Ideas for Pistols to add to the Japanese army

Hi, today I would like to suggest a new pistol for pacific campaign.

  • French “Ruby” pistol


Japanese Navy pilot with a Ruby pistol (maybe ASTRA 100)

Caliber : .32acp
Magazine : 7/9/12 rounds

Because the sales price were low, low paid Japanese army officers liked them.
There were several variations in ammunition capacity, and the large 12-round magazine was also favored.

  • Mauser C96 pistol

800px-Imitation_M1896_used_by_Autumn_Harvest_Uprising_forces

Caliber : 7.63×25mm mauser
Magazine : 10 rounds

It was popular in East Asia due to its thin grip and unique shape, and not only the Chinese army but also the Japanese army officer liked to carry this gun.

  • BH Royal MM31

Caliber : 7.63×25mm mauser
Magazine : 10/20 rounds

A copy of the C96 by the Spanish company “BH”.
This pistol has full auto fire and is available in both 10/20 detachable and 10/20 fixed magazine models.

  • ASTRA 903

Caliber : 7.63×25mm mauser
Magazine : 20 rounds

A copy of the C96 with a detachable 20-round magazine by ASTRA.
This pistol was also able to shoot in full auto.

Rare Weapon

  • Hino Komuro Pistol

HinoKomuro01

Caliber : .32acp
Magazine : 8 rounds

An automatic pistol developed by Kumazo Hino, inspired by the Mannlicher M1894. There was a possibility that it would malfunction and become fully automatic fire due to the blow forward and the striker firing.
Attempts were made during World War II to modernize this pistol by improving the firing pin, but they were probably unsuccessful.

  • Type 26 pistol

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2002-10-2_Revolver,_Japanese,_Type_26.jpg

Caliber : 9mm Type 26
Magazine : 6 rounds

Although it was designed in the era of black powder, it had a small caliber of 9mm so it was extremely low-power.

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I don’t know how prevalent the C96 and Bestiguis were among Japanese troops, but they were very, very prominent among the Chinese.

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Super detailed post. Sadly I feel the Japanese are very overlooked in this game. No avatars, no medals, and having to level so high to be competitive against baseline American troops. Hopefully that will change in the future and maybe even one of the team will see your post

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Yeah, we need such more historic handguns for Japanese!!
Now we have very rare Hamada-pistols (“Type 1” and “Type 2”), but in spite of it we don’t have popular Spanish, Belgian, American and German pistols…
Especially, FN Browning M1910 was one of the most popular pistol in Japanese military so it is necessary part of them in WW2 game but most of games forgot it. :frowning:

If they stick to use Japanese domestics productions, Nambu Small Pistol and Army-Type Pistol would be great.

Some interesting documents:

https://www.jacar.archives.go.jp/das/image/C12120596500
Army buys handguns from retired officers or their families.
(probably to reduce the number of handguns on the city)
According to it, list of items they purchase were below. (If they want to sell other include revolvers, they have to ask to Arms Administration Headquarters about it)
The fact that such a table was produced indicates that specifically named pistols were very common.

Considering calibers, pistols listed in this sheet would be as follows:

  • Colt M1903 Picket hammerless (コルト拳銃, “Colt Pistol”)
  • FN Browning M1910 (ブローニング拳銃, “Browning Pistol”)
  • Mauser M1914 (マウザー中型拳銃, “Mauser Medium Pistol”)

I’m not sure which Astra (Ruby) pistol were popular in Japan but as Nakamuragp says there were several variants.

For example, in the pistol ammunition request from IJA 19th Division, 7.65mm bullets are about a quarter of the total.
https://www.jacar.archives.go.jp/das/image/C01000673600


Also, ratios of each pistols were below but this will be vary in each units.

  • 14th Year Type pistol: 30%
  • Type 94 pistol: 27%
  • Browning M1910: 15%
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At least, Japanese adopted it as 「モ」式大型拳銃" (Type “Mo” Large Pistol / Mauser Large Pistol).
According to IJA document about adoption of it, they were purchased from Germany, captured Manchuria Incident or captured at Sino-Japanese War.

JACAR | About adoption of Type Chi 7.9mm LMG and Type Mo Large Pistol, by IJA Technical HQ in 1940

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