Did the IJA ever win an equal strength (or nearly) battle?

[Shad]

Things you think about when driving on sales calls - every IJA or IJN SNLF battle I can recall from WW2 was either a JPN surprise attack in overwhelming force or the JPN going to ground and being ground to dust by the Americans in overwhelming force.

The mainland China battles were mostly disproportionate or irregular affairs.

Zhukov beat them badly at KG in a mostly stand-up fight.

Now obviously no one should be apologizing for surprising the enemy - that's great! good job! - but did the IJA ever win any "fair" fights?

My historical knowledge is limited. I know there are friends on this forum who can cite chapter and verse. What do you think?

[JayTownsend]

The closest you will get is Bataan.

Maybe the Malayan Campaign.

[plloyd1010]

That kind of depends on how you define "battle". On the PG scale, yes. If you go much bigger, uhh.... no. There are several regimental sized actions on the north coast of New Guinea and during the Solomon Campaign where the Japanese did quite well. However, if you talk about the battles for (let's say) Buna or Bougainville, no, they lost.

[Sonora]

Several scenarios that are well-balanced are in the Leyte game set.

Don't know how accurate they are, or if they qualify as "fair fights."