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This week I picked up a Type 99 Arisaka from another fine member on this site. Here it is next to its former foe: the M1 Garand.
This Arisaka was made in 1942....produced while my grandfather recovered in the hospital from wounds sustained at Pearl Harbor.
This past week I've thought a lot about its history. What happened to the soldier that was issued the rifle? Was it in battle? Who was the G.I. that brought it home?
The rifle that was made by an Empire (an Empire that nearly killed both of my grandfathers) to conquer Asia now hangs on my wall. I've nicknamed it "Ozymandias" after my favorite poem about a long forgotten ruler.
The final stanza of the poem, and the rifle on my wall, serve as a reminder that good triumphs but, good or bad, tyrant or saint, we all pass to the sands of time.
"And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
This Arisaka was made in 1942....produced while my grandfather recovered in the hospital from wounds sustained at Pearl Harbor.
This past week I've thought a lot about its history. What happened to the soldier that was issued the rifle? Was it in battle? Who was the G.I. that brought it home?
The rifle that was made by an Empire (an Empire that nearly killed both of my grandfathers) to conquer Asia now hangs on my wall. I've nicknamed it "Ozymandias" after my favorite poem about a long forgotten ruler.
The final stanza of the poem, and the rifle on my wall, serve as a reminder that good triumphs but, good or bad, tyrant or saint, we all pass to the sands of time.
"And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."