Arisaka stock characters

[afret20]

I came on this rather late. My wife is from Okinawa. Her interpretation of the carving agrees with the Yale prof. She says the Kanji is not quite correct but she thinks that is the probable meaning. Agree that it is added later. By the way, my wife survived the battlke for Okinawa. Lucky for me.

[Mike D]

afret20 - Thank-you for your comments, and tell your wife I said thanks, too!

When I went over to Gunboards and asked riceones' friend myself, he responded with this -

Hello Mike,

Sure no problem, and I'll be happy to help you along with the interpretation of this marking set. The carved Kanji look alike on your rifle is an attempt to copy some Kanji that the person in question probably saw or had from some other sources. The first character is completely inaccurate in it's representation of any Kanji character and I have no idea what the original source Kanji was. The 2nd,3rd and 4th Kanji I can very clearly see is an attempt to copy the words 大東亜 (Dai Toa) meaning Great East Asia (the naming used by the Imperial Japanese political machine to integrate all of asia). Unfortunately the carvings of the Kanji are very unbalanced and the strokes are incorrect, meaning that it was done by a non-Japanese, non-Asian, or better termed as someone who does not natively read or write Kanji characters.
Now, who may have done these carvings will forever be a mystery. It could have been done by the original GI who picked the rifle up, it may have been done by an enterprising seebee who was "enhancing" these pick-up rifles for a quick high-value sale, or it may have been done after the rfile was brought back to the Stateside (not modern work but could late 40's to 50's).
Hope this helps.

Warm regards,

Takehito

I kinda figured it wasn't done by a Japanese WWII soldier from the get-go. But it is still kinda neat. It is part of a nice Type 99 with intact mum. I am happy with what I know about the kanji.

When I first got the rifle, I visited a couple of Japanese massage parlors looking for help with the kanji. I got some help, but not with the kanji!