hi guys thanks for tuning in to another
video episode of forgottenweapons.com
i'm here today with jim langley who's a
very notable japanese
world war ii weapons collector and he
has a really awesome pistol to show us
today
so
thank you for uh being willing to talk
to us here you tell us what this is this
is japanese what they call a papa
bamboo an eight millimeter
it was the second model of the nambu
automatics
the first one was the grandpa this is
the second
all of the
first grandpas had shoulder stocks for
them wooden shoulder stock
however when they went to the papa they
discontinued them now there's
there were three known
stock papas made by the tokyo artillery
arsenal
and sold to thailand
this one turned up and it's the only one
that was produced by tokyo gas and
electric
with a matching shoulder stock
the shoulder stock
has an extension that comes out and fits
on the back of the pistol
to make it into a carbine
this gun was produced
in 1913
and presented to a high-ranking official
in mexico
as a
incentive
for the japanese rifle contract
that they sold to mexico
in 1913
i believe it was presented to president
madaro but i don't have proof of that
however the gun did wind up in the
possession of president obregon
uh
who was president from 1920 or 19
when the hell was he elected 1916 to 20
he ran for re-election and was
re-elected but assassinated before he
could take office
the gun was given
to a gentleman in nogales arizona by
obregon's widow in the 1970s
since this one has turned up there is
one more stock tgna papa
that turned up at an auction
it's in pretty bad shape but it's
authentic
so the issue of course the the japanese
were trying to win a contract to make
mousers for mexico right and someone
went and gave them the idea that gave
the mexicans the idea that japanese were
just going to take a bunch of old worn
out service rifles and re-bore them to
seven millimeter mauser
and you know kind of put one over on
mexico yeah they made this to show them
this is the type of stuff we make this
the type of a weapon you'll get
and they're the gorgeous gun yeah the
machine work in them is just flawless
it's also accompanied by a second
matching magazine
if i get that open
which is retained in the buttstock
there was also a cleaning rod which i
don't have
got lost somewhere along the way
and the stock is numbered to the pistol
as well yeah both magazines and the
stock
are numbered it's numbered
right
there yeah and then up on the uh
part that goes into the pistol
so this this is like you said the papa
nambu papadam blue this was the second
variant of the nambu they made and
eventually this was developed further
into the the standard yeah the type 14
right
which we see and they
they started making these roughly around
1906
and then discontinued them in in the
early 20s when they adopted the
type 14.
okay
that makes sense the japanese navy used
most of them okay
and these also would have been purchased
by army officers oh yeah
um like you were saying in japan at that
time army officers the strange thing is
the the army called it the navy pistol
and the navy called it the army pistol
because on the later ones it said are
you
an army pistol on the side
it's got a grip safety and they got rid
of that when they went to the type 14
yep
and overall it's a little bulkier a
little heavier
yeah very definitely a nice shooting
pistol though and still chambered for
eight millimeter eight millimeter number
has the tangent sight
which is pretty
optimistic
out to 500 yards with an eight
millimeter
well this is gorgeous thank you very
much for letting us take a look you're
quite welcome and uh we really
appreciate your time anytime
thanks for watching guys tune back into
forgottenweapons.com
for more information on early japanese
pistols