Ten years ago I ran into one of my patients at a shooting range. He was shooting a Japanese Type 99 Arisaka Rifle. I offered to purchase it from him, but he said he was going to give it to his oldest son. Well, last week he came in to my clinic for treatment and offered to sell the rifle to me. He said that his oldest son had a terminal disease and his youngest son didn't want a gun in his house. He is 86 years old and had no family members he could pass it down to. He knew that I had wanted it and knew that I would take care of it. So, he sold it to me. When I picked it up he gave me some pictures that were taken on the day he had gotten the rifle. It was June 21st 1945. He was in the US Army fighting the Japanese in Okinawa. He said they were in the process of clearing out the last of the Japanese soldiers, but the island had not been completely taken. His company had been getting a lot of suicide mass wave attacks by the remaining Japanese soldiers. After a particularly intense morning battle, some of the men in his company went out to find American wounded and killed. He didn't go, but on returning, one of his buddies handed him a Japanese rifle that he gotten from a dead Japanese soldier who had attacked them that morning. George, the fellow I bought the rifle from, said he set the rifle next to him in his make shift fox hole. ( to keep this short, I have left a lot of detail out. I have two hours of recordings of his WWII experiences). He said after dark that night a flare went up and exposed a large number of Japanese soldiers moving up the hill towards them. He said all hell broke loose! He grabbed his M1 carbine and went to release the safety. He said that he had been so startled by the attack that instead of releasing his safety, he released his magazine which fell to the bottom of his fox hole. His foxhole had about a foot of water in it and his magazine disappeared. He said that his extra mags were on the other side of his foxhole, so he grabbed the Japanese rifle instead. He said that it had four rounds in it and he fired them all at the "Japs". He said that by the time he emptied the "Jap" rifle, his squad had wiped them all out. He doesn't know if he hit any of the enemy that night using that rifle.
He said that he knew some people and was able to ship that Japanese rifle home with it's bayonet before the end of the war. This is the rifle I purchased from him. This rifle still has the imperial seal on it. At the end of the war all Japanese rifles had the imperial seal filed off, so it is hard to find one of these rifles that has the seal still on it. I plan on putting a few rounds through it, throughly clean it, then put it in a presentation case with the pictures and his stories. This old veteran received two purple hearts and a bronze star among many other medals. I have a picture of all the medals he received.
I am excited to own a piece of history like this and honored to know the veteran who let me buy it from him. He was a very humble fellow and didn't try to glorify his stories. He didn't consider that he had done anything special. He just told his story and had the pictures and medals to prove that he was there and telling the truth.
He said that he knew some people and was able to ship that Japanese rifle home with it's bayonet before the end of the war. This is the rifle I purchased from him. This rifle still has the imperial seal on it. At the end of the war all Japanese rifles had the imperial seal filed off, so it is hard to find one of these rifles that has the seal still on it. I plan on putting a few rounds through it, throughly clean it, then put it in a presentation case with the pictures and his stories. This old veteran received two purple hearts and a bronze star among many other medals. I have a picture of all the medals he received.
I am excited to own a piece of history like this and honored to know the veteran who let me buy it from him. He was a very humble fellow and didn't try to glorify his stories. He didn't consider that he had done anything special. He just told his story and had the pictures and medals to prove that he was there and telling the truth.
