Arisaka Type 38

In 1914, Imperial Russia - desperate for rifles to arm its mobilizing millions - negotiated massive emergency purchases of Arisaka Type 38s from its recent enemy, the very nation that had humiliated it at Tsushima and Port Arthur less than a decade earlier. Over 800,000 Japanese rifles flowed into Russian service, and by 1917 entire divisions on the Northern Front were armed with 6.5mm Arisakas. The chrysanthemum crest - the sixteen-petal Mum marking each rifle as the Emperor's property - was so sacred that surrendered Type 38s had the emblem ground off before being handed to Allied occupation troops in 1945, producing the defaced receivers that fill surplus racks to this day.

The Type 38 took its name from the 38th year of the Meiji era (1905). It was a refinement of the earlier Type 30 (Arisaka) and Type 35 rifles, incorporating lessons learned from the Russo-Japanese War. The action is a modified Mauser design with a two-piece cock-on-closing bolt and a distinctive large circular safety knob on the rear of the bolt that must be pushed in and rotated to engage - a design intended for use with gloved hands in cold weather. The sliding sheet-steel dust cover, fitted over the bolt and receiver, rattled audibly during operation and was often discarded by troops in the field. Wartime 'last-ditch' Type 38s produced in 1944-1945 show progressively crude finishing, simplified sights, and lower-quality wood. After Japan's surrender in 1945, many captured Type 38s had the 16-petal chrysanthemum crest (kiku no gomon) defaced by grinding or scrubbing - a symbolic protection of the Emperor's dignity demanded before the rifles left Japanese hands. Rifles surrendered directly by Imperial forces typically have intact Mums, while those handed over to Allied occupation troops almost universally have the crest defaced.