Made August 1945

[Milsurp Collector]

This is my Series 35 Type 99 Arisaka rifle. The serial number is 56045, the highest reported Series 35 serial number is 56658:


















According to production records it was made during the first days in August 1945 by the Toyo Kogyo Co. The Toyo Kogyo Co. plant was located approximately 3 miles east of downtown Hiroshima.



On August 6, 1945, a few days after this rifle was made, a B-29, the Enola Gay, dropped an atomic bomb (Little Boy) on Hiroshima, the first use of an atomic bomb as a weapon. Toyo Kogyo ceased all production activities. While damage to company facilities was minimal, because of its location 5.3km from the center, employee morale was devasted. The company immediately opened all facilities and its stock of medical supplies to the public, and devoted all its efforts to rescue activities.

After the war, the Toyo Kogyo Co. resumed production of cars and trucks, and in 1984 Toyo Kogyo changed its name to the same as the nameplate on the vehicles it produces: Mazda.

Mazda corporate headquarters are still located in Hiroshima Prefecture.

[A. F Medic]

Got me beat! Mine is 47666. Thanks....

[rayg]

That's a nice one and especially still having a Mum, Ray

[Bob Loughlin]

Mine, like yours has the mum, but not the T 99 stamp below the mum. Ser# 41367.

[riceone]

Here is my rifle identical to yousr and in like new condition like yours, made in the last days of the war and get over here 70 years later looking like this. According to my information there were 1200 rifles made in the five or six days of August 1945, so if you divide that number by 6 day you have a pretty good idea when it was made. Here's my rifle. riceone.

[Milsurp Collector]

Here is my rifle identical to yousr and in like new condition like yours, made in the last days of the war and get over here 70 years later looking like this. According to my information there were 1200 rifles made in the five or six days of August 1945, so if you divide that number by 6 day you have a pretty good idea when it was made. Here's my rifle. riceone.

Riceone posted about his rifle on another forum in August 2008 and I thought it was really cool and it must have stuck in my mind. In June 2009 while browsing through Gunbroker I saw a late-war Type 99 listed as a "Series 22". I knew it couldn't be a Series 22 because of its late-war features, and I deduced that the seller had misidentified the Series 35 character as Series 22. Remembering Riceone's rifle, I made sure I got this one, and possibly because of the misidentification by the seller there wasn't a lot of competition for it. Riceone's post inspired me to get a Series 35.