ordinarily , it ’s the Western Powers who are remembered for explicate some of the most advanced and conceptual weapons of the Second World War . But when it come to experimental military technologies , Japan hurt from no shortage of ideas . Here are 11 you should have intercourse about .
Japan emerged as a macrocosm tycoon in 1905 after its humiliating defeat of Russia . Though allied with the Entente during the First World War , Imperial Japan shifted its allegiances after being snubbed at Versailles . start in the 1930s , and allied with Nazi Germany , the conglomerate began a series of strong-growing campaigns at it worked to aver itself in the Pacific region . Its actions would finally bring it into dispute with the United States , a development that demonstrate to be its undoing .
Shōwa Japan , know it was up against a superior foeman , both in terms of industrial strength and technological mundaneness , accelerate its cause to keep pace . To that end , the Japanese Imperial Army was equipped with advanced conventional weapons , specialized felo-de-se blast weapons , and even weapons to bear biological and chemical warfare . Indeed , Nipponese military deviser did not like much for the Geneva Protocol . And in fact , they assumed that banned weapons were particularly effective .
The Japanese develop wads , if not hundreds , of extremely conceptual weapons during the war , including some that actually made it to the battlefield . Here are 11 you call for to cognize about .
1. Fu-Go Balloon Bombs
As the Nazis were lobbing V2 rocket over the English Channel , the Japanese were fashioning their own “ payback weapons ” as well . Military planners , who were unable to develop an intercontinental projectile , rather amount up with the melodic theme of balloon bombs .
To make it make , the Japanese attached instigative bomb to balloons which travelled 5,000 sea mile toward the United States along the blue jet watercourse . The intent was to have the gadget detonate over the forested region of the Pacific Northwest and start large forest fire that would amuse cherished U.S. hands .
Geologist and historian J. David Rogersexplains how they worked :
The balloon were craft from mulberry tree paper , glued together with potato flour and filled with expansive H . They were 33 feet in diameter and could cabbage around 1,000 pounds , but the deadly serving of their cargo was a 33 - lb anti - personnel fragmentation dud , attached to a 64 – foot long fuse that was intended to burn off for 82 minutes before blow up . The Japanese programmed the balloons to release hydrogen if they ascended to over 38,000 feet and to drop duo of Amandine Aurore Lucie Dupin take barretter bags if the balloon drop below 30,000 feet , using an onboard altimeter . Three - 12 sand - filled ballast udder were hung from a 4 - speak aluminum wheel that was set aside beneath the balloon , along with the bomb . Each ballast purse weighed between 3 and 7 pounds . The bags were program to be put out in pair on opposing sides of the rack so the balloon would not be tipped to one side or another , unloosen any of the precious hydrogen . In this way the balloon would arise in the daylight heat each day of the crossing and accrue each evening , till their ballast bag were depleted , at which time the balloon and its deadly mental object would come down upon whatever place beneath it .
The first balloons were launch in former 1944 , put down in the U.S. on November 5th off San Pedro , California . By the watch twenty-four hour period they land as far out as Thermopolis , Wyoming . Some even landed in Canada . In all , some 285 confirmed landings and/or sightings were made . On March 5 , 1945 , six Americans ( a diplomatic minister and five youngster ) were defeat by one of the grounded balloons in Oregon while attempting to pull it through the forest back to their camp .
The U.S. administration gag the media about the balloons for fear of encouraging the enemy . The American populace was finally made aware of the balloons after the war . ( pic via U.S. Army )
2. Sen Toku Class Mega Sub
The Japanese managed to ramp up three of these behemoths during the state of war , vessels which hold the record as the largest conventionally power submarines ever built . As part of the Nipponese plan to dominate the Pacific Ocean — including the Western seaboard of the United States — they were plan to attack the Panama Canal .
The sub were equipped with three Aichi M6A1 airplanes which could carry a bomber or up to 1,763 pound sterling ( 800 kg ) of bombs . They were put up in a watertight , pressure - resistant airdock . The plane were launched from a catapult located in front of the tower , and all three could be tack , fueled , armed and establish within 45 minute of surfacing .
It even featured a German - inspired snorkel breather that was coated with a thick , rubber - like substance designed to absorb radio detection and ranging and sonar signals . The war end before the Japanese could use them in combat . In 1946 , the I-400 was surrendered to the USA and sunk off the coast of Hawaii . Researchers only re - discovered it last class . ( Images CC )
3. Unit 731 and the Use of Bioweapons
From 1937 until the conclusion of the warfare , the Japanese try out with various biologic artillery , including the toxic defoliation bacilli bomb ( a forerunner to Agent Orange ) and the flea bomb used to spread bubonic pestilence . The Imperial Japanese Army ’s notorious Unit 731 — a covert biological and chemical warfare enquiry and ontogeny building block — perform test on human subjects with Bubonic plague , Asiatic cholera , variola major , botulism , and other diseases . Nipponese soldiers used these bomb to to launch biological attacks , infecting agriculture , reservoir , wells , and other region .
concord to Sheldon H. Harris , a historiographer at California State University in Northridge , more than 200,000 Chinese were wipe out in seed war field experiments . His work also shows that plague - infected animals were released toward the close of the war , which caused “ outbreaks of the plague that killed at least 30,000 people in the Harbin field from 1946 through 1948 . ” Some Japanese scholars contest these figures , but they ’re probably exact .
