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John Townsend

Artifact Friday: Nambu Type 96




Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Imperial Japan, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his Day of Infamy Speech where he stated, "No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it.” As such, he sent in the Marines. The Marine Corps would have to overcome the many teeth of the Japanese tiger, among which was the Nambu Type 96 light machine gun. During Japan’s imperial expansion into mainland Asia, more specifically Manchuria, in 1931 they learned that their Type 11 machine gun was not fit for the brutal environments of Asia. Dirt, sand, and other debris would easily jam the machine gun due to its open hopper design. After testing other machine guns and noting their strengths and weaknesses, Japan began producing and issuing the Nambu Type 96 in 1936.

The Type 96 light machine gun was designed to be easy to redeploy and provide suppressing fire wherever needed. The weapon fired a 6.5x50mm round at 550 rounds per minute through a gas-operated system. The Type 96 also sported a 30-round box magazine. Weighing in at 31 lbs., the Type 96 was easily portable as it was meant to be. The Marines’ machine gun of choice was



the much heavier M1919 Browning which required two people to carry. One carried the weapon itself while the other carried the tripod it mounted on. This distinct advantage in the Japanese design would have been used to great effect if it were not for the Type 96’s shortcomings.

Japanese soldiers were unimpressed by the performance of the Nambu Type 96. The weapon itself was deemed hardy and reliable; no doubt accredited to the lessons learned from Type 11. The choice of ammo, however, proved to be the weapon’s downfall. The 6.5mm round was too weak to penetrate much of the cover that standard rifle rounds could like the American Springfield 30-06. In the dense brush of the Pacific Theatre, this flaw would prove fatal as the Type 96 was not able to stem the assault of the USMC. The flaw would be remedied by the Type 99 with its 7.7mm round but the industry of Imperial Japan was too strained and unable to replace the Type 96 fully before capitulation.

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