Under the cover of darkness on the night of June 16, 1944, almost 40 tanks of the Japanese 9th Tank Regiment moved into position on Saipan. Their objective was to surprise and overrun the 2nd Marine Division.
At 2 a.m. on June 17, the tanks lurched forward, leading hundreds of supporting Japanese infantry. The Marines could hear the loud engines and requested illumination rounds from the U.S. Navy.
As the illumination rounds brightened the sky, the Marines caught the Japanese in open ground with little cover. Though facing the largest Japanese tank assault in the Pacific War, the Marines were ready.
M4 Shermans of the 2nd Marine Tank Battalion and a few self-propelled guns came to the rescue and knocked out over a dozen enemy tanks while small-arms fire decimated the supporting infantry. As a few enemy tanks reached Marine lines, the newly fielded M1a1 Bazooka allowed the infantry to destroy them.
After a brief counterattack by the Marines, the few surviving enemy tanks retreated back to their lines. These were later wiped out while supporting a massive Banzai Charge on July 7, 1944. This tank charge on Saipan was the largest tank battle of the Pacific Theater, and like most Japanese attacks, ended in failure.
Japanese Tank Strategy
Through the 1930s, Japan tested its military mettle against both Soviet and Chinese forces. In the skirmishes at Lake Khasan and Khalkin Ghol, state-of-the-art Japanese tanks were obliterated by early Soviet combined arms tactics and superior technology.
Not possessing the industrial strength, resource base or technological edge to match the Soviets, Japan began training its troops in banzai charges, suicidal attacks, and overwhelming infantry assaults to mask its lack of a modern fighting force.
As opposed to the heavily-armed Soviet army, the disorganized and untrained Chinese troops were devastated by Japanese tanks, such as the light Type 95 Ha-Go and medium Type 89 I-Go. Japan felt that its tank force was sufficient to deal with the enemy, leading to a serious lack of modernization or expansion of its armored forces.
With the war in China becoming a logistical nightmare by 1941 and endless waves of Chinese troops putting up fierce resistance, Japan looked to Southeast Asia for its resource needs. Fearing possible interference from the US Navy, Japan shifted its industry to shipbuilding instead of supporting the army.
Going forward, Japan’s tank production was not able to compete with other nations. In fact, the country only produced around 4,000 tanks from 1941 to 1945. Most of these were sent to China or along the Manchurian border with the Soviet Union.
A few hundred of these tanks would be utilized in a supporting role in successful offensives in late 1941 and early 1942. However, amphibious warfare and jungle combat did not allow for Japan to deploy large numbers of them. Still, Japan developed several specialized variants such as amphibious tanks and tank destroyers, but these were too few to be decisive.
Facing American Tanks
Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Japanese troops invaded the Philippines. On December 22, the first American tank engagement of WWII occurred when a platoon of M3 Stuarts of the 192nd Tank Battalion moved north toward Demortis. While inferior to the Stuarts, several Type 95 Ha-Go tanks ambushed the Americans, destroying one tank and damaging the rest before they were finished off by Japanese planes.
While the limited numbers of Stuarts in the Philippines fared well against Japanese tanks overall, they were too few to stop the overwhelming enemy force. The Japanese successfully decimated the 192nd and 194th Tank Battalions before American forces on the island were forced to surrender on April 8, 1942. This would be the only time Japanese tanks were successfully employed against American tanks.
Unlike Japan, the United States was able to utilize its massive industry and workforce base to produce over 100,000 tanks during the war. While most would go to Europe and Africa, American troops had plenty of armored support to rely on once they took the initiative in the Pacific.
American forces also began replacing their Stuart tanks with the Sherman. The Sherman’s 75mm gun proved to be more than enough to deal with light Japanese armor. The US also fielded several variants, such as the DD tank, which could storm the beach alongside the infantry and Zippo flamethrower tanks capable of wiping out Japanese pillboxes and caves.
By the war’s end, American forces were fielding entire battalions of these tank variants. Meanwhile, the more mechanically inclined American troops made necessary battlefield modifications to their tanks, giving them extra protection.
In contrast, Japanese troops fielded only a few comparable tanks, such as the Type 97 Shinhoto Chi-Ha. The Type 97’s 47mm gun possessed a small chance against the Sherman, but not against overwhelming naval gunfire, airstrikes, and superior infantry and tank tactics. Most Japanese tankers also had little to no mechanical experience, leaving them without the ability to make field modifications and quick repairs.
Though a few Japanese tanks engaged US forces on Guadalcanal, Peleliu, and other islands, Saipan was the only large-scale battle between Japanese and American tanks. The Japanese quickly realized they were not capable of matching the increasingly powerful American armored forces.
The Death of Japan’s Tank Force
On Iwo Jima, a few Japanese tanks chose instead to hunker down in static ambush sites. These were quickly wiped out by three entire American tank battalions, flamethrowers, and satchel charges.
Meanwhile, American bombings devastated Japan’s cities and industries, leading to a minuscule production of just over 200 Japanese tanks in 1945. American submarines and naval superiority kept any of these from reaching Okinawa or other perimeter islands.
Even as Iwo Jima and Okinawa fell to American forces, Japan still managed to produce several different experimental medium and heavy tanks. The few of these actually brought off the assembly line, along with any remaining and badly outdated tanks, were organized mainly on Kyushu to defend against the expected American invasion.
In August 1945, atomic bombs leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while Soviet forces stormed into Manchuria, destroying most of Japan’s remaining tank units. Facing overwhelming force on multiple fronts, Imperial Japan surrendered, rendering its few surviving tanks irrelevant. By contrast, American tanks had proven to be a decisive force on the battlefield and likely would have played a critical role in Operation Downfall, the planned invasion of Japan, had it been launched.
Today, the Pacific remains a prominent strategic interest for the U.S. military, but the Marine Corps recently deactivated its storied tank battalions. A key question remains: What role will tanks play in the region’s future?
