While combat in the European theater often consisted of high-profile armored warfare, the mainly naval nature of the Pacific Theater of Operations (PTO) relegated it to secondary status for both the Allies and the Japanese. While the U.S. Army fielded 16 armored divisions and 70 separate tank battalions during the war, only a third of the battalions and none of the divisions were deployed to the Pacific Theater. The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) deployed only their 1st Tank Division and 2nd Tank Division to the Pacific during the war with the 3rd Tank Division being deployed in Burma, China and Manchukuo's border with the Soviet Union and the 4th Tank Division remaining on the Japanese home islands in preparation for an allied invasion that never came. Armor from both sides mostly operated in jungle terrain that was poorly suited to armored warfare. For this type of terrain, the Japanese and the Allies found light tanks easier to transport and deploy.
