I found this on an Asian site. My translator is letting me down here, but…
Japanese Rotten Guns: Pederson’s spiritual heir - Takeo Mizuno
Comrade Lao Ding
](腾讯网)
2025-05-30 15:41Creator in the military field
+concern
In 1932, the selection of semi-automatic rifles in the United States was basically over, and the Garand rifle defeated the Pederson rifle and received the number “M1 rifle”. However, Pedersen did not bet on the US military family. In 1930, he went to England and authorized the Vickers-Armstrong Company to produce Pedersen rifles for testing by the British government and to sell them to potential customers in other countries.
Pederson rifle produced by Vickers Armstrong Company
Among them, Vickers-Armstrong Company once took a Pedersen rifle to the technical headquarters in Japan. Pedersen used smaller rifle rounds and achieved excellent results. After seeing it, Colonel Tong Jin Yi (later the designer of the Type 99 rifle) thought to himself: “If you want to engage in localized automatic rifles, there is no better reference object than this.” ”
In 1930, the Tokyo Artillery Factory began to conduct prototype research on automatic rifles, but it was stagnant for a long time. Finally, it was because of the premonition that the Pacific War was about to begin, the technical headquarters began to organize related work. Tongjin Yoshiichi issued performance requirements for automatic rifles and launched competitive prototypes as soon as possible.
At that time, the competitors were as follows:
(1). The First Research Institute of the Army Technical Headquarters. The host was Major General Yoshikawa Yoshiyoshi, and Colonel Tongjin was responsible for specific affairs.
(2). Kokura Arsenal. Major General Tomojun Yoshida, who was transferred from the Tokyo Arsenal to Kokura, presided over the presidency and Takeo Mizuno was in charge of specific affairs.
(3). Japan Special Steel Co., Ltd. Technician Masaya Kawamura presided over the research.
(4). Gas electric Hitachi (later Hitachi Weapons). It was played by Major General Naito, who was previously a rangefinder technician.
(5). Central industry. The consultant was Lieutenant General Rinjiro Nanbu, and Tokunaga Technician was in charge.
A prototype automatic rifle of the Central Industry
Gaselectric Hitachi’s prototype automatic rifle Type B, plagiarized the ZH-29 captured from the Northeast
As a result of the automatic rifle competition prototype, the southern type of Chuo Kogyo was rated as the best. However, after analyzing various conditions, Gimoto decided to use a modified Pedersen rifle mixed with the Ichiken and Kokura cases and continued to bid.
Ichiken and Ogura’s prototype automatic rifle
At the same time, Rinjiro Nanbu may have thought that the Japanese army would not be equipped with semi-automatic rifles at all, so he voluntarily withdrew from the competition and went to his Type 96 light machine gun. Kawamura of Japanese special steel also chose a Pederson-style toggle structure, but changed it to a rigid locking and automatic gas conduction. In the end, the plans of Rite and Kokura are very good, indistinguishable, and meet the installation standards.
Rittle’s adaptive rifle Type C (late model)
As a result, due to the outbreak of the Lugou Bridge Incident, the Japanese army really continued to choose the existing more productive Type 38 single-shot rifle in order to equip the mobilized large forces, just as Linjiro in the south thought. Takeo Mizuno’s Pederson-style “phantom automatic rifle” was aborted.
Ogura’s prototype automatic rifle A
After that, Takeo Mizuno did not give up his dream of an automatic rifle. In April 1941, Takeo Mizuno, who belonged to the Kokura Arsenal Research Institute, completed a semi-automatic rifle. The caliber was changed from the original .276 inches to the same 7.7mm as the Type 99 rifle.
The magazine part was replaced with a tubular magazine. This magazine is often used on sport rifles, invented by von Mannlicia of Steyr in Austria, and is characterized by a larger magazine capacity. After adapting the design, the Japanese army’s 5-shot bridge clip can be used.
The automatic principle part is also divided into several types. The Type II, which is most faithful to Pederson’s original design, still uses the toggle delayed locking principle. That is, through the recoil fired by the bullet, it unlocks the lock by itself and completes the recoil re-entry. However, because it is dangerous to unlock too early, it is necessary to delay bolt unlocking through components such as cams. In addition, Type I is the automatic principle of barrel recoil, and Type III is a gas guide type, and the other mechanisms are the same.
However, the automatic rifle, which spent a lot of money and time developing, was still scrapped by the Ministry of the Army before the standard was formulated, despite the review by the Technical Headquarters. Compared with elite soldierism, the person in charge of the army still agrees with the tactics of the sea of people: “If you have the leisure to engage in semi-automatic rifles, it is better to make even one more single-shot rifle and send it to the front line.” As a result, the Japanese army was hardly equipped with any semi-automatic rifles in World War II.
Even so, Mizuno still did not give up on his Pederson dream. After the defeat, due to the Korean War and other factors, the Self-Defense Forces were established under the guidance of the US military. By the end of the 50s, the Self-Defense Forces finally began to think about replacing them with new automatic rifles. Toyohe contacted the technique and the copper and gold transferred to Japanese steel, and prepared to develop an automatic rifle (later the ** automatic rifle). Among them, Mizuno began to strongly recommend the automatic principle of semi-rigid locking. After completing the basic concept, Toyokazu convened a meeting of relevant personnel at the Tokyo office. After exchanging opinions at the meeting, it was concluded that Pedersen’s style should be stopped and should focus on the air conduction again.
Yoshisada Shizuno (left) and Takeo Mizuno (right) participating in the development of the Type 64 rifle
However, even so, Mizuno pulled Kenzo Iwashita (one of the designers of the Type 2 paratrooper rifle) to go alone, and started the Pederson-style delayed recoil that had been abandoned at the meeting, and the prototype gun was named the R2 type. Although the structure is relatively simple, the test results show that the principle of R2 is only applicable to weak ammunition at the level of pistol bullets, and when using high-pressure rifle bullets, the problem of overburned sticky shells cannot be ruled out (in fact, G3 can be solved by simply slotting the chamber). As a result, the Japanese Pedersen rifle finally came to an end.
R2 type prototype automatic rifle
Overall, Pederson’s toggle lock does not have any outstanding advantages. Whether rigid or delayed lockout. In the development of automatic weapons, the toggle type has been proven to be a relatively backward and eliminated principle. In the 20s and 30s, when automatic rifle research was not yet mature, Pedersen’s experiment with the toggle type was understandable. In fact, Pedersen in the United States and Japan was still a usable rifle at that time. During World War II, the design of automatic rifles gradually matured, and the shooting idea changed to air conduction, rotary locking and other methods, and then used toggle locking, which was slightly backward. But by the end of the 50s, when famous guns such as AK-47 and AR10 appeared, Takeo Mizuno was still thinking about Pederson’s principle. It can only be said that he loved Pederson’s principle deeply, and if John Pederson, who had been buried in the ground at that time, had known about it, he would probably have been moved to tears.
John Pederson and Pedersen installation
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Yeah, I thought it was a Pederson variant. 
In the first picture, there are two 小仓 Arsenal semi-automatic rifles and two 一研 Arsenal semi-automatic rifles.
一研 Arsenal
小仓 Arsenal
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