One additional bit of minutia regarding the 6.5mm Arisaka rifle. While the overwhelming majority of these rifles were indeed produced in Japan, about 60,000 were produced and supplied under contract by several Italian industrial firms in 1937 under the Anti-Comintern pact signed by Germany, Italy and Japan. The outbreak of widespread fighting in China had resulted in the Imperial Japanese Army basically cornering the entire domestic Japanese small arms production output. Meanwhile, the Imperial Japanese Navy suddenly came to realize that they urgently needed weapons to arm their base security units, their Special Naval Landing Force units, etc. Being unable to procure domestically manufactured weapons, the navy cut a deal with Italy, who manufactured and delivered the order.
These rifles are colloquially referred to as the "I"-type Arisaka. The principal means of ID are:
[ 1 ] a totally unmarked receiver – no Chrysanthemum or Japanese arsenal proof marks of any sort to be seen.
[ 2 ] a six character alphanumeric number on the left side of the receiver just peeking over the top of the stock; the first character is a letter that identified the Italian factory (IIRC, six different factories were involved in production) followed by a 5-digit number.
[ 3 ] a Carcano-type upright laterally rotating blade safety at the very back of the bolt instead of the customary Arisaka round rotating palm safety.
According to myth and lore, Japanese units disliked the rifle on patriotic grounds, in that it was of gaijin manufacture and did not bear the imperial Chrysanthemum, so they mostly sat unloved in naval warehouses during the war. No idea if that is true or not, but my father brought home a pristine new example of this rifle, which he "acquired" during a self-guided tour of Yokosuka Naval Arsenal shortly after the Tokyo Bay surrender, at which his ship (USS Lardner DD497) was present.
One comment I have seen claimed within the collectible firearms community is that the Arisaka is the strongest Mauser bolt action military rifle ever produced.
FWIW.
B
goes to sea with the Terrain Mat.
