Type 99 rifle

The Type 99 rifle or Type 99 short rifle was a bolt-action rifle of the Arisaka design used by the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. During the Second Sino-Japanese War in the 1930s, the Japanese soon found that the 7.7mm cartridge being fired by their Type 92 heavy machine gun in China was superior to the 6.5×50mm cartridge of the Type 38 rifle. This necessitated the development of a new weapon to replace the outclassed Type 38, and finally standardize on a single rifle cartridge. The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) developed the Type 99 based on the Type 38 rifle but with a caliber of 7.7mm. The Type 99 was produced at nine different arsenals. Seven arsenals were located in Japan, with the other two located at Mukden in Manchukuo and Jinsen in Korea. The IJA had intended to completely replace the Type 38 with the Type 99 by the end of the war. However, the outbreak of the Pacific War never allowed the army to completely replace the Type 38 and so the IJA used both rifles extensively during the war. As the war progressed, more and more cost saving steps were introduced in order to speed up production. Late war rifles are often called "last ditch" or "substitute standard" due to their crudeness of finish. They are generally as crude as the 1945 dated Mauser K98k of Germany, or worse. The Type 99 was produced in four versions, the regular issue Type 99 short rifle, the Type 99 long rifle (a limited production variant), the take-down Type 2 paratroop rifle, and the Type 99 sniper rifle. The standard rifle also came with a wire monopod and an anti-aircraft sighting device. The Type 99 was the first mass-produced infantry rifle to have a chrome lined bore to ease cleaning. All of these features were abandoned by mid-war. During the Korean War, approximately 126,500 short and 6,650 long Type 99 rifles were re-chambered under American supervision at the Tokyo arsenal to fire the standard .30-06 Springfield cartridge. Apparently intended for the South Korean "gendarmerie", few rifles appear to have been issued at the end of the war in 1953.