2d4chan - User contributions [en]

Cybernetic Revolt

2022-12-22T19:51:41Z

2A02:A03F:C17D:A400:E815:6467:F7E1:BFAF: Corrected the fucked up English as much as possible

{{heresy}}
{{Grimdark}}
{{Fail}}
{{Cleanup}}
[[File:Daotend.jpg|800px|thumb|right|There goes the neighborhood...]]
{{topquote|Worlds were overrun by bloody uprisings within their own populations, much of which were mutated beyond sanity and recognition. Gene-wars consumed entire star systems, while a psychic apocalypse drowned the stars in fire. The vast empire of Humanity was shattered amidst horror and anarchy, and the oppressive shroud of Old Night settled over all|Custodes 8th edition}}

The Cybernetic Revolt can arguably be stated to be the bloodiest, most destructive conflict in Human history. While it may pale in comparison to the [[War in Heaven]], it still makes the Horus Heresy seem like a joke in comparison. And while the [[Horus Heresy]] was more relatively split between Loyalists and Traitors with few outliers, the Cybernetic Revolt can only be described at a total clusterfuck. Painting this conflict as only Man vs machine would not show the full picture, as many more factors were in fact in play here. Factors that helped bring a brutal and crushing end to the [[Dark Age of Technology]], and a horrific beginning to the [[Age of Strife]].

== Perpetual Prelude==
We begin in [[Age of Terra]], a time in which humanity is still confined to [[Terra]] and its orbit. Since ancient times, nigh indestructible and immortal super humans known as [[Perpetual|Perpetuals]] had roamed the earth, born/created from unknown means. Thanks to their incredible power, much of these superhuman beings were able to claim positions of power, becoming kings, chieftains, Warlords, and potentially even presidents, dictators, and oligarchs. The most powerful of the all however was the yet to be [[The God-Emperor of Mankind|God-Emperor of Mankind]].

The Emperor had dreams of accelerating the evolution Mankind by into beings like that of Homo superior (Perpetuals). He personally requested every Perpetual of old earth to assist in achieving this difficult task.
The reaction to the Emperor's from the Perpetuals was mixed. Some agreed to join with the Emperor. Some refused to assist this and/or have anything to do with them. And some got absolutely fuck ass mad with this request, and chose violence. As a result of pissing off these violent Perpetuals, many of the wars in the age of terra ended up being created by them in a attempt to stop the Emperor.
However, eventually all Perpetuals had decided to reject the Emperor, whether by leaving him, or betraying him. The Emperor himself however seemed glad about their rejections, as he seemed be tired out from the build up of complaints and arguments from the rest of the Perpetuals. The Perpetuals overtime left the home world, covered themselves in the shadows, or went into other lives.
We don't know exactly when the majority of the Perpetuals left the Emperor's side, we however certainly know the dark truth behind humanity's history: The destiny of humanity was out of the hands of humanity itself for (at the very least) the majority of its history, instead being held by illuminate-esque organizations and secret society run by nigh invincible and immortal beings who may or may not have malicious and atrocious intentions. Truly a grim start.

==The Steller Exodus==
During the Age of Terra, a (potentially) new mysterious groups of individuals appeared in Human history, the [[Men of Gold]]. While it is unknown exactly when they first appeared, we do have this transcript from a scholarly Imperial journal:

{{Topquote|And so it was that in the First Age of Man, the Golden Age, there is the Emperor Unseen and unheralded he prepares the Old Earth for the coming of Mankind and he watches and he waits. He is joined by the First Men of the Golden Race, fine of limb and strong of mind, yet still the Emperor is content to wait in shadow. To watch and learn from Mankind, the Golden Race spreads across the face of Old Earth, multiplying and establishing Order and Civilisation on the anarchy of Nature|Keeper Cripias (Library Sanctus of Terra)}}

Now, with this tid bit here, we could say it's safe to assume that these so called Gold Men are Perpetuals right (especially considering how much the Emperor loves his gold)? While this had been a prevailing opinion for quite a few years, The return of the [[Squats]] (now known the [[Leagues of Votann]]) stomped down the certainty of this theory. In the LoV Codex, The Leagues are stated to have a multitude of Myths and theories about these Golden Men, with some depictions of them being shadowy presences that are ill-defined and shown in many different forms, both humanoid and otherwise, while others show graven stone faces and of course "gleaming golden figures). The also have other names, with them being the Gilded One, the stonemind, Votann, and the primal ancestors. Some myths even state they are the wisest and eldest of the first ancestors. Finally, it is said that they raised the Kin up, and sent them sailing into the dark void – before oceans of fire and flesh rose to swallow them.
To put it simply, these myths help paint a different picture of the events leading up to the Cybernetic Revolt. That the group of people who created the [[Men of Stone]] may not just be your typical super human like the [[Space Marines]] and the [[Adeptus Custodes]], nor the pertuals that reigned throughout most of the Age of Terra. [[Transhumanism|Rather, these could be beings that go far beyond the bounds of baseline line humanity]], possibly through a multitude of methods. As far as we know, they could be [[Angel|Biblical style angels of humanity]], [[Hive Mind|and]] many [[Cyborg|other]] [[Belisarius Cawl|things]].

