Having an improved ability of disassembly and a different safety latch is really novel, and the fact that the entire weapon was made with a made in China quality, means it's actually not improved from proper Nambu pistols actually, at least in the sense of shooting it. If you are all about a safety latch position and wanting to take it apart all the time, sure it's improved, but for actual shooting it's inferior.
ordinarily I'd agree, but when desperation is a pretty good way to motivate people to find ways to streamline design. Then you have the benefit of hindsight and combat experience to help trim down some of the unnecessary frills, not to mention you're a lot more willing to accept "good enough" as opposed to a level of craftsmanship you'd present to a buyer.
@@magoshighlands4074they are. Most people shoot them with the wrong ammunition. The fact they still work at all is a testament just to how underrated and incredible they are. Keep in mind these were ww1 pistols and they are STILL working. Guarantee you even a 1911 wouldn’t work with the wrong ammo
Taisho and Showa are both reign names of individual emperors. The Taisho emperor's personal name was Yoshihito and the Showa emperor's personal name was Hirohito. They both belong to the same dynasty; the Yamato dynasty. The type number is based on the year of the reign of the emperor. Type 38 was commissioned on the 38th year of the Taisho emperor's reign and the Type 19 was commissioned on the 19th year of his son the Showa emperor's reign. The other calendar system used is called koki, or imperial year. The imperial year dates back to the mythical founding of the Yamato dynasty by emperor Jimmu in 660 BC. So the Type 99 LMG was commissioned in koki 2599 (AD 1939) which was also Showa 14, the year the Type 14 Nambu was commissioned. Our current AD 2018 is koki 2678 and Heisei 30. The current Heisei emperor (Akihito) will abdicate in April 2019, so next year will mark the first year of whatever crown prince Naruhito picks as his reign name.
The fact that the Yamato Dynasty have _always been the ruling dynasty_ of Japan since forever, when every other empire/kingdom throughout history was regularly and frequently usurped, is still very surprising to me. They're the opposite of China and the Mandate of Heaven. XD
The Taisho emperor didn't live very long, he was sickly and was kept away from the public due to his apparent eccentricities. But he was apparently a loving husband and by precedent alone abolished the practice of the emperor taking concubines.
Almost entirely true, except that under the current system, the Emperor actually has no say in the reign name. An ad hoc commission put together by the Prime Minister's Office with the Cabinet's final approval selects the name, with the Crown Prince/ascendant Emperor never even being consulted. To put a very complex state of affairs very simply, the reason that the Yamato Dynasty was never replaced during shifts in power was because the Imperial family, for the bulk of Japanese history, has been a mere figurehead to the real power. Control of the country shifted many times. The Imperial family's supposed direct descent from Amaterasu via the mythical Emperor Jimmu means that removing the Imperial family would have amounted to a religious violation of the highest order, and so, any faction seeking to hold power needed to achieve the appearance of Imperial warrant to do so. Generally, this was far more convenient than overturning the entire basis of the social order, and still allowed de facto rule of the country by whichever regency or Shogunate possessed the monopoly of force or political influence at the time. A number of Emperors and Princes rebelled against this state of affairs at various times, and the Imperial family held true power for a few, relatively brief periods. Emperors Go-Sanjo, Go-Daigo, and Go-Toba were the most notable resistors.
Narrowly edging out Tom Ford on _Fifth Gear_ describing the Bangle-era BMW 7 series as looking like it was created by "gibbons with access to welding equipment".
Japan is a great illustration of why WW2 was an industrial war. There's nothing wrong with a lot of their designs - it's just that they can't produce enough to a high standard to sustain the conflict.
@@beavisbutt-headson3223 Two japanes soldiers showing off their weapons: Soldier 1: Look at this Type 14, pretty cool, right? Soldier 2: Yes, but I got a Type 19 original Nambunambunambu
@@2k7duramax Either that or a WWII era Soviet Tula Arsenal Star & Broad Arrow stamp with the year "1789" underneath it on one side, and a Mauser banner and "BREVETBREVETBREVET" over a British Broad Arrow stamp on the other.
Fun fact : the Ruger Mk1 standard is based off the Nambu pistol ..the most successful .22 cal semi automatic pistol of all time …once the Nambu is striped down you can see the similarities….great video
That shirt needs to feature a cartoon version of Gun Jesus/Ian in a WWII Japanese uniform, supervising Norbert and Daggett from the Nickelodeon cartoon "The Angry Beavers", as they're using angle grinders to cut Nambu parts... and have the caption (in "The Angry Beavers" logo font) that reads "The New & Improved Type 19 Pistol! Made with pride in Manchukuo by Angry Beavers With Angle Grinders!"
