[1] As Japan's priority lay in her navy, the Imperial Army was given a back seat to new land warfare designs, as well as the raw material (steel) needed to build them.

[2] After World War I, these weapons were considered largely obsolete and efforts were made to replace it with the Type 4 15 cm howitzer.

[3] The Type 38 150mm Howitzer was a conventional design for its day, complete with crew seats on the gun shield and a solid box trail.

The Type 38 150mm field gun (improved) was capable of firing High-explosive, shrapnel, incendiary, smoke and illumination and gas shells.

However, whenever the Japanese did face Chinese heavy artillery typically armed with German 15 cm sFH 18 heavy artillery guns, e.g. in the Battles of Wuhan and Changsha, Japanese gun crews found themselves both badly outranged and hopelessly outgunned and the Type 38 was withdrawn from front-line service.