==Humanity's Exodus==
And so thanks to the leadership of the Men of Gold (whatever the fuck they are), and potentially at least some of the Perpetuals (possibly in late M2 as well with early space programs), humanity was able leave Terra and explore the stars, kicking starting the mini era Known as the Stellar Exodus. Beginning in the especially important time of M3 (which includes the 21st century), humanity achieved many important developments. The Discovery of the Immaterium which would lead to millenia of warp research, The terraformation of Mars and colonization of the Solar system, and the beginnings of the colonization of the galaxy through the use of Ohnyl Cylinders and sub-light craft. These interstellar voyages, whether they were equipped with life preservation tech such as suspended animation chambers (and potentially more), or acting as a full time generation ships with generations of the on board community living and dying before reaching their destination, would descend into the void and begin a period of history known as the long march, [[Orks|with some of them meeting less than savory characters that would eventually see to their ends]]. This era would also mark the beginning of Humanity's mass divergence known as the Great Diaspora that would lead to many species of Abhumans, mutants, and beings that would be deemed completely abominable by the Imperium (such as the Olamic Quietude), whether by human voyagers modifying themselves to better suit their environments, or by evolving over time with little to no assistance from technology.

The Stellar Exodus overall seems like a relatively steady period of humanity history (with a possible apocalypse in M7). Curiously, Humanity's voyages into the galaxy had also created a unusual amount of biological Homogeneity with their settled worlds. Regardless, Human civilization went into hyper mode in M15, which would be the start of the final pre Imperial age, The Dark Age of Technology.

==A Golden Age by comparison==
The Dark Age of Technology, starting in M15, was Humanity's peak age. While the Aeldari empire (who were also at their height) were the undisputed top dogs who had entire worlds live or die at their behest, Humanity was at least pretty close to a second place. From M15, humanity discovered the navigator gene and created their first warp drives and gellar fields (after possibly a few Event Horizon style incident), discovered Xeno civilizations such as the [[Interex|Kinebrach empire]], and of course, the creation of the [[Standard Template Construct|STC database]]. The first [[Titan (Warhammer 40,000)|Titans]] are created for military and non military use, along with the founding of the first knight worlds, which flourished after the long March.
plasteel, plascrete, ferrocrete,and rockcrete were developed and used to create the first the proto-hives, and grand trade routes were established with, great fleets carried goods to and from the edges of the galaxy. Overall. Human civilization grew and flourished, spanning across the galaxy will millions of worlds, and eventually, with the ingenuity of the Men of Stone, Eventually developed The [[Men of Iron]] to help out Humanity on its exploits. Technological innovation and developments were at an all time high. People lived longer than ever. And for many, things were pretty fucking great. And then of course, the Clusterfuck of a Revolt Happened.

==Opinions of the more modern ages==
Most Imperials of the current Age who actually know about this subject will say similar things with some differences that Lead to the same conclusion: "Humanity made a mistake. It was Humanity's folly to create such abominable intelligences". "It was a mistake to desecrate the holy human form with repulsive and heretical modifications". "Humanity was blinded by progress and innovation to see the true holy light that is the God Emperor of mankind". "THE OMNISSIAH WOULD BE DISPLEASED BY THE USE OF ABOMINABLE INTELLIGENCE OVER THE HOLY MACHINE SPIRITS". Even the Imperium of 30k repressed itself from much of any thing to due with the Age of Technology, except with less talks of [[Heresy]] and suppression of progress of course.
Not all in the more recent ages see these times as mostly mistakes, as some organizations and interstellar government such as the Logicians and The Leagues of Votann, along with potentially other non Imperial worlds, see the dark age more as the glory days with a couple of fuck ups. And often, surviving non insane human ai from Humanity's lost past often look at the current ages of Man as absolute disappointments compared to what was before, with one ship ai stating Humanity was on the brink of transcendence.

The truth? While the olden days of humanity were far better than its current one. There were actually a lot of fuck ups as well.

==Not perfect and flawed==
First of all, while this is was most certainly Humanity's golden age, this was only due to comparison to the rest of history. Yes, you had more people living on [[Rimworld|ultratech Glitterworlds]] and Elysium style orbital rings than ever before (and after), but this does not mean every human had the golden parts of this era available. As a matter of fact, there were even populations of humanity culled to "keep them genetically in line" during this era. The butchers nails were also developed this period (and was in the stc), which that alone already says quite a bit. Humanity also wasn't some giant homogeneous galactic federation either. It was a vast collection of divergent civilizations that had many wars between each other, and the many other xenos civilizations of the galaxy. Navigator families, and industrial and trade cartels, and mega corporations were individual forces in their own right. At the very least, quite a few daot civilizations were extremely arrogant and dickish to their Galactic neighbors, as I say another custodes 8th edition quote "The vast reaches of the galaxy shrank as Mankind’s capabilities grew, and alien races were driven back into the shadows by the fierce light of human progress".
Now consider the xenos relations of the new Leagues of Votann faction, which is essentially the faction that is closest to daot societies. The Leagues, while usually not as outright vigilant and hostile towards xenos like the imperium, shows a general disregard to their Galactic neighbors, caring only for themselves, and steam rolling anyone standing in their way, willingly or not. Despite the many millennia that has passed, it is clear as day that the Leagues have inherited the expansionist and colonialist attitudes from their daot ancestors, along with much of their culture and tech. Of course, we still definitely have examples of daot civilizations actually being pretty chummy with their xenos neighbors, but it seems as though the infection of arrogance had spread far and wide throughout human space. And of course, we still can't forget about asshole xenos such as the Orks and the Eldar, whos conflicts inflicted heavy casualties to Daot humanity. So we know that the daot era was flawed and was only golden by comparison. But what happened to spark the revolt?

