RC Japanese Arms? Where are they?

diopter

diopter

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
82   0   0
Location
Montreal
We all know the Soviet Union invaded Manchuria in 1945 just after the first atom bomb was dropped. There were around 1 million Japanese troops in China and Manchuria at the time.

How come we don't see Russian capture Ariska's, Nambu's and swords?

image_resize.php


225px-Capitulation_of_Japanese_forces.jpg
 
Interesting point! I have never really considered that. I have read however that Russia used Type 38 6.5 Arisakas during WWI. Japanese arms have always interested me, I'm currently looking for a Type 14 Nambu. Perhaps they did capture some and have not released them for sale? Maybe they have already sold them? Maybe they didnt consider them worth the effort?
 
diesel_weasel666 said:
Most of them went to the North Koreans, Viet Cong and others in various 'Proxy Wars'
Click to expand...

Makes sense. I have heard accounts of RC Lugers/K98s etc.. being taken off of VC troops, I suppose the same could have been done Japanese arms. It must be quite the logisitical nightmare to supply ammo for various weapons.
 
There were plenty of Japanese arms in the hands of the Chinese Communists and Nationalists, too.

They weren't necessarily supplied to North Koreans or Viet Minh/Viet Cong by the Soviets.
 
The Russians transported them from North China to Tokyo Bay?

I expect that they would have been turned over to the PRC.
 
Russia did use the Arisaka in the first war. They would have used up or been lost to wastage by wars end and the civil war though.

They did capture a great deal of Japanese, as well as various puppet armies of chinese such as Manchukuo et cetera. Much of that would have been passed on to the factions in the chinese civil war.

Funny though, I can understand not wanting another caliber like the 6.5mm or 7.7mm Arisaka. However they did have a few million RC German built Mausers by this time. I am surprised they did not keep a few Chinese built or Import Mausers that the Japanese or their puppet armies had after picking through the lot?
 
Russia looted Manchuria/Manchukuo of most of it's heavy industry and steel immediately after the war. The PLA and N. Korean forces were heavily supplied with Japanese arms and I suspect that is where most of the captured items went.

The Arisaka, etc were probably of little use to Russia with so much German equipment available.

The Russian's held Manchuria until 1946 before handing it over to China.
 
I believe that the captured Japanese weapons were given to the Chinese communist forces in North China. The Nationalists was supplied arms by the American and British, during WW 2, which Chiang Kai-shek, hoarded for the coming civil war with the Communists
 
I guess another question to ask is what happened to the Japanese troops that were captured by the Russians. We know what happened to the Axis troops and even many Allied troops that had been Axis pows when the Soviets took over the camps. Slave labor camps in Siberia. I really wonder how many bones are secretly buried under the tundra there.
As far as the weaponry in Viet Nam goes, they were invaded so many times by so many different nations just about anything could show up there. Even the French brought in captured weaponry from all over her empire. The same can be said for the whole area.

Many Japanese type 99 rifles were built and converted to 8x57 by China and converted to 30-06 by the US for issue to Korean troops.

The Type 38s are another story. Not much is heard of about them. Maybe relegated to the smelters, just like many other arms not deemed fit for service at the time.
 
there was a pic of a VC using a No1Mk5 to shoot ar "Yankee sky pirates' NO I DId NOT mean a No5Mk1!

What I would really like to know is what happened to all those russian Berdan rifles the Czar bought. Only a few have surfaced and they certainly were not used in WW2. Maybe there is a russian arsenal somewhere with racks of them?
 
The Russians not only bought Berdan rifles but made them at Tula. I have a very nice example of a Berdan II that was made in Tula. Fine piece of workmanship it is as well.

In 1967, Lever arms brought in a couple of hundred Berdan rifles. They were mostly junk. Not from use but from neglect. They were so rusty, that in many cases the bolts couldn't be opened. The bores were plugged with dirt and the stocks had mutitudes of cracks and gouges. They were so bad, they weren't worth cleaning up. I don't know what happened to them. I heard someone in Washington state bought them and made lamps out of them.
 
There were two types of Berdan rifles.

Berdan I was a lifting-block rifle with a striker mechanism. Colt made 15,000, along with the "Gorloff" machine-gun (Gatling with a Russian-language plaque). The Berdan I was not produced in Russia. Closest thing you will find to it in this country will be that little Deutsche-Werke .22, the one they call the "hoodlift"... which happens to be very accurate with low-pressure ammo.

Berdan II was a bolt-action singleshot using the same .42 ammunition. It locked-up like a '71 Mauser, from which it was more-or-less copied. My old boss (SS Oberscharfuhrer) once told me they encountered some in Russia in '41/'42. They were built at Tula and possibly other plants, being the standard rifle from about 1872 to 1891.

Neither one is exactly common in this part of the world.

Wonder where I can buy a LAMP these days?

Hope this helps.
.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom