Chi-Ha: Japan’s Main Tank of WW2

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:04]In the 1930s, Japan devoted far less attention to armored warfare than Germany, Britain, or the Soviet Union.

[00:00:11]The backbone of its tank forces consisted of light vehicles and the Type 89 I-Go medium tank, a design whose lineage dated back to the First World War.

[00:00:22]It was good enough for infantry support, but by the middle of the decade, it was already obsolete.

[00:00:28]The Imperial Navy remained the empire’s clear favorite, so the army had to abandon more ambitious solutions and settle for practical compromises.

[00:00:38]The I-Go’s main weakness was its poor mobility.

[00:00:41]For the new tank, designers chose the chassis of the Type 95 Ha-Go, a light tank that was reasonably fast and reliable.

[00:00:50]The suspension designed by Tomio Hara offered a smooth ride and was simple to manufacture.

[00:00:56]The designers faced no easy task: they had to create a true medium tank.

[00:01:02]Mitsubishi’s project was named Chi-Ha.

[00:01:05]Weighing around 15 tons, the prototype retained the I-Go’s 57-mm gun, received thicker armor, and became noticeably livelier thanks to a new, more powerful engine.

[00:01:17]The Chi-Ha underwent trials alongside a competing design developed by the Osaka Arsenal.

[00:01:22]Its rival weighed only 10 tons and was simple and cheap, but that was where its advantages more or less ended.

[00:01:30]It was cramped and uncomfortable for the crew, offered no meaningful edge in mobility, and had far less room for future modernization.

[00:01:39]In the end, it was the Mitsubishi design that was selected for mass production.

[00:01:44]On paper, the Chi-Ha was clearly superior to its predecessor.

[00:01:48]In 1939, however, during the fighting at Khalkhin Gol, its serious shortcomings became impossible to ignore.

[00:01:57]The Chi-Ha’s armor stood up poorly to Soviet guns, while its low-velocity 57-mm cannon was markedly inferior in armor penetration to the 45-mm guns mounted on the BT and the T-26.

[00:02:11]Japanese crews were plainly short on both protection and firepower.

[00:02:16]The bitter lessons of those defeats forced Japan to move quickly on an upgrade.

[00:02:21]The result was an improved version known as the Chi-Ha Kai.

[00:02:26]It received a new turret and a 47-mm gun intended primarily for anti-tank combat.

[00:02:32]This model remained the principal medium tank of the Japanese Empire right up to the end of the Second World War, because more advanced designs such as the Chi-Nu were produced only in tiny numbers.

[00:02:45]At first, the Chi-Ha performed well enough.

[00:02:48]In Malaya and Singapore, the Japanese offset their technical limitations with sound tactics, high mobility, and good coordination.

[00:02:57]Japanese tank crews sometimes even emerged victorious from engagements with serious opponents such as the American M3 Stuart.

[00:03:06]But as the war went on, the outlook grew steadily bleaker.

[00:03:10]In combat against the U.S. Army, especially on Okinawa, the Chi-Ha proved helpless against modern anti-tank weapons.

[00:03:18]As for the Sherman, penetrating it from the front was almost an impossible task.

[00:03:23]In such duels, Japanese crews could rely on little more than sheer luck.

[00:03:28]By 1945, during the Manchurian campaign, it had become obvious that the Chi-Ha was hopelessly outdated.

[00:03:36]Against powerful T-34-85s, Japanese tanks stood no chance at all.

[00:03:42]Even vehicles rearmed with large-caliber guns could not change the situation.

[00:03:48]The Chi-Ha had finally gone from being a mainstay of Japan’s armored forces to a relic of a bygone age.