Japan - Forgotten Weapons

North China Type 19: The Improved Nambu Pistol

November 15, 2018 Ian McCollum 13

This pistol sold for $8,625 at Rock Island on December 2, 2018. The North China Type 19 pistol (not to be confused with the North China Type 19 rifle) is an improvement on the Type […]

Book Review: Japanese Military Cartridge Handguns 1893-1945

July 29, 2018 Ian McCollum 2

What began as Harry Derby’s “Hand Cannons of Imperial Japan” in 1981 was revised, expanded, and reprinted in collaboration with James Brown in 2003 as “Japanese Military Cartridge Handguns 1893-1945”. That new edition is both […]

Japanese Type 10 Light Grenade Projector (aka Knee Mortar)

March 24, 2018 Ian McCollum 12

In the aftermath of World War One, the Japanese military saw the utility of infantry-portable light grenade launchers instead of rifle grenades, and adopted the Type 10 grenade projector in 1921 (Taisho 10). It went […]

Japanese Contract Steyr-Solothurn S1-100 (aka MP34)

March 13, 2018 Ian McCollum 16

In order to circumvent Versailles Treaty restrictions on arms manufacture, the German Rheinmetall firm purchased a small Swiss company called Solothurn Waffenfabrik in 1929, allowing it to route its business through Switzerland instead of Germany. […]

Japanese Army 35mm Type 10 Flare Pistol

November 19, 2017 Ian McCollum 12

The Japanese Army and Navy of the 1920s and 30s often used quite different equipment, and had a substantial interservice rivalry. Flare guns were one example of this separation, with the services using not just […]

Japan’s Type 90 3-Barreled Naval Flare Pistol

November 14, 2017 Ian McCollum 3

The Japanese Navy used several different types of flare pistols during World War Two (and in the decades before), but the most impressive looking of the bunch was the three-barreled Type 90 (not to be confused […]

A Japanese Officer’s Pistol: the Baby Nambu

April 23, 2017 Ian McCollum 21

The Nambu Automatic Pistol Type B, or “Baby Nambu” as it is known in US collecting circles, is a scaled-down companion to the 1902 “Grandpa” Nambu pistol. It was intended as a private purchase option […]

Type 99 Arisaka Sniper Rifles (Video)

November 29, 2016 Ian McCollum 10

4x Nagoya: https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/69/1441 2.5x Kokura: https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/69/1446 The Japanese Army made significant use of snipers (or in today’s terminology, designated marksmen) as part of its infantry combined arms doctrine, and produced about 22,000 Type 97 sniper […]

Japanese Grandpa Nambu with Stock (Video)

November 15, 2016 Ian McCollum 4

The 1902 “Grandpa” Nambu is one of the first wave of successful military automatic pistols, developed by Kijiro Nambu and his team over the course of 5 years, from 1897 to 1902. It was the […]

Early Pistol Cartridges – What, When & Why?

October 12, 2016 Ian McCollum 38

In a recent discussion with a friend the topic of early automatic pistol cartridges came up. Specifically, looking at the context of which cartridges were actually available at which times, and how this might provide […]