The following is a list of Japanese military equipment of World War II which includes artillery, vehicles and vessels, and other support equipment of both the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA), and Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) from operations conducted from start of Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 to the end of World War II in 1945. The Empire of Japan forces conducted operations over a variety of geographical areas and climates from the frozen North of China bordering Russia during the Battle of Khalkin Gol (Nomonhan) to the tropical jungles of Indonesia. Japanese military equipment was researched and developed along two separate procurement processes, one for the IJA and one for the IJN. Until 1943, the IJN usually received a greater budget allocation, which allowed for the enormous Yamato-class battleships, advanced aircraft such as the Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" series, and the world's largest submarines. In addition, a higher priority of steel and raw materials was allocated to the IJN for warship construction and airplane construction. It changed to a degree in 1944/45, when the Japanese home islands became increasingly under direct threat, but it was too late. Therefore, during the prior years the Imperial Japanese Army suffered by having a lower budget allocation and being given a lower priority as to raw materials, which eventually affected its use of equipment and tactics in engagements during World War II. A majority of the materials used were cotton, wool, and silk for the fabrics, wood for weapon stocks, leather for ammunition pouches, belts, etc. But by 1943 material shortages caused much of the leather to be switched to cotton straps as a substitute. Swords and bayonets Small arms Pistols (manual and semi-automatic) Automatic pistols and submachine guns Rifles Grenades and grenade launchers Flare guns Recoilless rifles Flamethrowers Machine guns Infantry and dual-purpose machine guns Vehicle and aircraft machine guns Artillery Infantry mortars Type 89 grenade discharger, or 'knee mortar,' firing grenades or 50mm shells. Type 98 50 mm mortar Type 11 70 mm infantry mortar (rifled bore) Type 97 81 mm infantry mortar Type 99 81 mm mortar – fired by hammer strike Type 94 90 mm infantry mortar Type 97 90 mm infantry mortar (simplified version of Type 94 90 mm infantry mortar) Type 2 12 cm mortar – actually heavy 150mm mortar, 90 made and used in 1932 Type 96 150 mm infantry mortar Type 97 150 mm infantry mortar (Type