New to the site: Question War Rifle I Recieved.

[Capotuttidecapo]

When I went looking for an Arisaka I found 7 of them pretty quickly. Of the 7, 2 had perfect mum's and one had a mum with a few minor scratches on it; the other 4 mum's were totally ground off. The one I bought had an intact mum and the rifle had been converted to 30.06 for use in the Korean war and had US 30 CAL stamped on the side. A lot of grinding was done by the military to this rifle, including a 1/4" notch in the top of the reciever to accept the 30.06 four years after WWII and no one bothered to grind off the mum. By that time either no one cared or it was " the Captain want's these hundred cases of Arisaka's converted by next Friday! The mum? Screw the mum and get these reamed out!"

 

[theotherwaldo]

From what I understand, a number of the Korean Arisakas were taken from the Japanese troops and armories that were already in Korea. The Republic of Korea didn't particularly care about the sensitivities of the Japanese and their emperor, having suffered under the Japanese occupation. Thus, the face-saving gesture of removing the emperor's seal was somehow neglected.