And as observe by historian Antony Beevor , the Japanese also planned to these weapons against American soldiers in the Pacific theater , along with render disease - carrying balloon bombs to the United States . They even had a architectural plan in the summertime of 1945 to use kamikaze pilots to dump plague - infected flea over San Diego . ( Images viaWar Pardons )
pertain : German Nazi used mosquito as biological weapon system
It ’s worth take note that commanders of Unit 731 were granted immunity from pursuance in exchange for deal biological warfare secrets with the U.S. war machine . Relatedly , Japan was the only country to utilize chemical artillery , such as mustard gas , during the Second World War .
4. Fukuryi Suicide Attack Suits
These exceptional dive suit were design for the Japanese Special Attack Units to fend off an invasion of the Home islands by Allied force play . The suits were armed with a mine bear 33 pounds ( 15 kilo ) of explosive impound to a 16 pes ( 5 meter ) bamboo terminal .
The diver , weighed down by 20 pounds ( 9 kg ) of hint , would take the air underwater for as much as six hours and at depth of 16 - 23 foot ( 5 - 7 meter ) . The plunger , upon reaching the hull of an opposition ship , would detonate the explosive , killing themselves in the process . It ’s not live if this suit was ever used in combat , but there are accounts of U.S. foot landing craft and a surveyor ship being attacked by suicide swimmers . ( icon : U.S. Navy / CC )
5. The “Purple” Encryption Machine
The German Enigma Machine may be the most celebrated encryption twist of the Second World War , but it was by no means the only one . In 1937 , the Japanese develop the “ 97 - shiki O - roll In - Islamic Group - ki ” or “ 97 Alphabetical Typewriter , ” name for its creation on the Japanese twelvemonth 2597 . This equipment was well known by its U.S. code - name : “ Purple ” .
The auto dwell of two typewriter and an electrical rotor organisation with a 25 - character alphabetical switchboard . Like the Enigma motorcar that inspired it , a plaintext , or unencrypted content , could be manually inputted . But its main innovation was the second electric typewriter , which would publish the encrypted message onto a piece of paper ( Enigma presented text in the form of blinking light ) . Thus , only one individual was needed to operate it . And because the Japanese changed the key fruit on a daily cornerstone , codebreakers were n’t able-bodied to find pattern in the messages . AsAlberto Perez notes , “ The plugboard contained 25 connections , which could be format into 6 pairs of connections , produce 70,000,000,000,000 possible arrangements . ”
( image : USAF / CC )
Incredibly , U.S. code breakers found a fashion to crack the machine . you may see more about how they did it and the Purple machinehere .
6. Yokosuka MXY-7 Ohka Kamikaze Plane
As the state of war progressed , and as at the Japanese refined their kamikaze technique , they get down to develop aircraft explicitly for that purpose . The Yokosuka MXY-7 was a skyrocket - motivate aircraft that made its first appearance in September 1944 . To build up the machine , the Japanese used as short crucial raw materials as possible , and the planing machine ’s expression was extremely rudimentary .
During armed combat , the Ohka was carried under the fuselage of a Mitsubishi G4 M until the quarry was within close orbit , when it was released . The pilot would examine to glide as close to the aim as potential before firing the Eruca vesicaria sativa and smash into the target .
The weapon was build up with a 2,643 pound sign load . Its intense speed made it near impossible to intercept by anti - aircraft fire . That aver , along with the letter carrier aeroplane , it was extremely vulnerable during the gliding phase angle . What ’s more , it was very unmanageable to steer once the rockets had been fired . Despite these limitation , at least one US uprooter was sunk by this weapon system .
7. Mitsubishi J8M (Shushi) Rocket-powered Interceptor Aircraft
If you conceive this look interchangeable to the German Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet , you ’re veracious .
The J8M1 was supposed to be a permit - build copy of the ripe Nazi aircraft , but the Germans were n’t able-bodied to send a functional version to Japan ( a German submarine with an actual Komet on display board was sunk en route to Japan ) . or else , Nipponese designers had to reverse - direct the advance blast plane from a flight operation manual and limited expert blueprints .
Indeed , the Japanese were eager to build an interceptor aeroplane in condition of the Allied bombardment campaign in Europe . Military planners feared it would only be a matter of sentence before a similar drive raged over Japan . Because the B-29 Superfortresses operate on at an altitude out of ambit of most Nipponese fighters , the Me 163 was thus figure as a likely answer to the problem .
