Japanese Forces

Type 5 Garand

NCY-152

The Japanese military had been experimenting with semiauto service rifles for some time prior to World War II (most countries were, to some extent). There was some development of a Japanese Pedersen rifle, among others. The advent of the war cut most serious development efforts, as manufacturing capacity was needed to build the weapons that were already well-proven and in general use. However, there was an attempt to copy the US M1 Garand rifle, which resulted in the Japanese Type 4 (often called the Type 5) rifle. It was a pretty thorough copy of the M1, but with a few distinctly Japanese touches, including the Arisaka-style sling swivels, front sight, and rear leaf sight (instead of the aperture used on the Garand). Instead of en-bloc clips, the Japanese opted for a 10-round internal magazine (in 7.7×58 semi-rim caliber), fed by standard 5-round stripper clips. Parts for about 200 of these rifles were made by mid 1945, though only a fraction of those were actually assembled into working guns.