WW2 Japanese Issue Bush Knives??? Nata?

[Valdemar]

Does anyone know what Japanese military used for machete/parang/bush knife type applications in WW2?

Search as I might I cannot find anything about the subject. There is an abundance of material on swords but nothing I can find on bush knives.

Japanese soldiers are frequently found festooned with local flora but how they cut it...escapes me unless it was with their bayonets which is very possible. I've also theorized that they issued common natas which being short may have simply been carried in packs and this not seen on contemporary combat photos or newsreels.

A nata collector on a different forum said he'd seen a newsreel of a Japanese soldier using a nata but didn't post a link.

Can anyone help me out here or point me to a source who can?

Thanks.

[kronckew]

A friend of mine uses natas, he sent me a picture of them and said I could use it here.


He was told they were carried especially by Japanese airmen as a survival tool if they were shot down, as they are small and easy to stow.


They also captured a fair number of Dutch Klewangs, used by the Indonesian military/police. They converted them by shortening them and cutting down the full guard bowl to a short cross guard. They called them 'Heiho'.

These are well discussed here on the forum, search for 'dutch klewang'. They were also used by US, and the Germans, as well as the Dutch.


Japanese officers were known to carry Burmese dhas in the jungle. The Chindits and Gurkhas acquired a few of these from the Japanese who no longer needed them.


I Finish with a photo of my Dutch Klewang (made in Solingen), which is what they made the heihos from

[Ian]

Valdemar,

Thank you for raising this interesting topic which we have not really considered in detail here previously. Thanks to Wayne also for his images and comments. Like many wartime environments, necessity is the mother of invention. The adaptation of local and captured edged tools/weapons has been a common feature of warfare since history of armed conflicts started. We saw this throughout the SE Asian Pacific region in WWII and the Vietnam War, just to name two of the U.S. skirmishes of note, and earlier in the Spanish-American War and subsequent conflicts with indigenous groups in the Philippines. The use of edged weapons/tools that have developed over centuries in these countries makes a lot of sense. When you need a good tool in a foreign land, look locally.

[ausjulius]

Originally Posted by Valdemar

Does anyone know what Japanese military used for machete/parang/bush knife type applications in WW2?

Search as I might I cannot find anything about the subject. There is an abundance of material on swords but nothing I can find on bush knives.

Japanese soldiers are frequently found festooned with local flora but how they cut it...escapes me unless it was with their bayonets which is very possible. I've also theorized that they issued common natas which being short may have simply been carried in packs and this not seen on contemporary combat photos or newsreels.

A nata collector on a different forum said he'd seen a newsreel of a Japanese soldier using a nata but didn't post a link.

Can anyone help me out here or point me to a source who can?

Thanks.

nata were not very common with japanese troops in ww2 compared to small billhooks, its not good for cutting bush- its short and thick and a tool for aournd the garden and for splitting wood somethign issued axes can do, the most common tools used by japanese and their korean troops in ww2 were cheap agricultural billhooks and heavy sickles on short handles. maybe 30 to 60 cm handle. these and axes appear often in pictures.
you can see some pics of jap troops in malaya and new guinea with billhooks and also photos of americans posing with japanes dead troops with the billhooks shown too, ill try to find some and post them.
japanese troops were suplied very poorly when it comes to cutting tools, knives ect and its odd in a culture where swords were still considered valid weapons that daggers, knives, machetes and such cutting tools were rare with their troops and were not common bringback items because of this, most japanese troops used a single cut file to sharpen the only edged tool they had many times- the long bayonet for their arisaka rifle -to a zero edge and even if the metal scabbard bluntened it it could be used to cut like a rather terrible little machete at foliage becaus eof the thinned out blade profle after filing.
australia troops heavily issued machetes as did the americans and british. it is strange the japs didnt,. but then the soviets didnt either and most soviet troops just used sharpened shovels and axes for this task- and ther eis many areas in russia where a machete is needed in summer semiforested areas are choked with 3 meter high weeds if not grazed regularly, and you can see it with soem of the siberian natives yakuts for example have many long knives and machetely swords and pol arms that serve and both agricultural tools and arms and yet the soviets didnt even issue a pocket knife let a lone a billhook or a machete to troops, they simply didnt care.

interestingly a japanese company manufactured mass produced long micronesian knives in 1920s or 30s they were long heavy bladed traditional knives like those made in guam to be sold in their newly aquired colonies in the caroline islands and also sold in guam by japanese traders. those would have been great in the jungle.
i think it just came down to the same issue as the ussr... the higherups not caring at all if the troops had proper jungle tools or not, afterall they were not the ones cutting the bush were they.. .

[gp]

Japan did convert Klewangs to Heiho during WW2.

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showpo...4&postcount=30

For more and details info, you can contact the Hemabond group:

https://www.hemabond.nl/media/de-kle...blank-wapen-2/