to Nationalist China. They could not provide tanks because the Versailles Treary prohinited the Germans from manufcturing or acquiring tanks. The Germans ended serious cooperation with the Nationalists after the Jaoanese launched the Second Sino-Jpanese War (1937). The Chinese at the had very limited armored forces, a small number of armoured vehicles and mechanised troops which they formed into three armoured battalions. They appear to have had a few tanks, bit we are not sure at this time where thy came from. With the departure of the Germans, Stalin saw China, especially the Naionalists. as a counter-weight to the Japanese. The Nationlists and Soviets, a month after the Japanese invasion began negotiating (August 1937). The Chinese were desperate for Soviet Mmilitary assistance. China did not have the heavy industry to build major weaons systems like artillery and tanks. A Non-Aggression Treaty was reached. Soviet military asdvisers appeared. All of this occured while the Civil War between the Chinese Nationlists and Communists still was in progress and only supeficially papered over. The limited Chinese armored forces were largely destroyed in the Battles for Shanghai and Nanking/Nanjing (1937). The new tanks, armoured cars, and trucks from the Soviet Union and Italy provided the fire power to to create the only mechanized division in the Chinese army. The Soviet advisers provided the expertise to organized the new mechanised unit in China-- the 200th Division. It consisted of one tank regiment and one motorised infantry regiment. A tank unit is of little value unless it has some notorized industry to support it. The mainstay was 82 Soviet T-26 (mod. 1933) tanks. They were shipped to Canton/Guangzhou harbour (spring 1938). The Japanese strategy was to seize Chinese port to cut China off from foreign assitance. Canton was, however, still in Chinese hands.

India

World War II histiories are often distiored by the national perspective. Most peple understanably primarily want to read about their own military and the campaigns in which they engage. Thus the war roles of some countries are under reported. Surely the most under reported is the Induan Army organized by Britain. It became an army of 2.5 million men--the largest all volunteer army in history. The Indian Army played an important role, especially in the Middle Eas and then in India and Burma. It was almost entirely an all inantry army. We suspect the British thought that it wold not be a good idea for India to have a modern army. This changed somewhat after the outbreak of World War II. Some small armor, artillery, and air units were organized, but were never a major part of the Indian Army. At first the British did not have many tanks to spare, but even when American Lend Lease began supplying tanks in large numbers, only a few armor brigades were formed. They were ostly used in Burma against the Japanese. India did not have a motor vehicke industry at the time and the capbility of buildingtanks and other armored vehicles. All the tnks used by the Indian Army were British or American.

Japan

Japan at the time of World War II was the only industrialized country in Asia. While the country made enormous gains, it was still did not have the scientific and industrial prowess of the European powers, let along the Soviet Union and America. Japan like Germany prepared for war by devoting a huge portion of its national economy to the military at aime that the democracies severely limited military spending. Even so, given the country's limited industrial capacity, it had to concentrate its efforts in a few priority areas. The Japanese chose to focus on aircraft and naval ships. Tanks were one of the weapons systems on which the Japanese devoted their scarse resources. This is interesting because the Japanese Army was the dominant service and came to dominate the Japanese Government. The choice of aircraft abd ships is interesting. The emphasis does not seem to have been the result of any well-conceived military doctrine as was the case in Germany, but rather prestige. Both aircraft and naval ships were seen as a matter of national prestige. Japan entered World War I as a British ally. It did not, however, deploy tanks during the War. After the War, Japan as part of an overall military modernization prgram purchased tanks from European (British and French) manufacturers. (The Germans were prohibited by the Versailles Treaty from developing or acquiring tanks.) The first tanks acquited included the French Renault FT and NCI, and the British Vickers 6-Ton Medium C) tanks. These were used as prototypes from whivh Japanese manufacturers began to develop their own light and medium tanks and continued purchasing European models. The reliance on European models meant that the Japanese lagged behind in tank technology. And there were elements that were not easy to copy such as hardened steel. Early Japanese tanks were made with soft steel. Japanese tanks thus at the onset of the War were poorly designed and thinly armored. Until the battles with the Sioviets in Manchuria (July 1939), the Japanese seemed to have been unaware as to how badly they lagged behinf in tank technology. The Japanese often cut corners in military arms production. The effectiveness of thge Zero was in part because it was light (meaning poorly armored). Poorly armored tanks were possible when fighting the Chinese, but a rescipe for disaster when fighting the Soviets, British, and Americans. Little progress was made during the War to upgrade their tank forces. Japanese tnks were lightly armored and weakly gunned. Nor did the Japanese have the industrial capacity to produce them in large numbers. Available still went primarily to the navy, after Miday, in a despeate war of survival with a resurgent merican Paciggic fleet. The Japanese used their tanks to some effect against the poorly equipped Chinese and the poorly supplied Americans in Baatan. They could not be used very effectively in the island campaigns of the Pacific War because of their poor characteristics, American air power, and the inability of the Japanese to adequately supply their isolated island garisons. As with Italy, the Germans transferred very little of their tank technology to the Japanese. And at the end of the War when the Germans became more generous with their technology, the Japanese no longer had the industrial capacity to produce tanks in any number, especially advanced tanks. The Red Army both before the War (July 1939) and at the end of the War (August 1945), swept aside ineffectual Japanese armor in Manchuria. The Japanese experience in Msnchuria fifgting the Soviets (July 1939) should have led them to reassess the idea of waging war against a modern industrial power. It did not, somewhow the miliarists controlling the government decided that Japan should launch a with an even more heavily industrilized country--the United States.

Sources

Created: 12:07 PM 12/10/2017
Last updated: 10:22 PM 12/10/2017