RE: The finest foreign military rifle?
There is a story, that may be apocrophal, that in the1500's aPortugese ship sailed from Lisbon to Japan and stopped along the way in Africa, India andSouth EastAsiabefore reaching Japan. They supposedly left a couple of muskets at each of the countries they stopped in as well as Japan. A few years later the Poertugeserepeated the voyage and found that all the guns they had left in Africa, India and South East Asia were broken, rusted and totally unusable. However, when they got to Japan they found that not only were the two original firearms they left still in perfect working order, but the Japanesehad made 30 more of better quality than the ones given to them by the Portugese. True or not, the story illustrates an impression that for some reason, Japanese culture is very conducive to manufacturing high quality goods.Whether it is a Lexus or an Arisaka rifle, the mentality of making the best product possible seems to be very strong there.
Caldoc