Why there aren't Japanese rifles among "favorite WWII rifles"?

[Surpmil]

Anyone who knows their history cannot hold one of those rifles or bayonets without wondering how many civilians were shot by it or spitted on it. They're FUGLY for the most part, but yes, they are damn well built as P.O. Ackley established. Same goes for the swords. You have to know the context.

A lot of superficial Western Walter Mitty's are quite taken with the aura of the swords, "bushido" and all that. Just as the same type are often quite taken with german uniforms etc. One can admire the workmanship, but let's not kid ourselves, the samurai were trained to total unquestioning obedience and a capacity for savage cruelty that would curl your ears; before they were sliced off. Their code bore no resemblance to the western code of chivalry. A lot of people have trouble encompassing the contradiction of their admiration for the workmanship and the diligence, and the reality of the behaviour and the racist, supremacist mentality that underlays it. Asian societies operate on "face" and shame basically. You didn't surrender because if you did, you could never return home, and if you were known to have surrendered or even been captured alive, the shame would probably force your family to kill themselves or disappear by moving somewhere where they were unknown. Those Japanese who did surrender or were captured were often quite happy to tell everything they knew to their captors once they had escaped the vise of Japanese society, but they often said that they could never return to Japan. Takes a little thinking about, doesn't it?