Nambu World: Showa 19.8 Type 94 Photos
(Slab wooden grip variation)
I got this pistol in December, 2006.
I had been looking for a slab-grip T94 ever since starting collecting, and
after looking all over
Here is the left side. I was doubly
happy to get this one because not only was it a major variant that I needed, it is in outstanding condition, with few if any
signs of use. It is, of course, like all late-war Japanese weapons, crudely
finished. The markings above the trigger on this side say kyu-yon-shiki, or Type 94 (read
right to left). The long horizontal bar along this side with the dog leg at the
rear is the sear bar. Because it is exposed, if the safety is off the gun can
be fired by pressing on the front of this bar, without touching the trigger.
Although by today’s standards this would be considered a safety hazard that
would result in lawsuits, it was never a serious operational problem. However,
it did give rise to persistent myths that the gun was designed this way so it
could be fired by Japanese troops pretending to surrender. There are no
documented cases of this ever happening. Although it is technically possible to
use the gun this way, it could not have been designed this way intentionally as
all Japanese troops were absolutely forbidden to surrender and hence there was
no training or other consideration given as to what to do in case of capture.
Officers and enlisted men alike were expected to kill themselves rather than
allow themselves to be disgraced by being captured.
This shot shows the bolt locked
back. Like all the Nambu pistol designs, the Type 94 lacks a bolt hold-open
device, so the bolt holds open on the magazine follower when the magazine is
empty. This makes reloading slow as the magazine must be pulled out against the
strong pressure of the recoil spring. In order to avoid unnecessary stress on
my pistols, I always pull the bolt back a little before pushing the magazine
release. I then allow the magazine to drop a little bit and ease the bolt
forward. The trigger pull on all Type 94s is long and scrunchy, but this one is
particularly bad. The trigger was fitted very loosely so there is a lot of
slack to take up before you even start to get any reaction from the gun.
The character in the top row of
markings above the lanyard ring is Sho,
short for Showa, the name of the reign of Emperor Hirohito. The date 19.8
translates to the eighth month of the 19th year of the reign of his
reign, i.e. August, 1944. In the second row of markings the first symbol is the
Nagoya Arsenal mark. It looks like a top-heavy 8 in a circle. It is actually intended
to represent the shachi, or mythical
dolphins, that adorn the ends of the roof of Nagoya Castle, the city’s most
famous landmark (if you use your imagination, the horn-shaped bits formed to
the left and right of the 8 look a bit like the tails of fish). The symbol to
the right of that is the mark of Chuo Kogyo, the company that made all Type
94s. It is a stylized version of the kanji character nan, meaning south. It is the
first character in the name Nambu, which is a reference to Lt. Gen. Kijiro Nambu,
who designed all Japan’s major semi-auto pistols and founded the company that
became Chuo Kogyo in a merger in December, 1936. The factory was in Kokubunji,
a suburb on the western fringe of
The serial number is above the trigger on the
right side. Production of Type 94s ended in June, 1945 at around number 71000.
The exterior of the gun shows little
attention was paid to polishing it beyond making sure there were no sharp edges
that would cut the user. Here is the recess above the serial number.
The
right side of the slide.
On the right and left of the pistol
are panels that are peened in to cover cuts made in the machining process. On
early models these are hard to see because the seems are polished smooth, but
on these later guns the crude finishing allows them to be seen clearly.
There is also a panel at the back.
Here you can see that it is not even close to flush with the frame. The lanyard
loop on this pistol is also much larger than on my earlier Type 94s.
The
bottom of the trigger guard shows rough machining.
Same
with the back of the grip frame.
The gun is all matching, including
the magazine (parts like the mag shown here are serialized with the last three
digits of the gun’s number). However, a couple of parts are not numbered, like
the firing pin and crossbolt. The magazine has two other marks, both of which
are inspection marks. One is just barely visible above the 3 in the serial
number. It is the sha in kaisha (company). It looks like this
mark was applied first and then the serial number stamped over top of it. The
other mark is faint. Look straight below the 3. It is the To in
Here are those unserialized parts.
The firing pin is on top and the crossbolt below it. Usually only the tip of
the latter is visible (the little oval in the upper left of a right side
photo). It fits into the U-shaped recess in the top of the firing pin (right of
this photo) and is what holds the slide and bolt together.
Here is a relatively early T94 dated
14.2 (February, 1939) on top and the 19.8 on the bottom. Besides the difference
in grips and the level of polishing, there are other differences like the
finish on the trigger (strawed on the 14.2, blued on the 19.8). Look carefully
at the front part of the frames just above the front of the trigger guard. You
can see that the frame of the 19.8 is the full width of the pistol on this
front part, while it has been machined in to be narrower on the 14.2. This is
more obvious in the next photo, which shows the bottoms of the relevant parts
of the frame.
You can see this difference more clearly
when you look at the bottom of the relevant area. Here the 19.8 is on top and
the 14.2 is below. Notice that the frame of the 19.8 is substantially wider in
this area. This change was apparently introduced about Showa 15.4 (April,
1940). It was basically a production expedient, as it eliminated a lot of
machining that contributed nothing to the actual functioning of the pistol. It
is interesting that this change occurred so early, well before the war against
the
Most
of the inspection marks on this pistol are very poorly struck. It looks like
they were weak hits with the die tilted, so in most cases only part of the mark
is legible. Fortunately, if you know what they are supposed to be you can
usually guess what they are even if only a quarter is visible. This is the
inspection mark To (as in
This one is also To. It about the top half is
visible, but it is tilted 90 degrees to the left (counterclockwise). This is on
the right side of the frame just about the front of the trigger guard.
This is the mark sha as in kaisha
(company). Only about the bottom 1/3 is visible. This one is on the frame
behind the grips on the right side.
Here is another sha, with about the left 2/3 of the character visible. It is on the
left side of the frame just behind the grips.
This is what a good clear sha looks like. This is on the rear of the
right side of the slide. The photo shows the slide standing vertically on with
what would normally be the rear on the bottom. This is to give the correct
orientation of the character.
There is another good clear strike of the sha mark on the left side of the bolt.
These marks on the rear of the
barrel are a bit of a mystery to me. They are not listed in the Derby & Brown
book, so maybe they are just tool marks. It is odd that they are so regular and
repeated, though. There is a sort of M mark that was used, but it is much
flatter and wider than these marks.
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Last updated: December 14, 2006. All contents are copyright Teri unless otherwise specified and
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