Translation Help For Sword Production Charts Please!

[Bruce Pennington]

Nick Komiya, at Warrelics, posted links to these WWII sword production charts. They are in Japanese though! I would bow a thousand bows to anyone willing to translate, or to post them in English, in chart form!

[Shugyosha]

Hi Bruce,

 

Something to get you going. On the first sheet, first column:

 

品目 Hinmoku Item

造兵刀 Army sword Production (not sure of this translation)

現代鍛錬刀 Gendai tanren gatana Modern training sword

九五式軍刀 Type 95 gunto

三五年式銃剣 1935 model rifle bayonet

九九式小銃 99 model short rifle

一00式機関短銃 100 model sub machine gun

八九式????筒 89 model grenade launcher

九九式??関銃 99 model light machine gun

 

Along the top, I can't get anything for the first two columns but after that it's a list of months from April to March with 計,Kei = Total in the final column.

 

There are some kanji I can't get and some that Google supplied. If anyone spots any errors, I'm happy for them to be corrected.

 

Kind regards,

John

[SteveM]

 

 

Along the top, I can't get anything for the first two columns but after that it's a list of months from April to March with 計,Kei = Total in the final column.

 

I would say the first two columns are 単位 (Unit) and 識別 (Type), and then followed by the months as you said. The "Units" refer to the counting units used in Japanese: the counter furi (振) is used for katana, and the counter chō (挺) is used for guns. In other words, this column is a bit redundant, because once you know you are looking at swords, you don't really need to be reminded that the unit for sword counting is "furi". I guess it shows a certain fastidiousness of record-keeping.  

[Stegel]

Hi Bruce,

I was looking at the charts and just by the way the numbers relate to each other, i suspect they may be projected or planned figures-not actual outputs.

For example, if you look at the T95 for tokyo arsenal, it has two numbers entered. if you divide the larger by the smaller, you get a factor of 12.5

this is the same for all months.  A similar ratio exists in the Nagoya rows.

The numbers tally towards the ends for a total but they also tally down wards.(that is Tokyo plus Nagoya gives the total in the third row).

I cannot make any sense of the numbers in the fourth row and how they relate to the ones above.

 

Does anyone know what the kanji in the 'type' column represent??  ( immeadiately 2 columns across from the 九五式軍刀 row,  ie C7 in excel)

 

BTW- thanks John for your translations!!

[Bruce Pennington]

Ok, this is too cool!!!! So, on the first chart, the Type 95 line seems to have 4 lines, with the top 2 being Tokyo First Arsenal and Nagoya Arsenal, correct? I see from Stegel's point that the third line is vertical total, but what is the fourth lines about?

[SteveM]

In the "Type" column it lists what I suspect are abbreviations; 東 and 名 being typical shorthand for Tokyo and Nagoya. Following from this I suspect 大 is Osaka, and 小 may be Kokura(?). 

 

名造  Manufactured in Nagoya

東造  Manufactured in Tokyo

本部  Headquarters

東一造  Manufactured in Tokyo #1

大造  Manufactured in Osaka

小造  Manufactured in Kokura

[Stegel]

Thanks Steve,

The Headquarters is the one that had me.... i recognise it now,

i should of known, as i had seen it in the Dog Tag posting by Nick Komiya.

 

I wonder what the figures mean in relation to the rest of production in these charts... perhaps Non-main land Japanese Arsenals??

They seem to have a factor of 45 involved in them. that is divide the top number by 45 and you get the bottom number. ( they are to 3 decimal places)

[Bruce Pennington]

 

I wonder what the figures mean in relation to the rest of production in these charts... perhaps Non-main land Japanese Arsenals??

They seem to have a factor of 45 involved in them. that is divide the top number by 45 and you get the bottom number. ( they are to 3 decimal places)

I wonder if it is percentages, maybe comparing production numbers to a desired number of 45? That would mean that most of them were beating production goals. Does that make any sense?

[Ricky Chambers]

On 7/19/2016 at 8:21 PM, Bruce Pennington said:

I wonder if it is percentages, maybe comparing production numbers to a desired number of 45? That would mean that most of them were beating production goals. Does that make any sense?

  Hi. I am not sure whether this has already been solved or not, but I just stumbled across this thread and I think I find your answer regarding the numbers. According to a similar document, the top number in the cell is actually the cost of the product per 1000 yen, while the bottom number is the number of unit produced or procured by the arsenals. So basically a Type 95 gunto would cost 45 yen apiece if it was procured by the Army Weapons Headquarters (probably, not quite sure which "headquarter 本部 " it was referring to). 

Here is the other document (p.20)
https://www.jacar.archives.go.jp/aj/meta/listPhoto?LANG=eng&BID=F2014020316175337529&ID=M2014020316175337533&REFCODE=C14011034300 

 

[Bruce Pennington]

30 minutes ago, Ricky Chambers said:

a Type 95 gunto would cost 45 yen apiece

Thanks Ricky!  That's pretty much inline with what I've read about these costs.  I appreciate the update.

[SteveM]

And the column heading third from the left says 廠別 (Shōbetsu). It signifies that this column will note which arsenal/factory the item was made in.

(I originally thought it said 識別, but that is incorrect)