In the runup to World War II, several new firearm designs were developed for the Japanese military by Gen. Kijiro Nambu. In particular, Nambu was tasked with designing a smaller sidearm for specialized roles in addition to the main Japanese service sidearm of the time. The resulting Type 94 has widely been considered to be one of the worst firearms ever made. Watch our "American Rifleman Television" I Have This Old Gun segment above to see the Type 94 on the range.
"[Nambu] designed several guns for the Japanese military going into the Second World War, particularly the Type 14 Nambu, which is the official sidearm of the Japanese military during the Second World War," American Rifleman Executive Editor Evan Brune said. "But it's kind of a big gun. It's an officer's sidearm, and there are specialized roles that needs something a little bit smaller. Notably air crew, tank crews, they need a side arm, but they need it to be as compact as possible. So Nambu in the 1930s is tasked with designing a subcompact arm that we come to know of today as the Type 94."
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