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Japanese contract rifles

ltcdotyltcdoty Member Posts: 4,163 ✭✭✭
edited July 2012 in Ask the Experts
Has anyone ever heard of Japanese military rifles being made under contract by the Italians? We have a Japanese rifle recently come in to our museum that has Japanese and Italian markings.

Comments

  • rufe-snowrufe-snow Member Posts: 18,649 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    They were known as Type I rifles. Were made under contract by various Italian manufacturers for the Japanese Navy in the late 1930's. As I recall the ones I have seen in the past just had a numerical serial numbers, not the other standard markings found on Italian and Japanese military rifles.
  • p3skykingp3skyking Member Posts: 25,750
    edited November -1
    Yeah, there's a lot of them out there. They are Carcanos with a dove-tailed two piece stock like a Type 38, about the same length and are in 6.5 jap. Most have only Italian markings and no mum. Most seem to be in above average condidtion.
    Are your Japanese markings in the wood or metal?
  • FatstratFatstrat Member Posts: 9,147
    edited November -1
    Interesting rifles. As was said, the rank & file soldier in the Japanese Army for some reason preferred the Arisaka. So most Type I rifles were issued to the Navy. Another interesting tid-bit was that they were reportedly shipped via submarine.
  • GrasshopperGrasshopper Member Posts: 16,704 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Both markings make it an interesting piece--nice rifles, another part of history from the war/
  • 11b6r11b6r Member Posts: 16,588 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    There was a tremendous amount of war material shipped to Japan by sub. Jet turbine mfg machinery for aircraft engines- and they located one German U boat a couple of years ago- was sank by a BRITISH sub while both were submerged- a first. It was on its way to Japan with a load of mercury to make primers and detonators. Steel flasks were rusting thru, releasing mercury and contaminating sea in area
  • gruntledgruntled Member Posts: 8,218 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Odder yet was the capture of the U-234 which was on it's way to Japan when the war ended. It's cargo included 560 kg of Uranium Oxide which would make about 1/5th enough to make a nuclear bomb.
    There has been some speculation that the material could have been used to make the atomic bomb that was dropped on Japan. Probably not likely but that would have been quite an irony.
  • machine gun moranmachine gun moran Member Posts: 5,198
    edited November -1
    The Japanese Navy went to the Italians for the rifles because the Japanese Army had a lock on all Arisaka production. They were intended for shipboard use, for equipping landing parties from both warships and merchant vessels. Some ended up being used by the Imperial Marines. Most are found without their cleaning rods, which (because of the design of the rod's locking system) tended to launch themselves upon firing. I had an interesting specimen which came in a custom gun case that was made from a U.S. Navy mailbag, that was obtained from a former sailor who had gotten it from a Commonwealth soldier who had originally gotten it on New Britain. A wending route, LOL.
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