Type 38 rifleThe Type 38 rifle is a bolt-action service rifle that was used by the Empire of Japan predominantly during the Second Sino-Japanese War and Second World War. The design was adopted by the Imperial Japanese Army in 1905 (the 38th year of the Meiji period, hence "Type 38"). Due to a lack of power in its 6.5×50mmSR Arisaka cartridge, it was partially replaced during the war with the Type 99 rifle, but both rifles saw usage until the end of the war. The Imperial Japanese Army introduced the Type 30 rifle in 1897.
Type 30 bayonetThe Type 30 bayonet was a bayonet designed for the Imperial Japanese Army to be used with the Arisaka Type 30 Rifle and was later used on the Type 38 and Type 99 rifles, Types 96 and 99 light machine guns, and the Type 100 submachine gun. Some 8.4 million were produced, and it remained in front-line use from the Russo-Japanese War to the end of World War II. All Japanese infantrymen were issued with the Type 30, whether they were armed with a rifle or pistol, or even if they were unarmed.
Type 99 rifleThe 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.
Type 30 rifleThe Type 30 rifle Arisaka is a box-fed bolt-action repeating rifle that was the standard infantry rifle of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1897 (the 30th year of the Meiji period, hence "Type 30") to 1905. The Imperial Japanese Army began development of a new rifle in December 1895 to replace the Murata rifle, which had been in use since 1880. The project was handled by the Koishikawa arsenal in Tokyo under the direction of Colonel Arisaka Nariakira, and was the first in a series of rifles which would be used through World War II.
Bolt actionBolt-action is a type of manual firearm action that is operated by directly manipulating the bolt via a bolt handle, which is most commonly placed on the right-hand side of the firearm (as most users are right-handed). Most bolt-action firearms use a rotating bolt design, where the handle must first be rotated upward to unlock the bolt from the receiver, then pulled back to open the breech and allowing any spent cartridge case to be extracted and ejected.
