The Arisaka has become a collectable rifle. Back in the 60’s, and 70’s, the shooting community did not have a high opinion of the Arisaka rifle. This was mainly due to the prejudices of the WWII generation who thought poorly of the quality of Japanese products, and they heard stories of junk "cast iron” Japanese rifles.
Another problem was that the Arisaka was difficult to customize and Norma ammunition cost almost as much as the rifle.
My Dear Old Dad brought back two Arisaka rifles directly from a collection location in the middle of Tokyo bay. This was in Feb 1946. We had required the Japanese to disarm and turn their weapons to Coalition authorities. Both the rifles had ground Mum’s. When I asked him about the grind marks, he said the Japanese had ground off the crests. So I always assumed that crest grinding meant a collected weapon, and that the crests were ground off by the Japanese.
Yesterday I was talking to one of our last Pacific War veterans, Sammy. Sammy is a leading member of our gun club, and he was in the Navy as a communications guy. His job was to relay messages from the ground commanders to the invasion Command ship. He was sent second wave on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. If you know anything about the survival rate of the early waves, you know he was lucky to survive. And he was in the thick of it. Sammy still will not volunteer information about his experiences, except to say the real heroes are still on the islands and that we lost a lot of good men.
I mentioned to Sammy that I saw at the range a Japanese Paratrooper rifle, and that it had an unground crest, and asked him if he had ever seen one. Sammy said he had never seen one, and he said he was glad never to have met a Japanese Paratrooper. As an afterthought, he said, “how did that rifle get in with an unground crest?”.
So I followed up. Sammy had brought back five Arisaka rifles, in his duffle bag. The muzzles just stuck out of the bag, and he tied them together with real heavy rope. He verified, that these were picked up by him on the battlefield, near or directly from dead Japanese. So these were not “turn in rifles”, and they had the crests on them.
However, when Sammy was returning home and came off the ship, everyone went through out processing in San Diego. At outprocessing, the US military authorities went through everyone’s gear, and would not let him bring his rifles in until the crests were ground. I assume there was a bench grinder nearby and those with rifles waited in line to have the crests ground. (I also assume there was a pile of Grenades, tank mines, and mortar shells that were going to EOD!). When I asked Sammy why the US authorities were grinding the crests, he said “we had an agreement with the Japanese”. Without a doubt, that was what he was told.
From all the sources I have read, a ground crest meant a turned in rifle, unground meant a captured rifle. But there must be a large subset of captured rifles which were ground by US authorities on US soil, after the Surrender of Japan.
Another problem was that the Arisaka was difficult to customize and Norma ammunition cost almost as much as the rifle.
My Dear Old Dad brought back two Arisaka rifles directly from a collection location in the middle of Tokyo bay. This was in Feb 1946. We had required the Japanese to disarm and turn their weapons to Coalition authorities. Both the rifles had ground Mum’s. When I asked him about the grind marks, he said the Japanese had ground off the crests. So I always assumed that crest grinding meant a collected weapon, and that the crests were ground off by the Japanese.
Yesterday I was talking to one of our last Pacific War veterans, Sammy. Sammy is a leading member of our gun club, and he was in the Navy as a communications guy. His job was to relay messages from the ground commanders to the invasion Command ship. He was sent second wave on Iwo Jima and Okinawa. If you know anything about the survival rate of the early waves, you know he was lucky to survive. And he was in the thick of it. Sammy still will not volunteer information about his experiences, except to say the real heroes are still on the islands and that we lost a lot of good men.
I mentioned to Sammy that I saw at the range a Japanese Paratrooper rifle, and that it had an unground crest, and asked him if he had ever seen one. Sammy said he had never seen one, and he said he was glad never to have met a Japanese Paratrooper. As an afterthought, he said, “how did that rifle get in with an unground crest?”.
So I followed up. Sammy had brought back five Arisaka rifles, in his duffle bag. The muzzles just stuck out of the bag, and he tied them together with real heavy rope. He verified, that these were picked up by him on the battlefield, near or directly from dead Japanese. So these were not “turn in rifles”, and they had the crests on them.
However, when Sammy was returning home and came off the ship, everyone went through out processing in San Diego. At outprocessing, the US military authorities went through everyone’s gear, and would not let him bring his rifles in until the crests were ground. I assume there was a bench grinder nearby and those with rifles waited in line to have the crests ground. (I also assume there was a pile of Grenades, tank mines, and mortar shells that were going to EOD!). When I asked Sammy why the US authorities were grinding the crests, he said “we had an agreement with the Japanese”. Without a doubt, that was what he was told.
From all the sources I have read, a ground crest meant a turned in rifle, unground meant a captured rifle. But there must be a large subset of captured rifles which were ground by US authorities on US soil, after the Surrender of Japan.
