Some of them might've been sold to some collectors and museums abroad. The rest, well... I won't be surprised if some dismantled parts are still lying around somewhere in junkyards around Madura island...
Well, we never use Japan WW2 tanks in large numbers during the Indonesian war of Independence. I'd like to imagine that most of the ones we seized from the Japanese Imperial Army and used in the Battle of Surabaya either ended up destroyed or broken down and abandoned. We didn't exactly have much experience operating tanks back then, much less fighting inside one in battle.
So if the army still managed to keep the remaining few Japanese tanks out of the Dutch's hands during those times, their historical values are far higher than anything we got from the Dutch post the recognition of the Indonesian sovereignty in 1949.
Wasn't it Guderian who said that rather than Tiger tanks, he would prefer if the German high command produced more Panzer IV instead? Speaking about Tiger and Pather design, while the interleaved road wheels were effective to provide a smoother ride and a more stable firing platform, they were such a headache to maintain in the fields.
Haha, I don't know if this is true or not but I've read somewhere that in mid-1943, there were talks in the British intelligence HQ to launch an assassination operation to eliminate Hitler. They ended up disapproving the proposal due to the concern that if the operation was successful Germany might have a more competent and sane leader who can prolong the war in their favor.
But even with far limited resources, one must admit that Germany could still design, produce and deploy highly advanced techs which have become the precursors of current military technologies.
Although it's not a tank, I still wonder how on earth that German designers and engineers could come up with something like this:
en.wikipedia.org
True that. While it's a pain in the ass for the maintenance crews, but it's still the best WW2 tank. KwK 36 88mm gun performance was far ahead of anything the allies could deploy when it's started to appear on the frontlines.
I'm truly glad that we choose Germany's Leopard 2 for our first MBT.
See, I just deflected the discussion so that it's still on the right thread