Japanese Engineers Reverse-Engineer Captured M1 Garand — Manufacturing Reality Intervenes

March 1944. Inside Yokosuka Naval Arsenal, Japanese engineers gather around captured American M1 Garand rifles with a single mission: understand why American infantry are outgunning Japanese forces, and determine if Japan can copy this revolutionary weapon.
What they discovered would expose the brutal gap between engineering brilliance and industrial capacity.
This is the true story of Japan's Type 4 rifle—a technically successful reverse-engineering project that became a cautionary tale about the limits of wartime manufacturing. While Japanese engineers proved they could replicate the M1 Garand's sophisticated gas-operated system, they couldn't overcome a more fundamental problem: Japan lacked the industrial infrastructure to mass-produce such weapons before the war's end.

🎯 IN THIS DOCUMENTARY:
How Japanese engineers captured and studied American M1 Garands from Manila (1942)
The technical brilliance of reverse-engineering the gas-operated mechanism
Why Japan modified the design with a 10-round magazine instead of en-bloc clips
The brutal mathematics: American soldiers fired 24-28 aimed shots in 30 seconds vs. Japanese soldiers' 10-12 shots
Material challenges: chrome molybdenum steel shortages and inconsistent quality
Production reality: Japan produced 125 rifles while America made millions
The painful lesson: 14,000 M1 Garands manufactured daily in the US vs. 125 Type 4 rifles in 8 months