What make and model is that 4×4 in the movie “The Geisha”?
Question by Chaco-Yekke Downyonder: What make and model is that 4×4 in the movie “The Geisha”?
Toward the end of the movie “The Geisha”, you see army troups moving into the city to evacuate people, and there is one car which interests me especially; it’s visible briefly from the front, and it seems to be an open four-seater 4×4 with integrated headlights in the front fenders and a curved grill with vertical air entry slots.
What is that? Does anybody know? Is it a Japanese vehicle, or is it British?
Best answer:
Answer by Heinz H
Tahini:
I had no intent of boring you with yet another answer, like “look it is Heinz H again”. But, since no answers yet, here my 15 cents worth of comments:
I do NOT think the car you saw was a SMALL Japanese 4 x4 military vehicle. Maybe British, maybe 1960-ties Japanese. The Jeep and small 4×4 were unique to the US. — In fact, all large all-wheel drive trucks were uniquely American. (Russia got them by way of Siberia, all the way to Stalingrad ..)
Here is the “why”:
– before WWII Japan had a VERY small car production.
– ~ 80% were GM and Ford (factories in Japan)
– Datsun the biggest (now NISSAN) built licensed derivatives of Morris and Austin
– cars were used ONLY for inner-city traffic (hilly terrain and NO roads). Passenger cars for a few for “big-shots” only. (Tenno was chauffered in Mercedes)
– normal people traveled overland by train, inner-city by street car, or mostly they walked (plus the famous Japanese bicycles for $ 3- , which incidentally “killed” Rayleigh of the UK in their Far East Markets
– light trucks (~ 1ton) were built by Ford and GM. Many were modified for 10- 15 passenger city “busses”. Since you know the type, clones of the rear-drive “OPEL Blitz” — same as the German Army used at Stalingrad
– the Japanese military had some tracked personnel carriers (armoured)
– but most military transport was by 1. train (remember the Japanese built a railroad in Burma: “Bridge on the River Kwai”), 2. boat, 3. aircraft 4. MARCHING and BICYCLES (remember the Philippine “death marches”)
All this is intriguing, at least to me: Few people realize that the USA was the ONLY country with a pre-war long-distance road system (Route 66 ..). This the result, of the unbelievably successful Goodyear “Golden Eagle Express” (light truck with PNEUMATIC tires) marketing demonstration in the early twenties. Incidentally destroying in its course with that heavy ~ 4 tons truck many of the historical covered bridges in the North West, rebuilt at TAX PAYER’s expense!!
I say all this because the US built the “Trans-America Highway” during WWI all the way to Alaska. And NOT a rail-road. Reason, they feared the Japanese would attack the US by way of Alaska. They knew full well that the Japanese did not have trucks (leave alone trucks’with 4-wheel drive) to move their soldiers. So that was why no railroad was built.
Another significant anecdote in this context: The gasoline rationing in the US in WWII was NOT because of fuel shortage! It was because at beginning of WW II the US did not have enough plantation rubber for the tires of their military vehicles (Indonesia + Philippines then in Japanese hands). With that, the US public had to be prevented from using up their passenger vehicle tires. That message however had to be concealed in the media, so that the Japanese military did not realize the STRATEGIC extent of the US rubber shortage. (Oil we had plenty in Southern California and Texas.)
Sorry for such a long answer, why (apparently) nobody could find a WW II Japanese 4×4.
What do you think? Answer below!