You really are gun jesus Ian. I really curious about that nambu pistol, the only thing i know about it was improved version of the type 14, now you just disassemble the gun and explained the gun to me. I really apreciated your explanation thank you
Type 38 is Year 38 of Meiji era, 1868-1911, NOT Taisho (1912-1924.) Showa was 1925... past WWII. Koki ( Japan Imperial Era) 2400= 1940. Showa was used to actually date Nambu Pistols ( as in 15.3= March 1940.). Showa19 is 1944, but as a Model/ Type Descriptor it should be (××04) as was the Naval Garand (Type 4). None so inscrutable as the Japanese ( and Chinese). DocAV
Correction: Taisho period only went up to 15 years (1912-1926), the Type 38 Arisaka is named because it entered Japanese military trial service in 1905 which would be the 38th year of the Meiji period. Wouldn't make sense to call it "dynasty" either as the period name is based on the reign of the emperor, which is hereditary and there are no imperial dynasties in Japan.
Does anyone know what percentage of the imperial Japanese army was tied up in China during WWII? Its common knowledge that 2/3s of German military fought on the eastern front but I can't seem to find anything about the IJA. Thanks.
@@taolandin Andrew is correct to my knowledge. I'm too lazy to double check, and go grab my old WWII class textbook from a few years ago (it's on a shelf clear across the room). But yeah, China tied up a substantially large percentage of the IJA's divisions.
Knowing China of those pistols are still there, they are in use. Last time I was in China two security personnel there were equipped with very worn UZI sub-machine guns and their side arms were break action .32 revolvers. When it comes to secondary troops and security, China equips them with whatever junk they can find.
Those UZI submachine guns were from the 80s minimum due to import ban for China, and also China has a humongous arsenal of SKS, AKs and Type 81 rifles all of them have been in service for a regular army several times the size of the currrent PLA plus militia(aka every single village had an arsenals which were destroyed in the 90s during the anti gun program). Also the security personal could be from a private service instead of public which are given standard PLA sub guns or shotguns (SWAT and PAP gets qbz-03).
Damn, I really want it. I like how much improved it is over my Type 14, even if its finish is much worse. It looks like a combat pistol now, as opposed to the Type 14, which seems like it's only good for Bull's Eye matches at 25 yds.
> The international firearms collecting community doesn't really have very good communication or ties to China Time to send Ian to China on a diplomatic mission........
Diplomatic Mission? No. That's more for the Republic of Texas's Global Ambassador - Chuck Norris... who'd probably start World War III by roundhouse kicking some Chinese politician. Gun Jesus would be going over there to preach the light of the Gospel of Our Lord according to Browning... and in turn would be bringing back to us the Gospel of Our Lord according to NORINCO. Everybody wins in that Gun Jesus scenario, while everyone loses when you send the diplomat (a.k.a. Walker Texas Ranger himself).
So was there a technical package transferred from Japan by the military to set up the factory or was an original gun reverse engineered locally to start production ?
I was wondering this, if maybe this second poorly made version is actually the original attempt at production with reverse engineering and then later they got factory specs/gear and started making serious ones with the improvements carried over.
Can't wait for when you post a video on the type 13, type 19, and type 30 half a Tty Osaka half Mauser rifles! I have a bolt on one of my Mausers from one of these but I don't know the exact history/ID of it.
Also, was that firing pin made differently than the Type 14's? It looked like it was machined from a single block of steel, as opposed to the 14's pin fitted to a striker.
For some reason I like the looks of these and similar style pistols like the Lahti L-35. Also have you ever seen a Swedish Military HUSQVARNA 1887 Nagant Revolver?
Looks like the takedown lever on the type 19 might rotate backwards under the recoil impact from the barrel. Thus unexpectedly field stripping the gun.
I owned a 1943-manufactured Type 14 pistol. It was a very well-made gun and a fine shooter. The 180-degree safety is the same as that of the 1934 Beretta. I'd like to have a new Type 19 in .380.
The Japanese script 北 文 does NOT mean China or Chinese. The characters (or Kanji) is the word KUN (north) and MON (several meanings but in this case it means "design" or "pattern"). So the correct translation is Northern Type 19
May be on batch was ment for officers the other for soldiers? Or one for japanese troops and second tier - for some kind of chinese collaborators units (dont know if there were ones like theese though)
I'm a little mystified about how that takedown lever/slide stop works. It seems to me that when the slide hits it that it would cause the external lever to snap down violently and hit your trigger finger.
