After watching Stalin's latest podcast I found myself wondering on how the Japanese fought during WWII, what kind of tactics did they use?, what kind of doctrines did they apply to their strategies?, I was never able to get an idea on how the Japanese properly fought because in every Video game and Movie they always use that same suicidal banzai charges and all their tanks seemed to be made out of paper, the only time I saw Japanese never rely on banzai charges was in Men of War Assault Squad, Here's my question, How would the Japanese fight if they did not use such suicidal tactics such as a banzai charge?
Well that was their major tactic and yeah their tanks were pathetic, they might as well have been made out of paper. They loved to entrench themselves in the Earth such as places like Iwo Jima where they were hidden in the caves. That was very effective as it rendered artillery and air strikes noneffective. Anyway this should be in the historical events coffee house
It was shortly before the Battle of Tarawa (1943) that most Japanese generals and defensive planners abandoned typical use of banzai charges and frontal beachhead defenses and fell back on the now-famous cave system of bunkers and tunnels, all interconnected to a central hub where Japanese soldiers could quickly relocate to lost positions. It made fighting the Japanese a living hell for any who went through it. You would clear out a bunker only to come under fire from it again after thinking it secure. This went on for over a month on Iwo Jima, and for several months each on Okinawa and Peleliu, among other islands. Of course, many of the Japanese defenders of said islands would fight to the death instead of surrendering, and few veterans of the battles from their perspective remain. Of course, individual banzai attacks still occurred, usually commanded by a lieutenant or some other junior officer, and not usually ordered by Generals and other high-ranking officers among Japanese (in comparison with the banzai attacks ordered by high-ranking Generals and Colonels earlier in the war, Guadalcanal being a good example). By 1945 Japan had begun designing effective, larger, well-armed and better-armored tanks and AFVs that could counter the general M4 Sherman and several other armored vehicles, but were produced in such small numbers (less than 10 of the best tanks were ever made) that they had virtually no impact on the outcome of the war anyway.
A last note on Japanese tank force: They were bad because they didn't update them quickly enough. While most Allied armoured forces went from 37mm cannon and 14mm of armour (Cruiser Mark I) to a 75mm (min.) and 63mm of armour (M4 Sherman), the Japanese failed to upgrade their tanks at the same rate. So, when the Japanese were on the offensive in the early days and fought against Cruisers Mark I or similar the odds were about even if not better because their tanks were designed for jungle fighting as well. They just didn't take into account the rate of modernization tanks would go through.
The heavily wooded and mountainous pacific islands and Japanese tactic of cave defense made tanks impractical.
Indeed, their early conquests during the Pacific War and the battles on New Guinea didn't necessarily require armored support for the small number of Japanese infantry units that fought the Australian-British-American forces that faced them. The only place Japanese tanks saw the most of their service was in China, were their enemies had little or no methods to counter them, for both a lack of armored vehicles themselves and for the limited tactical prowess of most of their commanders and footsoldiers.
