What relation do the famous Ruger .22 calibre semi-automatic pistols have to Imperial Japan? A rather notable one, as it happens, because although arms designer William Ruger was an American working in the latter half of the 20th Century, the inspiration for one of his best-known designs has its origins in Japan many years earlier.
The famous Ruger .22 pistol — the firearm that established Sturm, Ruger & Co — was heavily based on the 8mm Type 14 Nambu carried by Japanese officers into war against America.
Ever since the Meiji Restoration of 1868 (a massive modernisation effort by then-feudal Japan), the Japanese military had been looking for more up-to-date weapons than the ones they possess. One of the first standardised Japanese service handguns was the Type 26 revolver introduced in 1893 and chambered for a 9mm revolver cartridge.
It was a locally produced double-action only top-break design bearing more than a passing resemblance to a contemporary Smith & Wesson or Webley.
In the closing years of the 19th Century, however, the Mauser C96 design caught the attention of the Japanese military and they investigated adopting a semi-automatic pistol of their own.
The man put in charge of this was an officer working at the Tokyo Arsenal, Kijiro Nambu, whose name subsequently appears in relation to a number of Japanese arms in the period 1902-1945.
The handgun design he came up with – the Nambu Type A – was introduced in 1902 and externally resembled a P08 Luger, but used a blow-back action similar to the Mauser C96.
Chambered for a proprietary 8x22mm cartridge referred to in the West as 8mm Nambu, it held eight rounds in the same sort of detachable box magazine that most self-loading handguns have used since the 1900s.
While not officially adopted for service, a number were purchased privately by officers and a slightly improved design, the Nambu Type B, was adopted in limited numbers by the Imperial Japanese Navy and the Siamese military after WWI.
The 8mm Nambu round was a rimless, bottlenecked cartridge firing a 102gn projectile at around 300m/s (1000fps). Ballistically, the cartridge was similar to the .380 ACP round used in ‘pocket’ handguns like the Walther PPK and Colt M1908.
The 8mm Nambu cartridge wasn’t ideal for a general-issue sidearm, however, and besides the various Nambu pistols (including the infamous Type 94) and the Type 100 SMG produced in small quantities from 1942-1945, was never used in any other firearms.
THE TYPE 14 NAMBU
The Japanese government was keen to have a locally produced standard-issue service sidearm available for its military, and in the early 1920s commissioned a pistol design from Nambu which would become known as the Type 14, after the 14th Year of the Taisho Era (per the traditional Japanese calendar) when it was adopted; 1925 to Westerners.
The pistol was a development of the Nambu Type A and its smaller cousin, the Type B. Like its predecessors, it vaguely resembled like a Luger while using a blowback action.
It had a magazine disconnect safety (like that in the Browning Hi-Power), and empty cases ejected straight up from the action when fired.
The Type 14 featured wooden grips, an eight-round magazine, a wooden safety and was typically carried in a distinctive clamshell leather holster.
Its most distinctive feature, at least on WWII-vintage pistols, was its unusual trigger guard, introduced in September 1939 to allow shooting while wearing gloves during the brutal winters in Manchuria, which the Japanese had invaded in 1931.
The pistol had some serious design issues, however. Notably, its firing pin was incredibly prone to breaking. So prone, in fact, that it was issued with a spare and there was even a pouch in the holster to carry it.
Ejecting the magazine required pushing the magazine release, pulling the magazine free (it was designed not to drop out) while dealing with the force of releasing the cocking handle, reloading the new magazine, the pulling the cocking handle back then releasing it to chamber a round.
About 280,000 Nambu Type 14 pistols were produced between 1926 and 1945, the majority manufactured at arsenals in the Japanese city of Nagoya, although others were manufactured at the Kokura Arsenal in Tokyo.
Nambu Type 14 pistols were popular trophies and souvenirs for Allied soldiers in the Pacific theatre and are not hard to find on the collector market in Australia; most military museums have at least one in their collections.
As a military service pistol the Nambu Type 14 largely seems to have been a status symbol rather than a serious combat handgun; there are suggestions the round had difficulty (and sometimes failed) to penetrate the winter clothing worn by Chinese soldiers in Manchuria.
There are very few photos of Nambu pistols being used by Japanese military personnel, but plenty of photos of Allied troops showing off captured examples!
The Type 14 pistols were mainly used during the Manchurian Campaign and WWII, but plenty were still kicking around Asia after WWII and they also saw use during the Indonesian War of Independence against the Dutch from 1945-1949, the First Indochina War against the French from 1946-54, and the Korean War.
As with most WWII Japanese military firearms, the quality took a fall later in the war as raw materials became harder to get thanks to the increased successes of the Allies in the war. The machining and finish on these pistols, especially in July and August 1945, is noticeably worse than earlier models, and some of the final production pistols appear to have been assembled from spare and salvaged parts.
Despite this, the pistols manufactured until around June 1945 were still maintaining the same internal tolerances, and totally serviceable from a functional standpoint.
Ammunition for the Nambu Type 14 has not been commercially available (beyond occasional runs by boutique producers in the US) since WWII so the only way to shoot the pistols is by reloading; they are reportedly accurate guns, at least by the standards of the era, with mild recoil and decent sights for a service pistol.
Given their age, and the unknown conditions of their maintenance and care since 1945 (and possibly before that, depending on how the pistol was acquired), means they should not be fired without first being inspected by a knowledgeable gunsmith or armourer.
FURTHER READING
One of the longest established internet sites devoted to Japanese handguns is Nambu World, launched by Teri Bryant in 2003 but sadly not updated since 2018. It has considerable information on Nambu models of all types, including production figures.
The book Japanese Military Cartridge Handguns, 1893-1945 by Harry L Derby and James D Brown is regarded by Japanese handgun enthusiasts as the essential reference work on the subject, and well-regarded firearms historian John Walter has recently written Nambu Pistols: Japanese Military Handguns 1900-1945, published by Osprey as part of its Weapon series.
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