In the last video we discussed a fake Japanese heavy which was the product
of unreliable source material and mistaken identity. However, although that particular
vehicle was not real that does not mean Japan never built any heavy tanks. Many designs of
supposed vehicles have cropped up over the years such as the iconic O-I and others,
many of which originated from the game World of Tanks. Though there is some evidence to support
an O-I prototype did exist it is far from conclusive. Today we will look at the only
heavy tanks we can confirm Japan actually built, the Type 91 and Type 95 heavy tanks.
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With the introduction of tanks during the first world war nations around the globe began to take
an interest in these strange new weapons. One such nation was Japan who purchased their first
tank from Britain following the end of the war. Over the course of the interwar period
they would continue to purchase small numbers of tanks from Britain and France including
Whippets, Renault Fts, Renault NCs, and most importantly for this video one Vickers Mk.C.
Development of the first domestic Japanese armor began in June of 1925 using different design
elements from the various foreign designs for a basis. As with most Japanese projects
information is hard to come by and sources tend to vary their information wildly so bear in mind
that parts of this video may be inaccurate as I am relying heavily on only a few sources. One thing
they do all agree on though is that the first domestic Japanese design is that of the Type
87 Experimental tank No. 1 Chi-I. This medium tank with its multi-turret layout was clearly
at least partially inspired by designs like the A1E1 Independent, which had made its debut the
year prior, as well as other Vickers designs. Unlike the fake Ishi-108 though this design was
completed and armed with a 57mm cannon in the main turret with a hull mounted 7.2mm MG and
rear MG in the butt turret. Every source I can find just labels the front MG as a hull MG but
looking at the photos I do question this a bit. The shaping to me indicates a traversable turret
which would connect with later designs. That is just a theory from me from the images so it
could just be a fixed MG with a weird housing. Though this particular tank did not see success
it speaks volumes of the Japanese industry which was able to produce a homebrewed design within the
span of only 2 years even if the armor plates were only mild steel. Following that a second prototype
would be completed with new design elements incorporated from the newly acquired Vickers Mk.C.
Developed as an improvement over the front engined Vickers Mk I and II the Vickers Medium tank Mk.C
began in 1925. As with many of these interwar tanks it took heavy influence from the vehicles of
the first world war. This is most apparent in the plethora of machine guns which dotted the vehicle
with one mounted on the rear of the turret, one on either side of the hull, and a bow machine gun. As
for the primary armament the vehicle was equipped with a 57mm cannon in a traversable turret.
Although the vehicle had reasonably good mobility for a tank of its time with a speed of 32kph
thanks to the 110hp 6 cylinder aircraft engine powering it, the protection was not quite as good.
With reportedly only around 6.5mms of armor at its thickest point this would make the tank vulnerable
to even some small arms. In yet another strange design choice the main hatch for the crew seems
to be a door placed on the frontal plate. How exactly the crew was supposed to evacuate the
vehicle which would presumably have the main hatch pointed directly towards enemy fire is
unclear. Perhaps Vickers just assumed the health and safety of the crew wasn’t important to the
export market. Unsurprisingly following trials the design was rejected by the British army,
who hadn’t requested it to begin with, and the project essentially ended after a single
prototype was built. Their next design, the Mark.D was nearly the same vehicle but that is
a topic for another day. Vickers was still able to pawn off the failed Mark C to a customer, though,
with Japan purchasing the tank from them in 1927. Upon arrival the “10 Ton High Speed Trial Tank” as
one source labels it was shown at the Toyamagahara Parade Ground. Along with the tank several Vickers
engineers were present to teach the Japanese how to operate the vehicle. Either they did a really
bad job with that task or further issues with the design caused a catastrophic malfunction for the
vehicle. When attempting to climb a hill the tank apparently backfired from fuel which leaked out
of the carburetor causing the engine to catch fire. Although the vehicle seems to have been
saved the engine was completely destroyed. A replacement engine would later be delivered
but this event would have a significant impact on later Japanese tank projects.
Using both the original prototype of the Type 87 and the Mark C the Japanese would then create a
second prototype tank known as the Type 89. This medium tank would go on to become one
of Japan’s first mass produced tanks as well as the first production tank to use a diesel
engine after the fire in the Vickers tank. We can see further influence with the addition of
a front door as well as the rear machine gun moving from a dedicated turret to the rear
of the primary turret. Although the rest of the story of the Type 89 is worthy of its own video,
let's move back to look at the heavy tank designs. With the Type 89 entering production it was
decided to make a heavier vehicle from the Type 87 concept as the need for a medium tank was now less
urgent. As with the Type 89 the information gleaned from the Mark.C was taken into
account for the new design which would become known as the Type 91 Heavy tank.
While editing this video I ran across some mention of another prototype built from the Chi-I shown in
these two photos. No mention of this vehicle was made in any of the other sources I have but there
definitely seems to be differences between it, the Type 89 prototype, and the Type 91. As of now I
cannot fully explain this discrepancy but perhaps this was either a modification of the original
Type 87 or another prototype entirely linking that and the Type 91. It could also just be an early
Type 91 as they look extremely similar aside from the front turret. Perhaps I missed something while
researching or there was information discovered more recently which was not included in any of
the source material I have available. Either way this does not really change much regarding
the Type 91 I just felt it was worth mentioning. Back to the Type 91 the requirement for increased
firepower would see the tank increase in both size and weight. At a weight of 18 metric tons the
tank boasted an armor protection of up to 20mms, slightly better than that of the Type 89. Where
it differed more significantly was the armament. The Type 91 was fitted with 3 turrets with the
rear turret remaining from the Chi-I along with a new one in the front. This made room for a main
armament of either a 57mm or 70mm in the primary turret and a machine gun in each secondary turret.
