POTD: Bad or Blown Out of Proportion – Type 94 Nambu
Sam.S 05.18.23
Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a gun that has been greatly blown out of proportion in overall firearm mythology. This ugly duckling is the Type 94 Nambu. For those of you who may not know this gun has been called a last-ditch gun or a suicide pistol. Both claims and their extended adages are untrue. Starting with the easy one, this gun came onto the scene in 1934 (well before World War Two) so it was by no means a last-ditch gun despite its rather unimpressive appearance. As far as the “suicide” claim goes this comes from the fact that it has an exposed sear on the left side of the gun. If it is loaded and cocked and the right amount of applied pressure is put on that sear it will in fact go off. There is many a legend of Japanese soldiers faking a surrender by handing their sidearm (in an unassuming, theoretically unthreatening fashion with the gun sideways) to an American soldier before pressing the sear and discharging the pistol. Though this may have happened it is highly unlikely it happened often for many reasons. Mainly American soldiers quickly became aware of this sort of trickery and any enemy soldier presenting themselves with any sort of object was likely to be put down (pardon the morbidity). These guns were also claimed to go off when holstered or pocketed which is only possible if the safety is not engaged on a cocked gun. Believe it or not these guns were actually well-liked and considered more reliable than the older Type 14 Nambu.
“Manufacturer: JapaneseModel: Type 94Type: PistolGauge: 8 mm NambuBarrel: 3 1/2 inch roundFinish: blueGrip: mahogany”
Lot 1922: Japanese Type 94 Pistol 8 mm Nambu – World War II Japanese Nagoya Type 94 Semi-Automatic Pistol. (n.d.-m). Rock Island Auction Company. photograph. Retrieved May 17, 2023, from https://www.rockislandauction.com/detail/1024/1922/japanese-type-94-pistol-8-mm-nambu.