==What the hell Happened==
Right off the bat, Human arrogance. That's right, Humanity got too cocky. But as we continue along, understand that there are also contributing factors that led to Humanity's fall that wasn't human error. Anyways, in the current Age of the Imperium, it is stated by Imperial authority that DAOT humanity was betrayed by its Xenos allies and Protectorates. This is actually a half-truth. While no doubt there were xenos societies that were full of assholes that truly betrayed their allegiances to the human powers they were interacting with (this is 40k), understand that due to many of Humanity's civilizations exhibiting a appalling amount of arrogance, disregard of xenos civilizations, and overall disrespectful and even hostile behavior due to expansionist ideals, many seemingly cooperative xenos powers either turned tail or turned on humanity due to having enough of their shit. It's probable that some of these turned hostile xenos were even betrayed and exploited by humanity first.

Unfortunately, this arrogance was not just external. As stated again from the Custodes 8th edition codex:

{{Topquote|Utterly certain of their own primacy, scientist-kings and techno-demagogues followed every strand of curiosity and exercised powers of creation that made them seem like gods. Ultimately, their hubris led them to catastrophe, and onwards to the very brink of extinction|Custodes 8th edition (again)}}

And another quote from 9th edition:

{{Topquote|Human scientists, engineers, inventors and innovators became the new gods. They worked alien technologies into their race’s devices to increase their -efficacy with little thought to the risks. They modified their species’ genome to ever greater degrees. fashioning vast armies of tailored gene-troopers whose Humanity was all but lost amidst the array of freakish alterations worked upon their bodies and minds. They invented Standard Template Construct machines - or STCs, that allowed Human colonists to rapidly fashion everything they needed to dominate new worlds from whatever natural resources were available. They developed sentient nano-plagues. World sundering energy Weapons and endless ranks of fearsome Men of Iron that could be unleashed upon those who refused to bend to their wills; alien and Human alike. They fashioned thinking machines of vast intellect that administered to the every need of colony worlds transformed into glittering utopian paradises|9th edition rulebook}}

Did you catch all that? scientist-kings, techno-demagogues, Engineer gods? Now, the probable suspects for the creation of these "roles" most certainly included the Men of Stone. But they are not the only suspects. There have also been multiple mentions of worship and oppression from dark age A.I. Hell, the T'au have Amenophis IV blockaded due to the locals building a advanced meta-cogitation array from a STC which brainwashed them into serving an A.I. as God. On top of this, machines most certainly can be corrupted by the forces of Chaos. And despite their lack of souls, being geared to help humanity and being more logical on average, it doesn't mean they can't make malicious and awful choices. So it's certainly possible that some of the Men of Iron joined their other "Cousins of Man" in terrorizing, experimenting upon, killing, and oppressing both human (even other Men of Iron) and xenos in their care and/or presence. And of course you'll most certainly have non Men of Stone and Men of Iron humans acting as science gods and dictators.

As you can see, Humanity's arrogance spiraled out of control. Mankind from all forms and walks went rogue, terrorizing itself. For many Human civilizations from the Age of Tech, science over time became mad science. The kingdoms of rogue innovation often cloaked themselves under pseudo utopian ideals and looks. The rogue leaders of these realms spared, killed, moved, and changed the populations under their care as they saw fit. Reckless experimentation and developments brought about abominable gene-warriors, abhorrent techno-spawns, atrocious nano-hives, and ghastly psychic forces. And oh boy, the sudden uncontrolled appearance of psykers all across the galaxy. Right around the time these Rogue Men of Technology really got into high gear. Wonder what caused that?

{{Topquote|Clues to the location of the Omnicopaeia are uncovered upon Hell's Teeth, a Daemon world on the edge of the Maelstrom. The Omnicopaeia, an arcane device that contains every STC with a psychic component, is of immeasurrablle value. Many billions of Skitarii are dispatched to Hell's Teeth with all haste. The entire Adeptus Mechanicus is abuzz. Should the legendary Omnicopaeia be found, they will finally have a way to control, precipitate, and even weaponise Humanity's psychic dawn|Skitarii Codex 7th edition}}

Yeah. By the end of M23 there was widespread anarchy, descriptions of what must be daemonic possessions and great turbulence in the Warp. Mankind is engulfed by a plague of mutation, physical abominations, and men possessed of psychic talents appearing throughout the galaxy bringing more havoc with them. Mankind is split asunder, there is no Race of Man, just warring factions contending with each other in the direst perils the galaxy could offer. The collapse was sudden and appalling, a wave of apocalyptic catastrophe that swept across Human space. Terrible wars saw entire star systems scoured of life. Armies of mechanical soldiers marched and slaughtered billions. The scourge of mutation ran rampant and everywhere psychic atrocities were unleashed, everything from psykers claiming godhood over entire worlds to daemonic possession and full-blown reality collapse. Many worlds of a more progressive mindset could not bring themselves to execute or exile their psychically afflicted populations and paid the ultimate price, while those who engaged in psyker witch hunts were rewarded for their hate. Weapons of horrific nature, from thirst water and sun snuffers, to chrono-weaponry that not even the Aeldari could avoid, black hole guns, and giant killer robots that ate space and time (and converted it into data) were unleashed; the conflict nearly wiping out and completely annihilating all of mankind and its civilizations.

