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l A magazine safety was also added. There weresome minor changes in the locking block and inthe length of the firing pin, which became shorter.Late production used a grooved bolt-grasping sur-face, rather than checkered. The month and year ofmanufacture for Type 14s are easy to peg. Twonumbers will be found on the right of the receiver,preceded by an ideogram and separated by a peri-od. On the pistol illustrated the numbered stamp-ing is “19.3”. The first number is code for the yearof manufacture. Simply add 19 to 1925 (first year

of the Showa era of Hirohito), and in this case, youwill get 1944. The second number is the month ofmanufacture, and the “3” indicates March. Hence,this pistol was made in March 1944. Many civilianfactories and government arsenals in Japan pro-duced the pistol.

The ideograms that designate the place ofmanufacture are hard to decipher, and require adetailed and lengthy chart. After consulting sucha chart, I determined that the pistol illustratedwas made at the Nagoya Arsenal Torimatsu facto-ry. Type 14 manufacture continued until the endof the war in 1945, with an estimated 200,000 ofall varieties being made. Unfortunately, most spe-cific production records were lost during the war.

The Type 14 Nambu was standard issue forJapanese non-commissioned officers.

Officers had to purchase theirown pistols and could choosefrom anything available. Most

chose the Nambu to ensure areadily available supply ofammunition. Each Nambuwas issued with a leather or

stiff rubberized fabric holster.Nambus were not known for

reliability, and firing pin break-age among the earlier Type 14swith the longer pin was common.

Accordingly, there was space for aspare firing pin as well as a cleaning

rod/tool and spare magazine in each holstermade. Also, weak magazine springs could causeproblems. The manual safety was awkward andrequired two hands to engage. The 8mm cartridgewas underpowered compared to the .45 ACP, the7.62mm Tokarev and the 9mm Luger. Still, intests by the U.S. Army following WWII, theNambu bested the 1911, the P.38 and theTokarev pistols in accuracy. Its trigger is actual-ly quite good compared to most service pis-tols. It points naturally, having the same gripangle as the famed Luger. There is consider-able evidence that Bill Ruger borrowedthe principle of a reciprocating bolt with-in a tubular receiver to use on his firstdesign, the Ruger Standard .22 pistol.

While never an entirely successfulpistol, the Type 14 Nambu was thebest the Japanese had during WorldWar II. Large numbers were broughtback to the United States by return-ing GIs. It was an original designthat reflected the considerable talent

of General Nambu. He is often regard-ed as “the Japanese John Browning,” hav-

ing designed other firearms used by Japan dur-ing the war. This pistol’s central feature, the boltwithin a tubular receiver, lives on today in allRuger .22 semiauto pistols. The Nambu isregarded as a definite classic, and a “must have”for any WWII firearms collection. Values inrecent years have escalated dramatically as moreabout this unique handgun becomes knownthrough books and articles.

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a reciprocating tubular receiver first design, the ard .22 pistol.””

July 10 Blue Press Section 2 5/10/10 1:05 PM Page 41