This Day in History: Kijirō Nambu is Born

By Logan Metesh

Japan – -(Ammoland.com)- Lieutenant General Kijirō Nambu, whose name is best known when preceded by “Grandpa,” “Papa,” or “Baby,” was born on September 22, 1869. Despite going on to attain military fame and be regarded by many as the “John Browning of Japan,” his early life gave no indication of this path.

Nambu’s mother died when he was young, and his father – a former samurai retainer (otherwise known as an assistant) – fell on hard times, forcing him to send his son out of the household to that of a local merchant for a more proper upbringing.

After joining the Imperial Japanese Army Academy at the age of 20 in 1889, he was commissioned as a lieutenant of artillery in 1892. Five years later, he was stationed at the Kokura Arsenal where he worked under well-known Japanese arms designer: Nariakira Arisaka. Coincidentally, that was the same year that Arisaka’s Type 30 rifle was introduced, so Nambu was immersed …Read the Rest

Source:: AmmoLand