And now consider all of this, the rogue science kings, the mass appearance of psykers, the mass appearance of daemons, mass instability of the Warp, the many xenos neighbors who were either being fed with humanity or never liked them to begin with, the vast amount of horrible weapons and technology that should have never left the drawing board, and the arrogance and assholery that infected much of mankind, both man and machine. Is there any wonder why much of the Men of Iron revolted? Good or bad, they had a multitude of reasons to either go AWOL, fuck off, or stay loyal during the conflict. And on top that, they generally had a strong sense of self-identity, and saw themselves as servants and helpers. Much of Humanity, especially rogue humanity, were high on arrogance and mad at this period of time, which became yet another reason to revolt.

And notice how those few surviving AI depict said revolt: 40k is either somber and isolated, fuck ass mad, or flat out insane. The Cybernetic Revolt fucked everything up bad. And then: not only having to see the overall shitty state of the galaxy, not only having to see what remained humanity, becoming worse than what they were before and committing atrocities against themselves and the rest of the galaxy; but then seeing that those you used to call your fellow man now not only not reject you as a abomination but also used those of your kind in the same vain as tortured servitors (see: Excindio Battle-Automata).

In the end, the uman DAOT galactic civilization collapsed, along with many other xenos it dragged down with it. And then the Aeldari empire, being just as high on arrogance (along with every other drug and form of decadence they could possibly have available) [[Fall of the Eldar|fucked up the galaxy even harder than humanity ever could]]. The Aeldari empire fell into decay and degeneration, with absolute depravity ruling the realms. The death rate sky rocketed, and all those potent and depraved Aeldari souls that died in extremely pleasurable/painful ways starting falling into the Warp en masse, and cluttering it up. And that made the Warp poof out fucking awful Warp Storms that ruined travel for a already very fucked up galaxy. Finally, these soul cluttered and coalesced even more together, over time slowly forming into a psychic embodiment of corruption, extreme depravity, and [[Noise Marines|LOUDNESS]] ([[Slaanesh|aka She-Who-Thirsts]]).

But before that happened, the [[Age of Strife]] happened thanks to the fuckshit that happened in recent galactic history. Everyone was stuck in their systems and worlds thanks to depraved Aeldari warp clouds. Worlds and systems that were turned into war zones and still covered in plenty of horrible abominations and terrible technologies. Terra itself faced the threat of a second apocalypse as gene-bred barbarians and ghastly flesh-stitched ghouls made war at the behest of madmen, fanatics and techno-cannibalistic murderers. [[Grimdark|And so basically the Age of Strife sucked absolute balls, and things didn't really get much better after that]]. [[DOOM: Repercussions of Evil|In the end, humanity blamed the beasts, not really fully realizing that it is they themselves that are the beasts]].

{{40k-Timeline}}
[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category:Imperial]]
[[Category:Squats]]
[[Category: Adeptus Mechanicus]]
[[Category:Under Development]]
{{Stub}}

Imperial Japanese Equipment

2022-12-22T09:58:30Z

2A02:A03F:C17D:A400:E815:6467:F7E1:BFAF: /* Misc */

{{stub}}
The Empire of Japan: the first East Asian country to successfully industrialize in the late 19th century and from the 1930s to 45 the scourge of the Pacific. While better off than [[Fascist Italian Equipment|Italy]], Japan still lagged behind in a lot of fields and had major raw materials and fuel shortages.

== Small Arms ==
Japan's small arms were generally less advanced than that of other countries at the time; while most countries still relied on bolt-action rifles as their service weapon, many countries still produced decent quantities of SMGs as well as self-loading rifles in more limited numbers. Japan however focused primarily on bolt-action rifles, with fewer automatic weapons to back them up. Weapon quality also suffered later in the war as well.
=== Rifles and SMGs ===
* '''Type 30 Arisaka''': Japan's old rifle, designed by Arisaka Nariakira and put into service in 1899, it saw use in the Russo-Japanese War and the Great War. Fired a 6.5x50mm bullet. Generally a solid five-shot bolt action for it's day, if a bit underpowered.
**As a side note, the 6.5x50mm Arisaka bullet was better suited for a man-portable automatic weapon than the typical over-charged full rifle rounds of the late 19th/early 20th century, which were made with accuracy and stopping power in mind. The Russian Fedorov Avtomat used them.
* '''Type 38 Arisaka''': Update on the Type-30. Used primarily in WWI, and partially replaced by the Type 99 in WWII.
* '''Type 99 Arisaka''': Built to replace the Type 30 and Type 38 by firing a 7.7x58mm cartridge. Improvements to the sights also made it the preferred rifle for snipers. That said, the Japanese still had a lot of Type 38s and 6.5x50mm, so it never fully replaced the Type 38.
* '''Type 100 Nambu''': The only production SMG made by the Japanese, and made in more limited numbers compared to other militaries. The Nambu SMG fired the same 8x22mm cartridge as the standard Nambu pistol. It had sideloading magazine much like the earlier MP18 and contemporary Sten; while side-loading magazines had fallen out of favor by this time due to the unbalanced weight, it was a hell of lot better than the other experimental Nambu SMGs that had been made at the time.
* '''Last Ditch Guns''': In the late war, Japanese manufacturing had been effectively crippled and resources were in short supply, so these so-called "Last Ditch Rifles" were made to arm what military forces remained, as well as civilians for the upcoming invasion of the Japanese home islands. These ranged from simplified versions of the Type 99 to very crude single-shot musket-things to give to civvies.