@@ForgottenWeapons ok, figured not, always throws me for a loop when you have videos like this that seem like they'd follow up on another. Love the show.
Sir, I will have you know that British food is among the finest in the world when prepared and cooked properly ! Unfortunately, the vast majority of it isn't. Hence our love of curry. 😉
@@Kevin-mx1vi Check your history; curry🍛 IS British food, the popular styles are thoroughly domestic and we've been eating it for at least twice as long as we've been eating fish'n'chips🐟🍟
When you're hand making guns, especially more than one, assembly numbers are an absolute necessity. Look on the inside of the lock of an old flintlock. Only then they used Roman numerals cause they used files to make the numbers.
Siret. I post on. Français. J aurais aucunes confiance a cette arme. On dirait nos pistolet a flèche de l époque. Enfin voilà. J adoré ta chaîne et je te suis depuis quelques années 😉 Cool que tu es venu en Europe. Je suis belge vivant en France. En Alsace
Any chance the first vs second quality thing might reflect labor conditions in the factories? The Japanese were using a lot of forced and semi-forced labor in Manchuria at the time. Maybe the second-quality guns were built by poorly trained, unwilling workers?
Half that and the other half they weren't allowed to manufacture said products until after 1942 when things went badly for the Japanese. For most of the history of the China-under-Japan's rule, their armed forces are limited to infantry using their old Nationalist weapons systems and hand-me-downs from the Japanese.
Wow! Very amazing video Ian. I wonder though, did Imperial Japan ever issue sub-machine guns to its troops in mass quantities, during the second-Sino Japanese war, or the Pacific theater? Thank you!!
Mass quantities, I don't think so... when japan started issuing SMGs to its troops it was already in the late 40s and at that point their industrial capabilities weren't really enough to mass produce much, and certainly not with very high quality!
R -0 ah, i see. Thank you for the reply. I always wondered if it was too, their doctrine that imperial Japan was too stubborn to produce new armament for their infantry. It would make sense that they would make trade-offs with other branches of their military once their resources started to diminish.
Historically they didn’t adopt a standard issue SMG until late in the war (1943 I believe, may be wrong though). The older generations of generals shrugged the technology off as not useful due to them still preaching the old ways of rifle and bayonet being superior, regardless of how wrong it was, that was the mindset of the IJA/IJN general officers at the time. However, IJN paratroopers requested them, and were originally issued Steyr MP-34’s bought from Austria, before Japan finally decided to sit down and design the Type 100 SMG. Not many were made obviously, considering their end user was not a large organization within the IJN.
It's not the dynasty name, it's the name of the emperor, kinda. (They have two names for some reason, one for the date and also for use after they're dead, and one for when they're alive.) So like, 2 Heisei means it's the 2nd year of Akihito's reign. Showa, meanwhile, means this was made under Hirohito.
Judging from what I'm hearing here were the parts of each gun not interchangeable? I might have missed something in the descriptions but looking at the crude nature of the pistol the parts might not be interchangeable with each other.
Could it be that the intro has gotten a bit longer recently? I always checked my headphones on the recent videos because I thought they might be off or broken. 😂
Japanese use of Manchurian steel manufacturing resources included the production of Koa Issen blades, probably the finest semi mass-produced army sword ever made.
It's the Yamato Dynasty, the Japanese Dynasty, the family that claims the Emperor-ship, has never changed by their standards (their system makes that easier to claim). Showa and Taisho refer to individual emperors, not dynasties.
Would be nice to know, and remember, the engineer or engineers who came up with the improvements, but then that's the thing about Asian histories - they just get lost or remain mysteries.
Discounting the fact that China has one of, if not, the longest constinuous histories in the world. In regards to the improvements to this Nambu, you have to remember that this was done late in the war when things weren't going so well for Japan and so record keeping may not have been one of their highest priorities at the time and I don't know that the Japanese were as meticulous record keepers as, say, the Germans were. It's also likely that as the Japanese were retreating out of or getting ready to surrender in China they probably burned a lot of docmuents in order to keep them from getting into Chinese and/or Allied hands.
Given it is made under Japanese rule, no sane Japanese records keeper is going to write down the designer's name, on the same note given this gun is made by "Traitorous Hanjin" collaborators working for the Japanese, no sane Chinese (Nationalist or otherwise) is going to keep said name around in their records no keep said guy alive for that matter.
