Historic Japaness WW2 Sidearm

[Nick72]

My dad was a Vet of WW2 and talked a Japaness Officers sidearm that had a front adjusts sight. He said it was light weight and had a good range. Does anyone know this gun?
Thanks,
Nick.

[39flathead]

One of the Nambu pistols would be my guess.

Possibly a pistol from another Axis country? Broomhandle Mauser?

[CHEMICAL]

If it's the one I'm thinking of it's the Nambu as 39Flat stated. Probably model 94.They recently had one on one of the pawn shows and explained how dangerous they were. They had an exposed sear on the side of the pistol and when accidentally bumped the gun would fire. A lot of soldiers were injured or killed due to friendly fire in this manner.

[Nick72]

I don't think this is the one. A little more background. My dad was a Navy Corpsman in WW2 in the Pacific and did landing with the marines . He was issues two weapons; one was M1 which he told me was worthless and almost kill him, because it had little to no stopping power again the Japanese. The other was a .45, which was great. While in the Philippines he took a sidearm from a dead Japanese Officer. He told me it used the same ammo as a US Sidearm and that it had a front sight that could be adjusted from a side round knob. He told me it was smaller and ligter then a .45 . He told it was extremely reliable and he used it as his duty sidearm while he was in the field. Further, he told me it had little to no recoil.

Any thought what it might be?

Thanks,
Nick.

[39flathead]

Honestly?
No idea then, not enough information.

You are saying it was a Jap pistol but it used the same cartridge as a US one?
If so, the only thing I can possibly think of would be something in .380 that came from another AXIS power.

The US IIRC did have some Colt Hammerless pistols in .380 around, IIRC, Patton carried one.
(.32's were around in WW1)

There were some Browning Hi-Powers floating around on both sides, in 9mm, I suppose one could have made it to a Jap officer.
9mm wasn't an official US round in WW2 though.

There were also some S&W .38's around.


The wheel front sight has me baffled, S&W used one on some of their revolvers, but this was way after WW2.
If I were to start looking, I'd look for information on Mauser C96 pistols, some came fitted with shoulder stocks so I could see one having an adjustable front sight.
The Chinese made some in 9mm and there were some made in .45acp but I honestly don't know if this was during the war or before so can't say if there could have been one in Japan during that time.


Sorry, don't know what else to tell you.

[bearman]

w/ the round rear toggle, more than likely a NAMBU. heard they were pretty, but not reliable, and under powered, bullet energy wise. stated to read up on an article about them. they had 3 types. regular down to an actual Baby Nambu.

[cephas]

Some info on Nambu's: http://members.shaw.ca/tju/jhg.htm

From site: " The Japanese used three different rounds in their principal service handguns, all of them uniquely Japanese: 8mm Nambu, 9mm revolver and 7mm Nambu. There is information about these calibers in Cartridges of the World, Revised 5th Edition by Frank C. Barnes, editor (DBI Books, Northbrook, Illinois, 1985) on pages 173 (7mm Nambu) and 182 (8mm Nambu). Oddly, the book does not include 9mm Japanese revolver, though almost ten times as many guns were made for it as the 7mm Nambu cartridge. The Japanese made several other foreign calibres, especially .32 ACP. These were principally for pistols privately purchased by officers, although a few Japanese-made guns were also chambered for rounds like .25 ACP or .32 ACP."

Here's one next to a Ruger Mark:

[39flathead]

w/ the round rear toggle, more than likely a NAMBU. heard they were pretty, but not reliable, and under powered, bullet energy wise. stated to read up on an article about them. they had 3 types. regular down to an actual Baby Nambu.

He said the front sight could be adjusted using a knob:

He told me it used the same ammo as a US Sidearm and that it had a front sight that could be adjusted from a side round knob.

He also said it used the same ammo as a US firearm.


Honestly, I think his grandfather might have been remembering something from so long ago that was not entirely true. Not to say he was lying by any means, just that he might have been confused at his age.
No disrespect intended.

[Mity2]

Japanese never considered side arms important. Their side arms were Samurai swords..
They didn't realized that until much later that the side arms were vital to their effort. You can tell that by Japanese never issued sidearms to officers during the WWII(Most front line soldiers were never issued with one, eventho you see it in some movies where Japanese soldiers shooting side arms against on coming enemy in Flag of our fathers. They did issue sidearms to pilots, and some rear end supply personels where full size rifle would have been impractical), and that they were required to purchase their own side arm.
Most cash strapped NCO's bought domestic pistols(Nambu's mostly - Chambered in 8mm Nambu, and some are 7mm nambu, and 9mmx22R ). But NCO and officers generally bought more reliable europian pistols.

Here are the list of Japanese side arms that Japaense supplied ammos for that I know of.

-Smith & Wesson Model 3(mostly for homeland security. left over from modernazation of Japanese military in late 1800. Not sure what caliber, but most likely in 38-44)
-Type 26 revolver(9mmx22R)
-Nambu Type14(and its varient - Mostly Papa Nambu in 8mm Nambu and baby nambu in 7mm Nambu)
-Nambu Type94(8mm Nambu)
-Hamada Type2(Type 1 and Type 2. I've never seen a picture, but told it look like Browning M1910 and Browning HiPower had an affair, and produced a bastard child. only about 150 are made.But some say that its less, since there are only 2 digits serial is known to exist today. These were chambered in 32ACP. Accepted to Army in late 1943)
-Sugiura type pistol (pretty much a copy of M1903)
-Type "Mo" pistol(Mauser C96 in 7.63×25. Japanese pronouce word "Mauser" more like "Mou-zeru", hence the "Mo" designation. They had shit load of these when they took over China. Japanese also imported many Bergmann MP18.1 in 1920's for use in their Imperial Japanese Navy Land Forces, which was chambered in 7.63x25. So it also made sense in logistical point of view. I'm thinking Mauser C96 is what most likely OP is tallking about).
-Colt M1903
-Browning M1910(Both 1910 and 1903 were very popular among officers, eventho they were never officially accepted in to Japanese military regardless of their popularity. Infact, so populer that the Japanese produced 32ACP under contract.)


Most of these Europian guns(and some US guns) were imported prior to start of wars. I guess there were cases where officer would keep what ever they found in the field - such as 1911, Webley Revolver, and Enfield No. 2 Mk I Revolver, but ammo were never produced by japanese.