Ronin at War: 4th Sensha Rentai of Colonel Yoshio Tamada

The history of the 4th Sensha Rentai (4th Tank Regiment) of the Japanese Imperial Army starts in 1934 in Manchukuo, with the creation of the 4th Tank Battalion. After the Marco Polo Bridge Incident in 1937, the Kwantung Army upgraded the 4th Tank Battalion into the 4th Tank Regiment on August 1938. Its first commander was Colonel Yoshio Tamada.

Yoshio Tamada was born in September 23rd 1891 in Niigata Prefecture. He graduated from the military academy on 1913 and progressively ascended to First Liuetenant, Captain and finally Major in 1935. He was appointed as instructor on the Army Tank School in 1936 and was promoted to Colonel on July 1938,shortly before being appointed as commander of the 4th Tank Regiment.

Type 95 Ha-Go Light Tank (pinterest).

The 4th Tank Regiment, under Tamada's command, took part in the Nomonhan Incident in May-August 1939 as part of the 1st Tank Corps included into the Yasuoka Detachment, the reinforcement group assign to the Nomonhan battle. The other component of the 1st Tank Corps was Colonel Kiyotake Yoshimaru's 3rd Tank Regiment.

The 4th Tank regiment was a light tank regiment, complementing the medium tanks in the 3rd regiment. In Nomonhan its order of battle was:

35 Type 95 Ha-Go light tanks.
8 Type 89 I-Go medium tanks.
3 Type 94 Tankettes.

Type 89 I-Go Medium Tank (warthunder.com).

On July 3rd 1939 Tamada's 4th Tank Regiment carried a successful night attack against Soviet artillery units, overrunning and destroying a total of 12 artillery positions. Most of the regiment tanks were able to retreat safely after the attack, having a most successful participation in the Nomonhan battle than the 3rd Regiment.

Type 94 tankette (historyofwar.org)

The 4th Tank Regiment took part in the conquest of Luzon (The Philippines) in 1941-1942 under command of Lieutenant Colonel Shoji Kumagai. It also took part in the conquest of Java and Sumatra in 1942, also under command of Kumagai. For this last campaing, the 4th Tank Regiment consisted only on 38 Type 95 Ha-Go light tanks and 5 captured american M3 Stuart Light Tanks. Afterwards, the 4th Tank Regiment remained stationed in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) for the rest of the war.

Japanese Tank column (Type 89) advancing in the Philippines
(The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia).

After Nomonhan, Colonel Tamada was assigned to the Officers Tank School Training Regiment and to the Army Tank Preparatory School. On March 1944 he returned to combat as commanding officer of the 2nd Amphibious Brigade in New Guinea and he was finally appointed as General commanfing officer of the 96th Division from May 1945 until the capitulation of Japan. He died on August 16th 1989 at age 97.

During its existence, the 4th Tank Regiment commanders were: