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Interesring footnote of the war, the Imperial Japanese Army bacame interested in the Tiger tank and had Ambassador Hiroshi Oshima and a delegation inspect Tigers at the Henschel plant and evaluate them at the Kummersdorf's testing grounds. One of the main reasons for the interest in a heavy tank, was for homeland defense as the war situation was deteriorating in the Pacific.

Ambassador Oshima even went to the Eastern front in June 1943 to see the Schwere-Panzerabteilung 502 in action. The delegation purchased a complete Tiger, plans, ammunition and upgraded optics and planned to have it disassembled and shipped via submarine.

So the Japanese Tiger was shipped to Bordeaux in February 1944 to be disassembled for shipping. However, before any of that could happen, the Normandy landings intervened and the Japanese Tiger was commandeered by Schwere-Panzerabteilung 101 and eventually disappeared into the fog of war. It's most likely that it was lost at the Falaise Pocket.

Here's a photo of the delegation inspecting a Tiger at Henchel's testing facility.
 
If Tiger tanks had been deployed in Manchuria, the war phase would have been changed certainly.
What Japanese needed for the homeland decisive battle was rather many rifles and grenades for the guerrilla warfare.
My mother once told me that they were going to fight with the bamboo spears
 
The main tank that the USMC and US Army were using throughout the island campaign was the M4 Sherman...just suppose the Ambassador had managed to secure captured T-34s and had them on hand and properly deployed at Okinawa.

It would have been a terrible surprise for the Allies
 

Cool idea, Dave !
I think Japan needed able advisers like you
 
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