Blog

Bryant Ridge's analysis: The Type I rifle is a strange hybrid with an interesting history. The Imperial Japanese Army controlled the arsenals that made small arms and got priority in deliveries. When the war in China heated up in 1937, the Imperial Japanese Navy could not get enough domestically-produced rifles from the Army-controlled arsenals, so they went to Europe and looked at foreign sources. They liked German rifles but found them too expensive, so they signed contracts with the Czechs an …