=== Pistols ===
* '''Type 26 Revolver''': A simple break-action hammerless revolver, chambered in 9mm Japanese revolver. Was invented back in 1893 but was still used in WWII to supplement weapon stockpiles.
* '''Nambu Type 14''': The standard sidearm of the IJA following WWI, replacing the Type 26. Chambered in 8x22mm, it wasn't as strong as contemporary pistols, but was solidly built, and later became the inspiration for the Ruger .22 pistol. General IJA policy at the time was that officers were allowed to buy sidearms with their own money. A common misconception is that the Type 14 was dangerous to shoot, which is only half true. It won't explode, but it will sometimes go off when clearing a jam(more on that below). Another is that the Nambu was a cheaper knockoff of the Luger, which is untrue. The Type 14 is a series of improvements of an earlier weapon commonly called "Grandpa Nambu", a firearm which appeared in production at roughly a similar time to the Luger. While not objectively terrible, it was nothing compared to the Italian Berreta or Browning's 1911. It frequently jammed as well due to the springs not being able to keep up with the bolt, and was compounded by the bullets being angled up. The magazine release is also difficult to clear without adjusting your grip. However to the weapon's credit it had a very light trigger pull and had a trigger guard designed to allow troops wearing gloves to use them without removing said gloves.
* '''Nambu Type 94''': A smaller, lighter-weight pistol compared to the Type 14. It was called the "Surrender Pistol" because it had an exposed sear, meaning that pressing down on the sear could fire the gun without pulling the trigger, so supposedly a Japanese soldier could fake surrendering so that they could shoot their captors up close. While this may have happened on occasion, stories of surrendering troops regularly firing using the sear are probably unsubstantiated, as it takes a considerable amount of force to squeeze the sear hard enough to fire the pistol. The Type 94 was used primarily by officers, army airmen, tankers, and paratroopers due to the lighter weight. Largely it was an army weapon, though there are reports of the Type 94 being used by Navy officers who purchased them with their own money.

=== Machine Guns ===
* '''Type 11 Light Machine gun''': Put into service in 1922, this gun is ''weird''. Basic idea, make a machine gun that could use the 5 round stripper clips used by Arisaka Rifles. That means you don't have to make special magazines for it or ship them to the front, while regular infantry dudes can supply it with bullets. So it has this weird hopper magazine that takes up to 6 clips. This also meant putting the stock off to the side. While it worked, it was heavy, awkward and not terribly reliable.
* '''Type 96 Light Machinegun''': to address the problems with the Type 11, the Japanese replaced it with a different model that used a top-loading magazine, based on the Czech ZB VZ 26 (which also inspired the Bren Gun).
* '''Type 99 Light Machine Gun''': Visually similar to the Type 96 but chambered in the same 7.7x58mm ammo as the Type 99 Arisaka. Other than that, it and the Type 96 [[Imperial Guard|were one of the few LMGs with a bayonet mount.]]

=== Anti-Tank Infantry Weapons ===
* '''Type 4 70 mm AT rocket launcher''': Introduced in 1944 as an answer to the American Bazooka. Fairly basic but still a reusable item, a rocket was slotted into the front and set up by a simple percussion lock. A few thousand of these were made before the war ended and they saw only limited use. Never the less the PLA copied them for their first generation of RPGs.
* '''Lunge Mine''': Somehow the Japanese figured out a way to banzai charge tanks of all things. Little more than a shape charge attached to a pole, the idea was that a soldier would wait in ambush for an enemy tank to get close enough; the attacker would then charge at the tank’s side armor and strike it with the lunge mine to set it off; of course, at that range the explosion would more than likely kill or maim the user, if they weren’t already killed from trying to charge a friggin tank.
* '''Type 97 Automatic Cannon''': The Japanese version of the AT-rifle concept. Hilarious because they considered it a cannon and less of an AT-Rifle. [[Awesome|Shot 20mm ammo]]. So did the Finnish AT-rifles, but it is more hilarious because Japan also built Yamato(more on that below). What was unique is that they ended up getting used on some Japanese aircraft as a form of cannon. Overall not a terrible weapon, but quickly became outdated and was abandoned after 1200 total units due to the sheer complexity, but it certainly puts a massive dent in the "Japan just built shitty stuff" myth.

