Type 2 Ka-Mi

Type 2 Ka-Mi
A Type 2 Ka-Mi being tested by Australian soldiers in 1945
Place of origin	Empire of Japan
Production history
Designed	1941
No. built	182 to 184
Specifications
Weight	12.5 tons (9.15 tons without flotation pontoons)
Length	7.42 meters (4.80 meters without flotation pontoons)
Width	2.8 meters
Height	2.34 meters
Crew	5
Armor	6–12 mm front
Main armament	Type 1 37 mm gun
Secondary armament	2 × Type 97 7.7 mm machine guns
Engine	Mitsubishi A6120VDe air-cooled inline 6-cylinder diesel 115 hp (84.6 kW)
Suspension	Bell crank
Operational range	170 km (land); 140 km (water)
Speed	37 km/h (land); 10 km/h (water)

The Special Type 2 Launch Ka-Mi (特二式内火艇　カミ, Toku-ni-shiki uchibitei kami^?) was the Imperial Japanese Navy's first amphibious tank. The Type 2 Ka-Mi was based on the Imperial Japanese Army's Type 95 Ha-Go light tank with major modifications.

As early as 1928, the Japanese Army had been developing and testing amphibious tanks and created several experimental models such as the SR-II, the Type 1 Mi-Sha and the Type 92 A-I-Go which either never made it off the drawing board or were produced only as one-off prototypes for concept testing. In 1940, The Navy took over development of amphibious vehicles and two years later came up with the Type 2 Ka-Mi. The Type 2 Ka-Mi was designed for the Navy's Special Naval Landing Forces for the amphibious invasion of Pacific Islands without adequate port facilities, and for various special operations missions. The Type 2 Ka-Mi tanks were organized into "several amphibious tank units". Only 182 to 184 units of the Type 2 Ka-Mi were built, beginning in 1942.

The Type 2 Ka-Mi was based on the army's Type 95 Ha-Go light tank, but with an all-welded hull with rubber seals in place of the riveted armor. It was intended to be water-tight. Large, hollow pontoons made from steel plates were attached to the front glacis plate and rear decking to give the necessary buoyancy. The front pontoon was internally divided into two "symmetrical sections" and each one was divided into three separate watertight compartments to minimize the effects of damage from flooding and shellfire. The pontoons were attached by a system of "small clips" with a release inside the tank, to be engaged once it landed for ground combat operations.