To power this vehicle a BMW 6 Cylinder engine was chosen which put out 224 horsepower giving the
vehicle a top speed of around 25 kilometers per hour (15mph). The easiest way to tell this tank
apart from the later Type 95 is by looking at the suspension. The Type 91 used the same system as
the Type 87 which used many small roadwheels like the Vickers design. Later vehicles would switch to
a simpler form of the leaf spring suspension with 9 roadwheels per side compared to 17.
Although functional, the Type 91 was not accepted for production. Trials of the
vehicle would go on to influence the next, and final, of the Japanese heavies confirmed
to have been built known as the Type 95. The Type 95 or as it is sometimes called,
the Ro Go, was essentially an improvement to every aspect of the previous design. Completed
in 1934 the armor was increased to 35mms at its thickest on the front with 30mms on
the sides and 20mms on the rear. Although this may not seem like much for that time
it would have been fairly well protected. As for the firepower that was also improved. Now
rather than a 57mm the main turret housed a 70mm cannon with the front turret also being increased
to house a 37mm. As should be expected with this increase in protection and armament came
additional weight with the Type 95 weighing in at 26 metric tons. To somewhat compensate
for this the engine was modified to now output 290 horsepower, but the power to weight ratio
still fell from 12.4 horsepower per ton to 11.1 horsepower per ton with the top speed similarly
dropping slightly to 22 kilometers per hour. Unlike the previous design, the Type 95 would
have a total of 4 examples built with these being trialed after completion. According to
one British report in 1939 a single example of a heavy tank was displayed during an exhibition in
Tokyo. The information is a bit vague and no photos were able to be taken,
but this could have been either the single Type 91 or one of the Type 95s. According to the report
the vehicle was armed with a 57mm gun as well as a Q.F, or quick firing, cannon in the front. To my
knowledge none of the Type 91s were equipped with the frontal 37mm so it is possible that either the
spectator estimated the cannon size wrong, the Type 95 at one point was fitted with a 57mm,
or the Type 91s frontal turret was upgunned to the standard of the Type 95s. Either way it is
interesting to see that such a forgotten project was known about even prior to WW2.
As for the fate of these heavies we know very little, one source mentions some limited use
in China but this seems to be unconfirmed. It is possible there was some field testing done with
the Type 91 and Type 95s, with the information we have currently there is no way to say for certain.
Either way these would not see any serious production as the limited mobility made the
vehicles less appealing than the more mobile Type 89s and later designs. It does seem that at least
1 of each type survived till the end of WW2 with the Type 91 being photographed with some Americans
as well as one Type 95 at the Yasukuni shrine minus the 37mm. Neither of these survive today.
We do know the remaining Type 95s did not go entirely unused with their chassis being chosen
for some heavy spg variants. One of these, known as the Hi-Ro or Hi-Ro-Sha, was an open topped
vehicle with a Type 14 105mm cannon. This one was actually built with photos showing one prototype.
As for the other variant, known as the Ji-Ro or Ji-Ro-Sha, it may have been a close topped
superstructure on the Type 95 chassis to mount either the same gun or another weapon. It is
not known if this was built as no photos exist today. The armament of these two vehicles also
vary wildly from source to source so I can’t tell for certain what the true armaments were.
Neither seems to have seen any sort of combat. One final heavy tank as well as the Super Heavy
O-I are rumored to have seen some degree of development and even possibly prototyping,
but there is little to no evidence of this. The first vehicle referred to sometimes as the Type 97
may have been a variant of the Type 95 with the ability to move along rails like the Type
95 So-Ki. There could also be some connection to the rumored heavy tank M.104, but the existence
of that vehicle is yet to be proven. It does appear in some original documents and intelligence
reports from the era, but as we see with the case of the Ishi-108 this does not confirm the
design by itself. With the M.104 reportedly being a planned design for Mitsubishi, who also seem to
have been responsible for the SPGs we talked about earlier, maybe they did further experimentation
with the chassis. This is all purely speculation on my part though so don’t take this as anything
conclusive. More than likely this is another case of inaccurate intelligence reports.
Similarly the O-I does seem to have been a real project for a super heavy by the Japanese with
a blueprint of it surviving as well as a track link which could be from a prototype of it. In my
opinion there was likely some sort of test vehicle built, but this cannot be confirmed without either
some sort of production report or a photograph. This leaves the Type 91 and Type 95 as the only
confirmed Japanese Heavy tanks to be built. Although Japanese tank development and production
was limited compared to other WW2 warring nations we saw today that they did still have the capacity
to build complex vehicles even during the interwar period. These may not have been successful enough
for full scale production, however, it is likely these sorts of projects helped teach valuable
lessons for future tank projects. Unfortunately Japanese vehicles are notoriously hard to research
for numerous reasons including language barriers and lack of original source documents so piecing
together a detailed history of them is difficult. Hopefully I managed to get a good overview of the
topic for you all without missing anything major. If you did enjoy this video let me know by liking
and subscribing to show it. One final reminder to check out Established Titles who have been
supporting my work recently with their repeated sponsorships. Check out the link below and use
the code CONEARC for that extra 10% off. Thanks as always to my channel members
for their support of the channel as well. That's all I have for you today though so
if you want more feel free to check out one of my other videos such as the ones on your screen
now. Have a great rest of your day or night and I hope to see you back here again soon.