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1945 Pattern Officers Sword


IJASWORDS

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I got hold of late war shin-gunto, often called a "45 pattern home defense sword". As can be seen from the photos, the fittings are quite utilitarian pressed and cast metal. Although the sword is well made and "tight", with a Mantetsu blade. From all accounts, they are not that common. 

 

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Whoa! Same kind of "I" under the Ren stamp - which means the one on Neil's isn't acidentally unfinished!!! Hmmmm.

 

Do I have your serial number of this one Trystan? It IS a Mantetsu isn't it?

 

It is a Mentetsu,but I'm out for biz trip for Month.I can check the Numbers along with my other 5 Mantetsu when I get home.

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  • 1 year later...

I posed the question to Nick Komiya, at Warrelics, if he had any data, or documents, describing the "Home Defense model" sword mentioned in several reference books. His response can be found here: http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/Japanese-militaria/1945-rinji-seishiki-icu-ventilator-762330/

 

Realizing that some have trouble with links, the majority of his evaluation is here:

 

"There is no chance that such a sword was made for civil defense units. Core members of civil defense were policemen and firefighters, but such personnel simply could not get swords, due to wartime shortages. This shortage got to the point of prefectural police chiefs receiving a nationwide memo dated 27th February 1945 saying that though huge efforts were being made to secure a supply of badly needed swords, no magic solution was in sight and that the only immediate remedy was to ask retired police and fire brigade members to hand in their swords for use by incumbents, should they still have them.

 

On the civilian front, the standard weapon of choice for Homeland Defense was the stereotype of sharpened bamboo poles, and there certainly was no plan nor intention to arm civilians with swords.

 

What Bruce is calling a Homeland Defense model can only be a last ditch effort to continue the Rinji Seishiki effort. As I already explained here, the heavy bombings of 1944 basically killed off the sword industry by spring of 1945. Manufacturing within Japan was in the process of evacuation and relocation to a remote area outside the normal target areas.

 

Reflecting this huge disruption to production efforts, two new weapon names suddenly appeared in the production volume plans for 1945 as published in May of that year. Those weapon names were 簡易銃剣 (simplified bayonet) and 簡易小銃 (simplified rifle). In the remarks column, the spreadsheet says of the bayonet “Without restricting the material or design, it should be outright simple, just enough to stab and hack with” Production planned for 1945 was as many as 1,200 thousand units. Remarks for the rifle said “Enhanced independence of the production locale”. When spelled out fully, that would mean “to get things done under one roof as much as possible without relying on parts suppliers all scattered around”. They had planned to put together 15,000 of these rifles. Both these simplified weapons were officially approved for production on 14th May 1945.

 

When mainland production was in such a stage of grasping at straws, continental facilities like Jinsen and Nanman were safe havens away from all the bombing, but unlike before, they no longer had the luxury of job distribution possibilities with the mainland and had to produce everything locally, lock, stock and barrel.

 

I am not enough of a sword fan to know how Mantetsu split jobs with mainland companies, but if they had been relying on Japan for the Koshirae, the tide of the times would have required all that to be Manchurian sourced as well.  

 

If they said of the bayonet "Never mind what it looks like or what it's made of, so long as it stabs and hacks", a Mantetsu blade with duct tape as Tsukamaki would have easily made the grade. Is that to be regarded as a new model? It would be more like the the Rinji Seishiki taking its last free breath before going on the ventilator."

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Manchurian Rinji Seishiki is a long but accurate designation. I have some photos of 'last ditch weapons' created in 1945. They're not really related to this sword though, so unless people would like to see them I'll keep it out of this thread.

 

I suppose these are also a 'Pattern 2' Rinji Seishiki in a way. Similar in a fashion to the way Type 95 design, materials and finish declined over time.

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Good point, Neil. That was probably the last of the model made by Tokyo shops. Your special model was likely something designed and produced by a shop in Manchuria. The type of orders Nick showed in his example, likely freed the Manchurian koshirae makers to create their own design. And so far, it seems it was created for the Mantetsu operation.

 

Ohmura's page pointed out that we're not likely to ever find design specs or order documents due to the Soviet invasion of the area at the end of the war. So, if it were ever proposed to Army HQ as a new design, we might never find out.

 

Nick's point about the Rinji Seishiki is that, even it, was not meant as a permanent model. It was designed to improve the "exterior" of the Type 98, and was supposed to be temporary until changes were incorporated, or rejected. For the Manchurian shop to come up with their own improvements would not be a surprise to me.

 

The main point, as of yet, is there is no records to confirm or deny any of this. So, as collectors, we will have to come up with something to call it, for simple communication purposes.

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This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one, unless your post is really relevant and adds to the topic..

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