Editing Imperial Japanese Equipment (section)

== Wunderwaffen ==
Much like the Germans, the Japanese were trying to get their own nuclear weapons program going, though they didn’t make very much progress with it. In fact, when the Americans dropped their own atom bombs, the Japanese initially refused to believe they were real due to the sheer amount of resources needed to refine Uranium. The Japanese also had domestic copies of the Me-163 and Me-262 fighters as well, but lacked the means to put them into production to be able to affect the outcome of the war.

All that said, they also had some unique domestic programs:

* '''MXY-7 Ohka''': the infamous kamikaze airplane, as in being purposely built for the task. An Okha was basically an anti-ship missile... [[Grot Bommer|except is was piloted by a live human being instead of automated systems]]. A wooden airframe encompassing a rocket engine, a basic cockpit an a 1.200kg bomb, it could (and did) ruin the day of any ship it hit. It was mostly used during the battle for Okinawa (with some success), but they were extremely short-ranged (37km) and had to be dropped by Betty bombers... who were more often than not intercepted before they could launch the suicide plane. In typical Japanese [[irony]], 'Ohka' means 'cherry blossom petal', petal that can only fall down once it becomes separated from its tree... Yeah... Pretty poetic, if you can somehow accept the fact [[grimdark|''' there's a goddamn human being committing suicide to crash a 1,200kg bomb on target.''']]
* '''I-400 series''': a series of submarines that were designed as goddamn aircraft carriers. Each one could only carry about three floatplanes. Were deployed on missions but never actually got any use. Were captured and tested on by the US post war. Sunk in the 50s by the USN to prevent the Soviets possibly getting any ideas from the class. 
* '''Fu-Go Balloon Bombs''': Very basic in concept, these were weather balloons carrying shrapnel and firebombs that would be released after a fixed period by a very rudimentary timer. Launched in Japan, they’d travel the jet stream to America and hopefully cause enough damage and mayhem to disrupt American offensive operations in the Pacific. Completely incapable of any targeting, a few civilians were killed and American authorities clamped down on reports to prevent panic amongst the populace. Ultimately, these were the first truly intercontinental weapons ever made, but with only 300 of 9,000 total balloons being confirmed to have survived the flight to the USA they were a total waste of limited time and resources, even considering how dirt-cheap and simple to produce they were. The balloon bombs did succeed in forcing the Americans to divert a tiny amount of effort to trying to track them and combat potential forest fires.
* '''Atomic Bomb Projects''': There were several projects for uranium enrichment. The Japanese had some good nuclear scientists, but ultimately the familiar limitations of limited industry and resources kept them from success. The Nagasaki group dropped a letter from Luis Alvarez to Ryokichi Sagane in the hope he could explain to the government what they were now facing, although the army didn't give it to him until after the war had ended.

* '''O-I Super Heavy Tank''': Much like its ally Nazi Germany, the Imperial Japanese Army did have plans and may have made a prototype for a Super Heavy Tank, the concept of which came to light after the defeat of the IJA at Khalkhin Gol. It was commissioned by Hideo Iwakuro and development was started by the Army Engineering Division and later resumed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. It was to be multi-turret design like those experimented with in the inter-war years. The main armament was to be a type 92 105mm gun, with a type 1 47mm and three 7.7mm type 97 machine guns serving as a secondary in at least four other turrets. Armor was to be up to 200mm and was to be powered by the same engines used in the Type 5 Chi-Ri medium tank. The reason this is considered a wunderwaffen is due to the rather lack of a complete history and outlandishness of the design. Documentation does exists of how it was to be designed. A tank track is on display at the JGSDF fiji school. A prototype was rumored to be made but like with some treasure trains of Nazi Germany it may have been lost and scrapped to history. In the end it remains an obscure tank, with the documentation and history lost in the post-war.