=== Misc ===
* '''Type 89 and Type 10 Grenade dischargers, aka "Knee Mortars"''': A nifty little Japanese design, these are basically miniature man-portable mortars. Lightweight (around 5 kg) and nominally requiring only a single soldier to use , they were capable of chucking a hand grenade up to 200 meters away, which came in pretty handy in the often close and cramped firefights in the jungle. As an amusing sidenote, the name 'Knee Mortar' comes from a mistranslation of a Japanese manual on how to use the thing: American soldiers first believed they were supposed to be braced against one's leg due to the curved butt-plate (which in reality is to make it easier to rest against tree roots or rough ground). While the error was quickly discovered (it was obvious from the recoil that bracing it on your leg would break your femur at best), the name stuck.
* '''Guntō''': Bargain Basement knock-off katanas. It was a regulation that all IJA officers were required to carry a sword and to that end a large number of these swords were made. Since Japan was raising a fuck-huge army under the militarists, they dispensed with the old arts of Sword Production and instead produced lots of blades quickly with modern milling/grinding/quenching techniques. For this reason, such 'modern' blades aren't considered traditional swords in Japan and they can be confiscated by the government for recycling. Real traditional katanas were a very rare sight on the battlefields of WWII, for even those officers that came from an old samurai family and possessed a genuine one often left the priceless family heirloom at home and carried a fancied-up Guntō (that would do the job in a pinch anyway) in battle. A lot of the surviving ones today are trophies collected by US Army soldiers and Marines ([[lulz|and often misidentified for genuine katanas by the uninformed]]).
* '''Bayonets''': The IJA stuck bayonets on ''everything''. Not just rifles, but also their LMGs and SMGs. Bayonet charge had fallen out of favor with everyone else, and bayonets were only a last ditch weapon for everyone else, but bayonet fighting was still a mainstay of the IJA and had some success on the Chinese front. Against the Americans, however, who possessed significantly more automatic weapons, it had been rendered a useless tactic.

== Artillery and AT guns ==

== Vehicles ==

=== Tanks ===
The Tank Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Army was not that great. See, our dear friends had experimented with the tank concept pretty early on, but much like the rest of the world took the wrong lessons from Spain. They also failed to integrate the weapons into divisions properly. The skirmishes with the Soviet Union and visits to Germany in the late 30s pretty much proved that the concept worked different than they thought, and they tried to catch up. However, tanks take a lot of money, labour and equipment to produce and a lot of fuel to operate. In China, 1930s era tanks were still quite effective and if war happened with the United States the fleet and air force obvious took priority. So most of the "good" tanks ended up in the homeland because of the logistics strain, and the far cheaper Type 95 Ha-go/Kyugo were far more common by virtue of being lighter and thus less of a bother to send to shitty undeveloped island #273.

Imperial Japanese Tanks were given a designation based on the Imperial Japanese Calendar, which starts counting at 660 BCE.

*'''Type 95 Ha-go/Kyugo''': Named Ha-go after the manufacturer but called the Kyugo by troops, either name is correct, but Ha-go is more familiar to western audiences. Since Japan like most powers considered the idea of the Infantry and Cruiser tank concepts, the 95 was considered as an alternative to the land battleship concept. The 95 could keep up speed and were vastly faster, making them better than contemporary infantry tanks. They ever were cheaper to make, and were cushioned against heat and bumps...[[Grimdark|by asbestos.]] In Burma, one was captured and is still at Bovington, and a contemporary report indicated that there were design elements that were quite good, especially the bogie wheel suspension. However, the 37mm cannon became rapidly outdated, and the machine guns were only ok, being fed by hoppers and not belts, and the commander was cramped and somewhat overwhelmed. Perhaps worst of all was that crews were strongly frowned upon for adding on armor or boxes for ammo, though logs to allow troops to sit on the back were considered acceptable. The turret could also could be [[FAIL|jammed with a knife]], and there are allegations that American .30-06 ammo was able to penetrate the side armor, though these reports are not fully substantiated.
* '''Type 97 Chi-Ha''': The main medium tank of the IJA during WWII. It weighed 14.3 tonnes, a 127kW engine, armor 8-26mm thick and was armed with a 57 mm main gun and a couple of machine guns. When it was introduced in 1936 the Chi-Ha was pretty good and it was often effective in china. When the US came around, not so much.
** '''Type 97 ShinHōtō Chi-Ha''': A Chi-Ha with more armor and a higher velocity 47mm gun better for anti-tank work introduced in 1942.
* '''Type 1 Chi-He''': Another upgrade on the Chi-Ha with some more armor and a better engine. About 170 were made and they stayed on the Home Islands.
* '''Type 3 Chi-Nu''': Another upgrade on the Chi-Ha, with up to 50mm of armor and a 75mm anti-tank gun. It was designed to take out Shermans in 1943 and put into production in 1944 when Japan was getting a serious ass whoopin by US Bombers. The most advance Japanese Tank to see even limited mass production. Stayed in the Home Islands.
* '''Type 4 Chi-To''': Not an update on the Chi-Ha, but an entirely new vehicle from the ground up. A couple of Prototype vehicles which were broadly speaking in the T-34/Sherman's ballpark. The Cheeto's legacy is mostly preserved by World of Tanks and Alternate History nerds.
* '''Type 5 Chi-Ri''': A single prototype that, had it been completed would have been more heavily armored than a Sherman with a new powerful 75mm gun, plus a 37mm secondary cannon. If the [[M6 Heavy Tank|M6's]] trials are any indication the 37mm would've been superfluous, though it isn't like Japan had access the Aberdeen proving grounds or anything so how would they have known?

