As we have discussed in several videos on this channel, Japanese heavy tanks made up only a tiny,
almost negligible, percentage of the total vehicles produced by Japan. Despite this
heavy tanks from the island nation have become increasingly popular with their
introduction into various games. Considering this is an episode of Fake Tank Friday you
can probably guess that the ones we will be looking at today fall short
of reality. So join me today as we look at Wargaming's newest Japanese Heavy tank line.
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Our first vehicle of the day is known as the Mitsu 108. Those of you who watched
my previous video on the Ishi 108 may have already noticed the similarities between that
supposed vehicle and this one. The Mitsu 108 seems to be a combination of both the
fake Ishi 108 and the unconfirmed vehicle known as the Mitsu 104. The style of the
suspension and length of the hull are fairly similar to the Ishi 108 but the front and
turret placement is more similar to the Mitsu 104. Regardless of the fact that it is fake,
this design does show a great example of how real world designs can be used to create a
unique fictional one. Unfortunately in this case one of the vehicles chosen has since
been shown to be almost certainly a work of intelligence reports and not a real project.
Up next we move on to the tier six vehicle called the Ju-Nu. Once again we find a design which
bears loose resemblance to something from the real world, in this case the Chi-Nu or Chi-To.
Although thankfully not mentioned in game several of the online sites listing stats
for the vehicle claim it to be the result of a cooperation with Japan and Germany.
Once again this is an interesting concept of a theoretical project but as far as I can tell
there is nothing to support the existence of such a vehicle despite the claim of it
existing in blueprints. As with many Japanese vehicles it is harder to disprove them with
the lack of information available but I feel confident in saying this one is as fake as
the previous. That being said the armament of the stock vehicle is fairly realistic being the
real Type 5 75mm cannon created by Japan. The upgraded gun, called the Type 3 88mm,
could have been made more realistic if the name were simply changed to something like the Type
99 88mm cannon as that was a real Anti-Air cannon. In fairness the argument can easily be made that
if used for a tank the designation would be different. Overall the Ju-Nu is an interesting
blend of real Japanese designs with a German twist although I question any reality to this vehicle.
Moving to tier seven we find a similar tank to the Ju-Nu called the Ju-To. As you can tell by
the name this tank is similar to the previous. Once again it is claimed in the online stat pages
to use German influences for the design. Like its younger brother this tank does not seem to
have any basis in reality. Most likely this tank and the previous were created by using the Chi-To
and Chi-Ri and then postulating how they could be made into heavy tanks. The spaced armor on
the turret is a pretty unique concept only seen on a few real world tanks during WW2 although
I’m not aware of any Japanese designs which used this. There isn't much else to say about
the Ju-To but the top gun it features, the Type 92 105mm, does seem to be based on a real gun.
With the tier eight tank we finally appear to have reached a tank which
could have a real world basis. The Chi-Se is clearly a larger version of the Chi-Ri tank we
have covered in another video on this channel. Some information on this tank was reportedly
published in an issue of a Japanese magazine from 2011 although I have not been able to
locate this information. All I was able to find online regarding the tank is from the Japanese
Wikipedia page so the validity is hard to confirm. Essentially what it says is that the Chi-Se was
a design with an improved suspension and larger turret to allow the mounting of a 105mm anti tank
gun. This is extremely vague information but my interpretation of it seems to indicate the hull
would have remained the same as the Chi-Ri. So this would lead me to believe the sloped hull of
the tank shown ingame is a work of fiction but given how little is known of the real designs,
if it even existed, creative liberties are more acceptable in this case in my opinion. I think
it is worth mentioning that there could be a chance that the similarities with this design
and the Ho-Ri tank destroyer project are more than just coincidence. Bits of information could
have been mixed with other projects creating new projects out of thin air. Obviously this is just
speculation but I don’t think its a large leap to say this sort of thing could happen by mistake.
Our second to last tank brings us to the tier nine tank, the Type 68. This vehicle looks quite
similar to vehicles from the various STA tank prototypes for the Type 61. Although normally I
would not endorse using Reddit posts for reliable tank information I have to give a shoutout to a
user called leggasiini. They made a very good overview of all the vehicles we’ve looked at
so far but their reasoning for both the Type 68 and the tier ten Type 71 makes a lot of sense.
The Type 68 is shown to have a weight of nearly 70 tons. This is nearly double the weight of the
Type 61. The lower weight is not just by chance and as we’ve seen in the history of quite a few
heavy vehicles logistics are the main reason. Japan's infrastructure in the 60s, particularly
their bridges, could not support a vehicle with a weight of 70 tons. The tank we see ingame is
again an interesting take on a heavier version of a real Japanese tank but falls short of reality.
Last but not least we reach the Type 71. This tank is pretty obviously a
heavy tank version of the Type 74 MBT. With the weights roughly the
same as the previous example we can similarly disprove this tank.
Just as I was finishing up editing I realized I had left out the premium Type 57. Considering
there's not much to say about that vehicle I figured I’d add it in here rather than make
it into a separate vehicle. Absolutely nothing comes up when you search this vehicle and even
the online stat pages don’t try to make up some story about concept vehicles or blueprints so I
think it's safe to say this one is a complete work of fiction. The design seems to have some
similarities to Soviet heavy tank designs from the early cold war with not much resemblance to
any particular Japanese tank I can think of. Overall the Japanese heavies in this line are
fictional designs created using real Japanese tanks as their basis. Unfortunately these
interesting theoretical designs are tainted by the insistence on linking them to blueprints
regardless of whether they really are or not. This further muddies the water on Japanese tank
projects which are already a difficult subject to research. Is this to say you
shouldn’t play or enjoy them? No, not at all, tanks don’t have to be real to be fun to play
in a video game. The purpose of this video is just to give you all the information I could
find regarding each tank so you can be better informed and help inform others about them.
I hope you all enjoyed the video and if you did be sure to hit the
like and subscribe. One final thanks to Amazon for sponsoring this video. Don’t
forget to use the link below for a chance to win a 100 dollar amazon gift card and
the other benefits we discussed earlier by downloading games using the Amazon appstore.
Massive thanks as always to my YouTube members who support my content with their
monthly donations. If you liked this video check out the rest of the Fake Tank Friday
playlist or some of the Cursed by Design videos on Japanese tanks. I Hope to see you there.