The Japanese Garand— The Type 4 Semi Automatic RifleAgainst American forces armed with semi au

The Japanese Garand— The Type 4 Semi Automatic RifleAgainst American forces armed with semi automatic M1 Garands, Japanese soldiers, armed with bolt action rifles, were at a grave disadvantage.  The Japanese had experiment with some semi automatic designs before, most notably the Pedersen rifle, but combat with the US starkly showed that Japan needed a semi automatic rifle.  Thus towards the end of the war, Japan began research into a semi automatic design.  One was a copy of the US M1 Garand, obviously based off of several captured examples from the battlefield.  Called the Type 4 rifle, it was nearly identical to the M1 Garand and used the exact same gas mechanism.  The most noticeable difference was the box magazine which protruded below the receiver.  This was done to accommodate a ten round magazine, whereas the M1 had an eight round magazine.  Chambered in 7.7x58mm, the magazine was extended to ten rounds so that it could be loaded with two 5 round stripper clips. In addition, the Type 4 used Arisaka style sling swivels, and Arisaka style sights.  Throughout the 1920’s up to the end of World War II, Japan had an extremely difficult time producing automatic systems that fed and fired reliably.  The Type 4 was no exception, especially since it was produced with inferior materials and manufacturing process.  Therefore it suffered seriously from malfunctions.  Later, testing done by the Springfield Armory determined that the Type 4 was a poorly made copy of the M1 Garand that suffered serious reliability problems.  The Type 4 was never issued, with only 250 rifles being manufactured, most never being assembled. -- source link

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