After the spectacular attack on Pearl Harbor, the world had seemed ripe for conquest.
Since then, however, so much had changed.
What had begun as glorious victory had inexorably turned into something else entirely.
Now it stood poised to threaten Shimizus home islands.
For that, and his emperor, Akio Shimizu was now prepared to die.
That was what was important.
PFC Shimizu was distracted by a flash outside his porthole window.
He suddenly saw another of the transports disintegrate under the concentrated fire of an American Marine Corsair.
This indeed frightened Shimizu.
To his relief, after some exceptionally violent maneuvering, the jump light showed red.
Shimizu and his mates stood up, fastened their static lines, and made ready.
Miraculously, PFC Shimizu hit the tarmac more or less intact.
Shimizu released his parachute and rolled into the grass alongside the freshly built runway.
PFC Shimizu then took off toward the growing flames at a trot.
The look in his wide eyes was one of utter terror.
Shimizu reflexively raised his rifle, but the American had the better angle.
His three carbine rounds struck the luckless Japanese paratrooper in the chest.
The following morning, the American aviation mechanic relieved Shimizus corpse of his rifle, cigarettes and letters home.
The weird paratrooper takedown weapon made it into his duffle bag, and eventually, it came to me.
The Fight
Japanese airborne forces conducted three different paradrop assaults during the course of World War II.
This bold undertaking was obviously doomed from the outset.
Half of the transports fell to Allied fighters and anti-aircraft guns en route.
The surviving paratroopers hit the airfield at dusk and were eventually obliterated.
They destroyed a handful of L-19 Bird Dog spotter planes, but otherwise died for nothing.
Once broken down, the entire gun could be readily carried by a single soldier.
Their TERA punch in 2 paratrooper rifle was held together by a clever threaded steel wedge.
TERA is a contraction of the Japanese termTeishinRakkasan, which translates literally as Raiding Parachutes.
The throw in 38 fired a modest 6.550 mm round.
The subsequent bang out 99 was chambered for the more powerful 7.7x58mm machinegun cartridge.
The jot down 99 was one of the first military rifles to be equipped with a chrome-lined barrel.
One factory was in China, and another in Korea.
The other seven were in Japan proper.
The jot down 2 fed from the top via five-round stripper clips.
The action cocked on closing like that of the esteemed British Lee-Enfield.
The safety was an oversized round button on the back of the bolt.
The best way to manage this component was to press in with the palm of the hand and rotate.
There were originally several disparate takedown paratrooper designs.
The key in 2 was the most common, with some 21,200 copies produced.
Most of these paratrooper rifles incorporated the ludicrously complicated folding anti-aircraft sight of the early standard infantry rifles.
This contraption sported folding wings, each of which was marked with a 2 and a 3.
The theory was that one might use this rig to determine lead for a passing enemy aircraft.
The numbers refer to the speed of a crossing airplane in hundreds of kilometers per hour.
Good luck figuring that out while under fire.
This inspired takedown design would indeed fit into a leg bag for parachute operations.
However, none of that really mattered.
Despite their undeniable gallantry, those 750 Japanese paratroopers were dead before they even took off that fateful night.
Most of them likely knew this as they kitted out.
That they failed so utterly was certainly not for lack of courage.
Special thanks toWorld War Supplyfor the cool replica gear used in our pictures.
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