Mr riffraff I dissagree with you. Most of the jap small arms were serviceable and effective. Their light machinegun guns may look wierd but the T96 & T99s were supurb at least as good as our BAR. The Jap T38 & T99 (barring the last ditch models) with their cromed bores (something we didn't do till the M16) were accurate and at least as easy to use as our Springfields ,the Manlichers of the Dutch The SMLEs of the Brits and the hodpoge of Mausers of the Chinese. The "underpowered" 6.5x52 jap (my uncle told me that before he landed at Guadalcanal they thought that getting shot with a 25 cal wouldn't hurt to bad but they were thinking of the 25 ACP but soon found out the differce) doesen't look to bad when compaired to the 30 carbine the 8mm kurtz or the 7.62 x 39 AK or 5.56 we use now. The 8mm Nambu round is no as powerfull as a 45ACP or 9mm Luger but it is superior or close to the 32ACP or 380 ACP of the PP PPK Sauer CZs M22 Brownings Or Barrettas Or the Webleys and Endfields in 38SW. The Jap was there to fight for his country and he did. The Japs didn't surrender in mass like The Brits in Singapor or Us forces on Batton & Wake or German from Stalingrad Talk to a rare POW survivor and most will say they wouldn't have lost many more of their comrads had they fought on. The reason the Japs took such high casualtys in the islands has much more to do with the facts that they were cut off from supplys by the Navy, and we used overpowering air,artillery and Naval bombardment and useualy outnumbered them on the ground. In the face of these overpowering odds the Japs were able to inflict a horrable price on our men. Sorry to be so long Bob Benson
|