Japanese Arisaka Rifle with Bayonet
name: label: licensee
content: Arisaka, Nariakira
notes: label: Description
content: Physical Description
label: Description
content: Japanese Arisaka Type 38 rifle, 6.5 mm with forged-steel bayonet; partially eradicated chrysanthemum stamp on receiver.
label: Description
content: General History
label: Description
content: The Japanese Arisaka Type 38 rifles were all turn bolt-operated, with five-round non-detachable staggered row box magazines. They were loaded with five-round stripper clips, a flat metal piece holding a five-round stack, which was inserted at the top of the magazine, the rounds thumbed down into position, and the metal piece sent flying when the bolt was closed. This rifle was named for Colonel Nariakira Arisaka. During the 1890s he headed a commission charged with developing a new rifle to replace earlier models such as the Murata. The Arisaka rifles were designated with the year of the current emperor's reign. Thus, the Type 38 rifle was designed in the thirty-eighth year of the reign of Emperor Meiji which would have been 1905. The rifle was stamped on the receiver with a sixteen-petal chrysanthemum, the symbol of the Japanese emperor. The chrysanthemum stamp showed the rifle was manufactured for the Imperial Japanese Army and therefore belonged to the emperor. As a face-saving gesture, Japanese soldiers who surrendered after the war made an attempt to grind the symbol off their rifles.
place: label: Place Made
content: Japan
topic: label: Subject
content: Firearms
label: related event
content: World War II
label: related event
content: The Great Depression and World War II
setName: label: See more items in
content: Military and Society: Armed Forces History, Military
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content: Military
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content: ThinkFinity
label: Exhibition
content: Price of Freedom
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: U.S. Department of Defense. Department of the Army. Ordnance Field Service
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: AF.59478M
label: catalog number
content: 59478M
label: accession number
content: 214893
objectType: label: Object Name
content: rifle
label: Other Terms
content: rifle; Firearms; Center Fire; 65 Mm; Rifled; 06; 6A; 05
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: steel (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 6 1/4 in x 66 in x 4 in; 15.875 cm x 167.64 cm x 10.16 cm