Despite not have a functional theoretical account to play off of , a single epitome was test before the oddment of the war . On July 7 , 1945 , the J8 M made its maiden flight with Lieutenant Commander Toyohiko Inuzuka at the control . The inaugural flying was brief and fatal . The J8M1 took off successfully , but the engine failed during the steep climb , crashing and shoot down the pilot . Six more prototypes were build , but none of them flew before the end of the war .
Along these line , there was also the Mizuno Shinryu , a late - WW2 arugula - power interceptor :
8. O-I Super- and Ultra-heavy Tanks
The Japanese are n’t typically remembered for their tanks , though they did have some fairly good 1 , include the 97 Chi - Ha intermediate army tank . But late in the state of war they had the ambitious — if not completely crazy — idea to build super - lowering and even extremist - heavy army tank for use in the Pacific Theatre .
These beasts would have been utterly massive , capable of bear a crew of 11 in its 100 to 120 ton body . The super - cloggy sport three turrets , one large cannon , and two small-scale guns . An uncorroborated theme claim that one of these tank car was send to Manchuria , but it ’s unknown if it ever watch scrap .
The sophisticated experimental prototype , the extremist - heavy atomic number 8 - I , would have featured four turret .
9. Ku-Go Death Ray
Likemany other combattants , the Japanese were actively working to uprise a death beam , a concentrated ray of energy that could take down aircraft hundreds of Roman mile away . According to documents confiscated by the U.S. military after the warfare , work on a Nipponese demise shaft of light began as early as 1939 at laboratories in Noborito . To that ending , the researchers develop a richly - power magnetron that could generate a beam of radiation . Physicist Sinitiro Tomonaga ’s squad developed a magnetron measuring 8 inches ( 20 cm ) in diameter with an output rat at 100kW. It ’s doubtful , however , that this applied science could have worked like the expiry rays of science fabrication . Calculations suggested that the beam , if properly focused , could have defeat a lapin over a distance of 1,000 yards , but only if the rabbit stayed perfectly still for at least 5 minutes .
10. Flying Tanks
One of the major problems face by the Nipponese military during WW2 was the challenge of transmit ponderous equipment , like tankful , from island to island . A potential solution was found in the form of flying , or rather gliding , tanks .
These light tanks featured detachable wing , empennage ( stabilizing surface at the poop - death of an aircraft ) , and take - off baby carriage . But because the tracks of the army tank would never survive a landing , a span of detachable ski were attached to the machine . Once detached from an aircraft , like the Mitsubishi Ki-21 “ Sally ” lumbering sub , it would coast to the destination like a sailplane , land , and assume responsibility as an armoured earth fomite .
The Japanese managed to acquire some image of these flying tanks , include the Maeda Ku-6 and the Special No . 3 Flying Tank , or Ku - Ro .
11. Z Superbombers Project
Like the Nazi Amerika Bomber project , Imperial Japan wanted an intercontinental bomber adequate to of reaching North America . As the warfare advance , the Japanese were desperate for something like the American B-29 Superfortress . In 1941 , the Imperial Japanese Navy introduced the experimental 13 - Shi Attack Bomber , a four - engined farseeing - range heavy bomber . But military planners wanted something considerably larger , heavier , and faster — something capable of flying at 32,800 animal foot with a load of twenty - two 1,000 pound bombs .
Designs were presented to the Imperial Japanese Army , include the the Nakajima G10N ( fancy above ) and Kawasaki Ki-91 , the former of which sport 237 ft wingspan and a total length of 144 feet . It would have been capable of reaching speed of 365 mph ( 590 km / h ) at 25,000 feet and powered by six locomotive of 5,000 horsepower each ; to that oddment , the Nakajima Aircraft Company began developing engines for the planing machine , and proposed double up HA-44 engines ( the most powerful engine available in Japan ) into a 36 - cylinder engine . Project Z was cancelled in July 1944 owing to drop war conditions .
Historian Steve Horn saysthe grotesque Project Z wedge should be compared more equally with the postwar Convair Consolidated Peacemaker bomber(pictured ) in terms of sizing , weight , and performance , rather than the wartime Superfortress . ( Image : USAF )
Related : How the Nazis tried to flush it New York|Weapons from WW2 you probably never heard of
germ : Tsyneishi Keiichi : “ Unit 731 ” | NYT : “ Unmasking Horror — A extra report . ; Japan Confronting Gruesome War Atrocity ” |Brian Ford : Secret Weapons| J. D. Rogers : “ How geologist unknot the Mystery of Japanese Vengeance Balloon Bombs in World War II ” | “ How the U.S. crock up Japan ’s ‘ Purple Encryption Machine ’ at the Dawn of World War II ” | Steve Horn : The Second Attack on Pearl Harbor : Operation K and Other Nipponese effort to Bomb America in World War II| Alexander Ludeke : Weapons of World War II
HistoryJapanMilitary technologysecond world war
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , science , and culture newsworthiness in your inbox daily .
News from the future , delivered to your present .
You May Also Like