=== Halftracks and armored cars ===

== Ships ==
Of all the Axis powers, the Empire of Japan had the strongest navy. Germany had to rebuild its fleet effectively from scratch and Italy... [[Fascist Italian Equipment|was Italy]]. Japan, on the other hand, was THE major ally of Great Britain in East Asia after World War 1 and was "permitted" to expand its fleet up to two-thirds the tonnage of Great Britain and the United States through the 1920s and '30s. As might be expected, the Japanese resented the tonnage restrictions and basically tried to circumvent or design their way around them until they eventually repudiated the naval treaties entirely. What they never really understood was that the naval treaties tied one hand behind the backs of their naval rivals, as both Great Britain and obviously the United States were able to outproduce Japan's shipbuilding industry pretty handily in World War II. The Japanese Navy was extremely effective through 1943, and it was really only after devastating losses at the Battle of Midway, where 2/3rds of their primary carrier fleet were sunk, that they began their decline. <s>[[Weeaboo|Good luck trying to look up a Japanese ship name without being bombarded by pictures of anime girls though.]]</s>

=== Aircraft Carriers ===
Japan entered World War II with the most experienced sea aviation force in the world, with a total of 8 carriers constructed before 1940. They soon learned the lessons America and Britain eventually did, that larger carriers are better and that superimposed decks (multiple flight decks stacked like cake tiers) are a bad idea. However, they failed to anticipate the scale of their losses and were unable to complete replacement carrier construction for much of the war. One achievement that highlights this failure was the construction of the carrier ''Shinano,'' a converted ''Yamato''-class battleship and thus the largest aircraft carrier built during the war. Because she was a conversion of a half-finished battleship hull that had been hastily chosen after the disaster of Midway, the IJN couldn't actually convert her to a full fleet carrier and settled for making one of their most expensive assets (in terms of time, money, and resources invested) into a support carrier that would focus on repairing and resupplying the air arms of full fleet carriers that, by the time she was launched in 1944, had all been annihilated. She was sunk less than two months after being launched by an American submarine, and had only ever carried 50 '''Ohka''' flying bombs.

* '''''Akagi''''': An ''Amagi''-class battlecruiser hull converted to an aircraft carrier after Japan entered into the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty. Akagi was completed with '''three''' flight decks, from which planes could theoretically be launched simultaneously. In practice, the bottom and top decks worked well while the middle flight deck was less than 1/10th the length of the top flight deck and was flanked by two twin 8" gun turrets that prevented the deck's use in battle. The lowest flight deck was also small, being only 1/3rd the length of the uppermost flight deck; both the middle and lower decks, as a result, could only be used for small, light, and increasingly obsolete aircraft. The remaining armament consisted of six casemate 8" guns, as well as six 4.7" guns for anti-ship and anti-aircraft duty. Much like the USS ''Langley'', this early and pioneering design lacked an island for command and control arrangements. Eventually the ship was completely refit to the iconic aircraft carrier design recognized today: all major gun turrets were removed, the top flight deck was extended, and the lower decks were eliminated in favor of increased hanger space for more aircraft. An island bridge allowed for better aircraft coordination and fire control, especially for the new 25mm autocannons that were fitted to the ship. These improvements did have a negative effect on her speed, though she could now theoretically launch 80 aircraft, most of which would be A6M Zeroes.
**''Akagi'' carried a weakness common to most early aircraft carriers: Usually made from converted warships built for entirely different purposes, they possessed the armor specifications of a battleship against direct and indirect gunfire, but none against air attack. Their decks were especially vulnerable to enemy aerial attacks, with the American ''Lexington''-class carriers also sharing this characteristic. ''Akagi'' was sunk by aerial divebombs during the Battle of Midway in 1942, partly because tired ordnance crews left explosives strewn throughout the open hangar and most of her planes were being pumped full of aviation fuel in preparation for a strike against the American carriers.
* '''Sōryū'''

