Photos WW2 Japanese Forces

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Machine gunner training with Type 11 Nambu (with a field mod foregrip)

 

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Japanese military attaché Makoto Onodera visiting the Fjell Festning fortification in Norway, the turret in the background is from the battleship Gneisenau, 26 December 1942

 

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Gunners of the USS Hornet score a direct hit on Japanese bomber, March 18, 1945. The aircraft is a Yokosuka D4Y Suisei.

 

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Hiroo Onoda, the soldier who refused to surrender.

Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda was 22 years old when he was deployed to Lubang Island in the Philippines in December 1944.


In this March, 1974 file photo, Hiroo Onoda, wearing his 30-year-old imperial army uniform, cap and sword, walks down a slope as he heads for a helicopter landing site on Lubang Island for a flight to Manila when he comes out of hiding in the jungle on the island, Philippines.


Onoda surrendering his sword to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, and received a pardon for his actions over the previous decades (he and his companions had killed some 30 people in their long war).


Onoda waves upon arriving back in Tokyo. March 12, 1974.


Onoda died of heart failure on 16 January 2014, at St. Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo, due to complications from pneumonia.

 

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One of the most feared weapons in the Japanese arsenal was the Type 89 Heavy Grenade Discharger (hachi-kyu-shiki ju-tekidanto, or more commonly just tekidanto). This weapon received the dangerously unfortunate English nickname of “knee mortar”; the curved base plate was meant to be braced against a solid foundation (the ground, a log, etc.), NOT one’s knee, as the recoil would result in broken bones or worse. The Type 89 covered the gap between the range a hand grenade could be thrown and the range of a true mortar. Because of its small size (less than 60cm, or 24” long) and light weight (about 4.7 kg, or 10.5 lbs.), it was easily portable. In a standard Japanese infantry division, a regiment of 3,843 men had about 108 of these, or one per 36 men, according to the US Army Handbook on Japanese Military Forces, October 1, 1944, p. 22. By comparison, the regiment would have had 112 light machine guns and 36 heavy machine guns. The Type 89 was extremely accurate in the hands of a skilled operator. The Japanese made about 120,000 of them. The “89” in Type 89 refers to their introduction in the Japanese year 2589, i.e. 1929.

 

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One of the most feared weapons in the Japanese arsenal was the Type 89 Heavy Grenade Discharger (hachi-kyu-shiki ju-tekidanto, or more commonly just tekidanto). This weapon received the dangerously unfortunate English nickname of “knee mortar”; the curved base plate was meant to be braced against a solid foundation (the ground, a log, etc.), NOT one’s knee, as the recoil would result in broken bones or worse. The Type 89 covered the gap between the range a hand grenade could be thrown and the range of a true mortar. Because of its small size (less than 60cm, or 24” long) and light weight (about 4.7 kg, or 10.5 lbs.), it was easily portable. In a standard Japanese infantry division, a regiment of 3,843 men had about 108 of these, or one per 36 men, according to the US Army Handbook on Japanese Military Forces, October 1, 1944, p. 22. By comparison, the regiment would have had 112 light machine guns and 36 heavy machine guns. The Type 89 was extremely accurate in the hands of a skilled operator. The Japanese made about 120,000 of them. The “89” in Type 89 refers to their introduction in the Japanese year 2589, i.e. 1929.

 

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IJN submarines HA-102, HA-104 and HA-101, from left to right, Tied up at the Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, 7 September 1945. Five Kairyu type midget submarines are moored outboard of the HA-102, at left

 

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First Liutenant Hajime Asai and His ten men in Singapore, 15th Feb 1942

Liutenant Hajime Asai using his comrade's shoulders to support the light machine gun fire against an aircraft

 

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Japanese soldiers creeping in front of destroyed Soviet armoured cars during the Battles of Khalkhin Gol. July 4, 1939

 

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Abandoned Japanese tanks in the Solomon Islands

 

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Japanese soldiers are interrogated by an Australian soldier, with local island natives standing guard (Papua New Guinea - July 1945)

 

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Rabaul, New Britain. Japanese tunnels fortress.

Twin Type 96 25mm anti-aircraft gun emplaced in an earth revetment tunnel entrance atop a steel base at Rabaul
In the foreground, three 25mm rounds are on display
Credit: Australian Army Date: September 1945

1945, JAPANESE TORPEDOES MOUNTED ON RAIL TRACKS IN A CONCRETE TUNNEL

JAPANESE BARGE TUNNELS - Picture of Kokopo Tours, Rabaul

JAPANESE BARGE TUNNELS IN THE SIDE OF CLIFFS ON THE SHORE OF BLANCHE BAY

The entrance to a large tunnel or cave where Japanese soldiers hid themselves and their equipment. Inside the tunnel are several beds or stretchers, on one of which an injured Japanese soldier (left) lies with his head swathed in a bandage. The entrance to the tunnel is shored up by stout timbers and flanked by jungle vegetation. A RAAF Equipment Recovery Party was shown the location of the tunnel by Japanese soldiers who had surrended at the end of the war.

 

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Destroyer Akizuki during trials off Miyazu Bay, 17 May 1942

 

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Prince Morihiko, a captain in the army and son-in-law to the emperor, in The Philippines, 1 June 1943

 

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The Japanese carrier Zuiho pictured during the Battle of Cape Engano. Note the battle damage to her flight deck. This photograph was shot by a U.S. Navy Grumman TBM Avenger from Torpedo Squadron VT-20 from the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6). 25 October 1944

 

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Japanese soldier posing with a Type 4 Chi-To medium tank and Type 4 Ho-Ro self-propelled 15cm howitzer, circa 1944-45

The Type 4 medium tank Chi-To ("Imperial Year 2604 Medium Tank Model 7") was one of several medium tanks developed by the Imperial Japanese Army towards the end of World War II. While by far the most advanced Japanese wartime tank to reach production, industrial and material shortages resulted in only a few chassis being manufactured and only two known to be completed. Neither Type 4 Chi-To tank saw any combat.


The Type 4 Ho-Ro was iInspired by the Grille series of self propelled artillery vehicles developed by Nazi Germany during World War II, wherein a 15 cm sIG 33 infantry support gun was mounted on a tracked chassis, engineers at the Army Technical Bureau resolved to do the same. Production was assigned to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The exact number produced in 1944 is uncertain, but was approximately 12 units

The Type 4 Ho-Ro was rushed into service and deployed in batteries of four, which saw combat as part of the 2nd Tank Division with the Japanese Fourteenth Area Army during the Philippines Campaign in the last year of World War II. Remaining units were deployed to Okinawa in ones and twos for island defence during the Battle of Okinawa, but were severely outnumbered by American artillery