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It was adopted and was popular.
The M-93 trench periscope also was popular and it was issued
in a metal covered long wood box. The M-89's production totalled
about 200,000 and the production of the M-93 reached several
hundred thousand.
It is interesting that
of those manufacturers-major ones like Nikko,Toko and other
smaller size ones-about ten of them would be very strong companies
after WW II in the field of optical products and later computer-related
products.
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The
Manufacture of Optical Weapons
It was a problem in every year from the mid-1930's on and,
as stated in the History of the Japanese Army Arsenal, in
1940 optical weapons were " the most inadequately prepared
capability." In 1940 the production of optical sights for
the M-97 sniper rifle was only 1,868, or 31% of the targeted
6,000 units; of the targeted 4,500 M-93 binoculars only 3229,
or 71.8%, were produced. As a countermeasure to underproduction,
operations were accelerated at the government factory facility
which was a division of the First Tokyo Arsenal in Omiya,
Saitama Prefecture, near Tokyo, and planning and production
of optical weapons at private companies was promoted under
long-term goals. To resolve under production many private
companies were mobilized, and actually more than ten companies
were manufacturing and providing the needed products. Without
the supply from these companies a sufficient supply of optical
weapons could not be ensured during WWII even with this total
mobilization and the large production efforts.
Optical weapons manufacture was supervised by Tokyo First
Arsenal in Omiya. Omiya made about 30% of the optics by themselves.
Two major optics manufacturing companies were Nikko and Toko,
and these companies made a little less than 46% of the optics
total in 1942. Following is the identification of the major
optics manufacturers and their markings.
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