Arisaka info please

[NOTABIKER]

I know very little about how Arisaka rifles ended up in the USA except for GI bring backs. Is their a time when importers had large stocks of them and sold them to our public ?. After WW 2 their probably were quite a few left over in China,Korea and other countries occupied by the Japaneses in the war. I just always thought they were destroyed after the war, especially in Japan. I have done some research on the internet but did not find much. In the 4 years i have been in this hobby i never saw them advertised in shot gun news etc. My guess is they were brought and sold here in the late 60s & 70s
Any experts chime in please..

[Bobby Ricigliano]

I know very little about how Arisaka rifles ended up in the USA except for GI bring backs. Is their a time when importers had large stocks of them and sold them to our public ?. After WW 2 their probably were quite a few left over in China,Korea and other countries occupied by the Japaneses in the war. I just always thought they were destroyed after the war, especially in Japan. I have done some research on the internet but did not find much. In the 4 years i have been in this hobby i never saw them advertised in shot gun news etc. My guess is they were brought and sold here in the late 60s & 70s
Any experts chime in please..

I am far from being an expert, but I don't think Arisakas were ever imported commercially. I think most or all of the existing Arisakas were bringbacks. Since U.S. troops continued to occupy Japan after the war, bringbacks could have trickled in for decades.

I have never seen an Arisaka with an import mark either. All of this is just my own personal WAG.

[SMarquez]

They were imported. My FIL and my wifes uncle used to buy them for $3, barrels of them in Western Auto and such. They bought them to build up the actions. I have 2 of those guns in .257 Roberts. My BIL has one in .300 Savage.

[6mmintl]

The largest number were bring backs from war zones and occupation troops right after the cessation of hostilities in Japan, actually pallets of riles were on docks for veterans to take with them when leaving Japan. the rest were destroyed in place, turned over to various countries as war reparations and many dumped in the ocean.

I read it on the internet (and here) so it must be true.

[beerman]

They were imported after WW2 , just not in the numbers that the Mausers & Enfields were.Imported rifles had the Mums ground as well.

[NOTABIKER]

how long have they been stamping C&Rs with import markings ?. What are the odds of not having import marks and still be imported and sold by a dealer.

[Noonanda]

There is a huge supply available for import in Japan, you just need to recover them from the bottom of Tokyo Bay where they were dumped.

I wonder if the imported ones were from post Korean War South Korea. They converted about 136,000 type 99's to fire the .30-06 cartridge and were issued to the South Korean military, maybe these were imported in the 60's before the 1968 GCA.

https://wwiiafterwwii.wordpress.com/2015/06/19/wwii-japanese-weapons-in-the-korean-war/

[I Swan]

The vast majority were bringbacks but I'm not sure how many were imported commercially between 1945-1968 when import marks weren't required that is an interesting question. From 1968-1986 most type of surplus firearms were not allowed to be imported.

From 1986 on import marks were required. A small amount of Arisakas were imported since 1986 from China some were converted to 7.62x39.

[stephenjd]

Lot were imported from China in the 90's

[NOTABIKER]

I bet most GI bring back rifles from all wars were not battlefield pick ups. who had time in battle to think of a trophy.I bet a lot of support troops that came up from the rear after a battle got most of them. Still they were fresh from a battle or hopefully a enemy retreat.

[I Swan]

With Arisakas if they have a mum it most likely to be a battlefield pickup.

[aghauler]

There is a huge supply available for import in Japan, you just need to recover them from the bottom of Tokyo Bay where they were dumped.

https://wwiiafterwwii.wordpress.com/...he-korean-war/

And about 4000 gals of Evap-o-Rust!

[aghauler]

I bet most GI bring back rifles from all wars were not battlefield pick ups. who had time in battle to think of a trophy.I bet a lot of support troops that came up from the rear after a battle got most of them. Still they were fresh from a battle or hopefully a enemy retreat.

In the case of my "gifted" Type 99 my wifes uncle was an engineer in Japan for the Occupation after fighting through the PI. They were rebuilding the infrastructure that had been bombed out. His unit was billeted on a former Japanese Army post and one day they were told to "line up and walk through that Barracks" inside were crates of new/unissued Arisakas, with ground Mums, the bolts were in boxes on one side and the rifles in crates on the other. Instructions were take one rifle and one bolt and keep moving that's you War Trophy! He almost got the matching bolt as the one he picked up is only a few digits ( 6 ) off from the rifle. No one even thought about matching numbers in those days.

[Discogodfather]

I think the first year import marks where mandatory was 1968.

Arisaka's can be mysterious in their origins. You can have battlefield pickups, post-war bringbacks, etc. The mum or chrysanthemum or "Mon" of the Emperor could be on any rifle, some where ground off, others struck through, etc. Defacing of the mum had to do with an agreement that MacArthur set up with the Japanese government regarding Japanese Military property.

Millions of guns where not destroyed and the process was shoddy between 1945-1949. There where also millions of guns on Japan's #1 front (including millions of Japanese soldiers) in China at the end of the war. They had no agreement so rifles with mum's could have come from that Theater. Very little is really known about the fate of those rifles.

They are fantastic undervalued rifles, well built and with tons of attention to detail.

[NOTABIKER]

My type 99 looked like somebody smacked it into a tree at the top & bottem hand guard . It had to be repeated 2 or 3 times to do the damage that was done to it. I have seen others in the same condition. Does anybody know if some surrendering soldiers defaced the rifles over just grinding the mum.
THANKS