Leaving the realms of speculation, the Japanese didn’t even place their sacred chrysanthemum on guns they made in occupied factories they controlled, or stamp the Mum on the tens of thousands of VZ-24 and Standard Modell rifles they captured from the Chinese. During the period from 1933 to 1945, the Japanese ran the Mukden arsenal in Manchuria, were they manufactured a very strange rifle that was used by their own forces extensively. There is no known example of this type of rifle that has the Mum on it. The two examples I see in Ball’s book have a strange crest with two circles and a bull’s-eye in it instead of the Mum.
I don’t know the author, nor have I seen the book in question. But one thing I can say about human nature is that it’s almost impossible to keep a good secret if it’s true. Sort of like Ulysses mocking and taunting the blinded Cyclops Polyphemus that he had escaped him, as he rowed back to his ship with his Greek companions.
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