How did the Japanese Soldiers think of the American Weapons from WWII

 I was looking for information about Germans and their reaction to the Garand and I didn't as of yet find any information, but I found some information about the Japanese.   And I can attest to the poor condition of the Japanese Rifles.  I had a chance to buy a Japanese "99" Arisaka rifle and it still had the unstruck through "Chrysanthemum" on it, but the quality was so bad as far as metallurgy and woodwork, you can tell that it was a late-war rifle.  It would have been a "safequeen".  I didn't buy it, but I seriously considered it.

A guy named "Richard Griffin" on Quora posted this answer.

So, here’s a fun fact. Most Japanese soldiers never had a rifle in WW2.

The motto of the Marines is “Every marine a rifleman” (or whatever the current gender neutral term is now). The rifle is core to Marine philosophy and training. Shooting for your rifle qualification badge is the Big Day in Boot Camp. Every Marine in combat from frontline troops to cooks and bakers is issued a rifle and is expected to be able to use it, accurately, at any time.

The IJA, on the other hand, never had the manufacturing capacity to adopt a similar policy. Given the sheer brutality meted out to enlisted soldiers by NCOs and officers, I’m not sure they trusted their troops enough to hand them out wholesale even if they could.

Rifles were issued to frontline Japanese troops only. My father was a combat Marine on New Britain, Peleliu, and Okinawa during the war. He said the Japanese were fierce fighters but, in the very few cases where the Marines broke through the front lines, it was a slaughter because rear echelon Japanese troops weren’t armed.

The Arisaka rifles the Japanese used were capable but I’m sure the Japanese would have been interested in the rugged and reliable M1s. But, it was never going to become the basis for a new Japanese rifle model. They simply did not have the resources for the full-scale tooling and production changeovers it would have required. They weren’t even able to complete the replacement of the Arisaka Type 38 rifle (first produced in 1905) with the newer Type 99 model. And by the end of the war, production quality for any rifle produced by the Japanese had badly degraded.

And even if those problems had been solved, they still faced the enormous problem that most of their troops were not trained to effectively use them. In most cases, they had never even seen a rifle before they were conscripted.

(For the record, my Dad (rated an Expert Rifleman) much preferred the M1 carbine over the rifle. As recon scouts, he and his men had the luxury of choosing what to carry. His 250 lb tri-state wrestling champ buddy chose a drum-fed Thompson SMG. Dad was 165 pounds and appreciated the much lighter carbine. But they made their choices for the same reason: the nature of their mission made the chance of a fight at close range and from any direction more likely. The Thompson was absolutely devastating at close range while the carbine was much faster to bring on target than the longer, heavier rifle.)

EDIT: I should note that there is sizable segment of the USMC that disagrees with the “Every Marine A Rifleman” doctrine.

These would be those with Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) 0311 - Infantry Rifleman. Along with machine gunners and mortarmen, they are the “grunts”, the line infantry that actually take, hold and defend ground in combat. To them, everyone else is a “POG” (People Other than Grunts) and therefore a lesser form of marine life.

They make the case that the doctrine should be more accurately labeled “Every Marine Knows How To Shoot A Rifle”. Achieving just that is actually very impressive, but there is a lot more training and skills needed to be an effective rifleman than firing at stationary targets on a rifle range, under controlled conditions, with no one shooting back.

They have a strong case. Dad led a recon scout platoon which was a dangerous enough job. But recon scouts were not considered expendable and standing orders were to break off from enemy contact as fast as possible and head back to friendly territory. The grunts have never had that option - standing orders for rifleman are usually to close with and destroy the enemy. One moves away from the bullets; the other moves towards them.

Dad watched in awe as the 1st Marines charged up the sheer cliffs of Bloody Nose Ridge on Peleliu, get thrown back with enormous losses, fight off counter attacks all night, get up the next day and do it again, day after day. .

[A section of Bloody Nose Ridge on Peleliu. These are actually shallower slopes. Many were sheer cliffs. The 1st Marines charged (or climbed) up these slopes under withering enemy fire, with a heat index of around 115 degrees for five days before they were relieved. The casualty rate was 70% - the highest in Marine Corps history.

But it gets worse. One universal factor in combat is how thirsty it makes troops. even when it doesn’t occur in an unbelievably hot hellscape. See those discarded barrels in the foreground? Some idiot supply officer decided that used diesel barrels was a fine way to transport potable water to the frontline troops. Anyone who tried to drink this tainted water became violently sick.

WARNING: A very graphic picture is attached below. Continue with caution.

Two incredible pictures really capture what this fight was like. The artist Tom Lea worked for Life magazine and was attached to a Marine platoon on Peleliu.

The first was drawn from an incident that happened in front of Tom on the first day of battle. It captured the moment of death of a young rifleman that had a mortar round hit directly in front of him.

It was published in the nationally distributed Life, with the express encouragement of the White House. The administration was increasingly concerned that Americans at home were becoming complacent about the horrible cost of this war. FDR wanted to shock them back to reality. And it did:

“The Price” by Tom Lea

Six days of fighting in conditions like this led to the second picture:

“The Two Thousand Yard Stare” by Tom Lea

This is why Dad always made it clear that he was not a war hero and that his heroes were the line riflemen.]

In recognition of this real skills gap, the Corps introduced a Revised Battle Skills Test in 2018. It provided a more comprehensive set of combat skills they want all Marines to possess in order to move closer to the “EMAR” philosophy.

Just wanted to clarify this to recognize the unbroken 248-year tradition of courage and valor by Marine riflemen. Someone noted in the comments section that the Japanese were impressed with American firepower. Probably true, but, if so, it wasn’t the rifle that provided it. It was the men standing behind them.

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