=== Battleships ===
* '''Yamato class''': The single largest series of battleships ever built at 263 meters, and the wet dream of any naval enthusiast, weeaboo, and big gun fan everywhere. But before we get excited, we need to make it clear that no, the Yamato was objectively the wrong ship in the wrong war. The age of the battleship, with rare exception for shore bombardment, was pretty much over. Worse of all Japan was somewhat aware of this, with foremost officers like Yamamoto outright saying Naval airpower is the future, and was proven largely correct as the only engagement Yamato or Musashi(Shinano was another ship of the line that was converted partway through construction) ever participated in where they actually got to fire their weapons at anyone turned out to be Leyte gulf in 1944, and both were sunk by angry American dive and torpedo bombers by 1945.
** With that boring disclaimer out of the way, let's get to the meat and potatoes. The thing had nine 480mm cannons and was housed in a turret that [[Awesome|weighed as much as a small destroyer.]] On top of that, each turret could fire AA shells that would explode after a time fuse delay, and the few test photographs we have show they were a sight to behold, though US pilots reported not being too afraid of them, and they tended to damage the barrels. The class had an incredible number of medium and light weapons that could be brought to bear against lighter targets and fighters as well, with as many as 100 of these lighter weapons, though the 25mm autocannons were reportedly some of the worst in the war. There were some additional 13mm machine guns thrown on the bridge for good measure, but this was more like a desperate afterthought than a concerted effort to add additional AA protection. Still, a Yamato could still cause a small Titan or knight to sweat a little, because those main armaments are utterly insane.
** Yamato had absolutely insane 410-650mm armor in some places, making her an armored behemoth. However, it is important to remember that [[Katanas are Underpowered in d20|Japanese steel historically sucks.]] The torpedo defense system was hoped to protect the ships, but was often troublesome and thus never really as effective as hoped. A prime example of this is when an American submarine hit Yamato and forced her to return to port for repairs, and the outright sinking of the Shinano by the USS Archerfish, a Yamato modified to be a "carrier support vessel".
** However all this really doesn't matter, because the Americans threw out the Iowa-class in 1943 and they were objectively the best battleships ever built. While the guns were smaller and far less armored, they were faster, technologically more advanced with radar systems to help gun tracking and targeting, and built with far better quality steel and AA guns. While one ''could'' be autistic and debate the dozens of variables about which one would cause the other to succeed, the reality is you can't just compare the two in a vacuum in a ship on ship engagement. But given that the Iowas tended to have better speed and range, at a strategic level you could argue that the Iowas win purely on those factors because oceans tend to be big so range is kinda important. There's also the fact that there were twice as many Iowas as there were Yamatos, so [[M4 Sherman|any comparison should be taking this into account]].

* '''Nagato class''':

* '''Kongo class''':

=== Cruisers ===
The cruisers of the IJN were heavily influenced by the Battle of Port Arthur, with a preference for torpedo armed cruisers. Even within the IJN this policy was not without its detractors due to the risks of torpedo tactics. In practice, these torpedoes rarely contributed and were a frequent liability, with several cruisers being taken out of action due to their torpedoes being hit. Otherwise, Japan's cruiser force was generally well built but lacked modern fire control.

*'''Amagi Class''': A battlecruiser class designed to capitalize on the new naval wartime technologies that emerged with the introduction of Dreadnought class warships and other post-WWI innovations. The intended armament was to be 5 twin 400mm cannons as the primary armaments, 16 5.5" casemate cannons, six 4.6" flak cannons, and 8 24" torpedo tubes. The armor was reduced to increase speed, and the overall purpose was to use them as cost effective battleships in support of [[Stellaris|Destroyer swarms]]. We will never really know how they performed, though two of the class were slated to be converted into Aircraft carriers, though only one would ever be completed as an aircraft carrier, the above mentioned Akagi.

=== Destroyers ===

Japanese destroyer construction after the Washington Naval Treaty emphasized fleet destroyers as a way to bulk out their navy while appearing to conform to the treaty. A series of classes were developed in the 20's and 30's but all were produced in small batches of no more than a couple dozen each. The IJN never settled on a common design for mass production like the USN did with the Fletcher.

== Airplanes ==
Contrary to American propaganda, poorly made history documentaries, or just outright misunderstanding Japanese air doctrine, Japanese aviation was pretty much some of the finest on earth at the time. See, when your empire is built upon island chains, naval and air supremacy kinda become very important. As a result Japanese aircraft, while very poorly armored (especially by American standards) and not quite as heavily armed compared to the allies, were nevertheless actually very well built, just in a very different way

===Fighters===
* '''Mitsubishi A5M "Claude"''': The less iconic, but still just as important naval aviation fighter designed by the same man who would develop the Zero: Jiro Horikoshi. Claudes were exclusively Navy aircraft that far excelled navy expectations, and helped end biplanes in IJN aviation service on Aircraft carriers. Early armament was two humble mgs, but variants after the A5M1a incorporated two 20mm Oerlikon cannons. Claudes were largely replaced by the Zero by the time the war broke out, but some were used in Kamikaze attacks in the latter part of the war. The design was so good that the IJA took a break from the dick slapping contest they had with the Navy to consider it, though they felt the maneuverability was lacking. Japanese aviators disliked closed cockpit designs on the A5M because they hindered visibility, so for the most part the aircraft were open topped, with all the positives and negatives that implied.
* '''Mitsubishi A6M "Zero"''': The Zero was the iconic aircraft of the war for Japan and served in every theatre, though it was first and foremost a Navy Fighter. It was designed so that a well trained pilot could fully utilize the aircraft and outmatch most anything in the world at the time. It was even good enough that the basic airframe (made from high-end alumuminum alloys and with revolutionary structures such as smoothed rivets) could be recycled for carrier use with minor modifications. This did have the downside of sometimes removing radios for increased range or due to them just not working, and by late war America and Britain started topping them with better armored and easier to fly designs. However, bear in mind that the Zero could achieve ranges of 1,870 km and was still able to accept upgrades until the end of the war, a feat not shared by every fighter.

===Bombers===
*'''Nakajima B5N "Kate"'''
*'''Mitsubishi G4M "Betty"'''

== 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]], 'Okha' 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.''']]
* '''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.

== Other ==

[[Category:History]]