Small Arms and Aircraft Armament of the Japanese Navy

This report covers the research, development and production of the small arms and aircraft armament produced by and for the Japanese Army through the end of World War II.

Much detailed information on specific Japanese weapons, including pistols, rifles, submachine guns, machine guns, automatic cannon, grenade discharger, body armor, as well as spears, swords, bow and arrows, and other crude devices being prepared for use by the general Japanese populace to meet any Allied invasion of the home islands.

This report was reprinted in a small soft cover booklet format in 1971 by an unidentified publisher. Apparently the poor quality of the original printing forced the reprinter to re-type the text, hence this is not an exact copy of the original publication.

All of the many photographs (most illustrating the various weapons) and illustrations were reproduced by the reprinter from the original report.

• Abstract

• Introduction

• Small Arms and Automatic Cannon

  • The Outline of the Procedure of Research and Development of Small Arms and Automatic Cannon

  • The Main Subjects of Research and Development for the Period of 1938 to 1945

• Futsu Proving Ground

  • General

  • Accessibility and Transportation

  • Buildings

  • Facilities

• Automatic Aircraft Armament

  • The Outline of the Procedure of Research of Aircraft Armament

  • The Layout and Equipment of the Mito Gunnery Test Field

  • References

• Kokura Army Arsenal

  • General

  • The Laboratory of the Kokura Army Arsenal

  • Koga Proving Ground

  • Factories of the Kokura Arsenal concerned with the Manufacture of Small Arms and Automatic Weapons

• Nagoya Army Arsenal

  • General

  • The Nagoya Army Arsenal Laboratory

  • The Factories of the Nagoya Army Arsenal

• Chuo Kogyo Kabusbiki Ltd

  • General

  • Laboratory

  • Kokubunji Factory

  • Niikura Factory

• Lt. Gen. Kijiro Nambu

• Army Arsenals Outside Japan

• Appendix No. I: Japanese Statement of Aircraft Gun Development – Col. Okamoto

• Appendix No. II: Documents

• 120 pages

• 71 photos

• 20 drawings

• 7 tables