POTD: Buy Your Own Sidearm – Japanese Hamada Type One

Welcome to today’s Photo of the Day! Here we have a Japanese pocket pistol that exists because of an import ban. This is a Hamada Type One in 7.65mm, developed in 1940.

Japanese officers bought their own handguns. The service issued Nambus, but an officer was expected to arm himself, and what a lot of them wanted was a small European or American automatic. Browning, Colt, Mauser, all of it moved through Japanese shops before the war. Once the shooting started that supply dried up, and there was money sitting on the table for anybody who could build a compact 32 at home.

Bunji Hamada’s answer borrowed its general layout from the FN Browning 1910: blowback operated, hammerless, small enough for a coat pocket. It is a clean little gun by the standards of late war Japanese production, which is not a high bar, and the Hamada was drawn up before the worst of the material shortages hit.

Nobody knows how many were made. The records went up with everything else, so the numbers you see are estimates. What is known is where most of them went, and it was China with occupation forces rather than the Pacific islands. That is why so few came home in a duffel bag. A GI bringing back a Nambu or a Type 94 is ordinary. A Hamada is not.

There was also a Type Two in 8mm Nambu later on, and those are scarcer still.

Most of our POTDs utilize images from our friends at Rock Island Auction Company, the premier firearms auction in the United States. Take some time to browse their current auctions – who knows, maybe you’ll find a piece of history to take home!

“Rare Japanese Hamada Type One 7.65mm Semi-Automatic Pistol.” Rock Island Auction, www.rockislandauction.com/detail/4097/341/rare-japanese-hamada-type-one-765mm-semiautomatic-pistol. Accessed 2 Aug. 2026.

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