Featuring specially commissioned color artwork and drawing upon a
range of sources, this engaging study casts new light on origins, combat
record, and reputation of the Arisaka bolt-action rifles used by
Japanese troops during the world wars.
Featuring full-color artwork as well as archive and close-up
photographs, this is the absorbing story of the rifles arming Imperial
Japan's forces, from the trenches of Mudken in 1905 to the beaches of
Okinawa 40 years later.
Entering service in 1897, the Arisaka family of bolt-action rifles armed
Japanese troops and others through two world wars and many other
conflicts, including the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05.
Issued in long and short versions - the latter for cavalry and
specialists - the Type 30 was the first main Arisaka model, arming
Imperial Japan's forces during the Russo-Japanese War, though after the
war it was refined into the Type 38, which would still be in use in
1945. The main Arisaka rifle of World War II though was the Type 99.
Lighter and more rugged than the US M1903 Springfield rifle it would
face in the initial battles in the Pacific, it was produced in four main
variants, including a sniping model and a take-down parachutist's rifle.