Japan’s fate in World War II, like most of the Axis, was that of a low and steady defeat toward the end of the conflict as lack of funds, resources, and manpower coupled with some crippling defeats against the Allies. Had the Imperial Japanese Army been better supplied, the tides of war could have changed, given the superior designs and weaponry from the Land of the Rising Sun that could not be produced enough to dominate the battlefield.

According to Military Factory, one such weapon was the Type 5 “Chi-Ri” tank, a fearsome model designed to counter the American Shermans that were consistently wiping out their lighter Japanese counterparts. The Type 5 was to be mounted with powerful guns, engines, and armor that would have combined to create a serious threat to the dominant Shermans in the Pacific theater. A single prototype was built, but before the Type 5s could see battle — or even the factory floor — the Germans were defeated in Europe. Japan was subsequently targeted with the full force of the Allies, and the damaged infrastructure could no longer continue to build new tanks.

Japan made the strongest destroyer

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