The role of any infantry is to take and hold territory, and as personal and support weapons became ever more powerful, that was often achieved by using sufficient firepower to persuade the enemy to retreat. However, actually coming into physical contact with an enemy was always a possibility, and in areas of particularly heavy vegetation, such as parts of Asia and the Pacific, it was sometimes possible to get very close to an enemy without their being aware, and to then launch a surprise attack at the point of the bayonet. The Japanese military ethos strongly emphasised fighting spirit, and paid great attention to bayonet training, encouraging the Japanese soldier to get up close to his enemy, particularly where that enemy enjoyed an advantage in terms of firepower. This aggressive spirit was both feared and admired, and it probably meant that the soldier of Japan was more willing to meet his opponent in hand-to-hand fighting than that of any other nation.

Most sets of Japanese infantry assume the men are in a sunny climate, as shirt-sleeve order and sun curtains/havelocks are common components. This set makes the same assumption, as all but two of the poses wear the sun-curtain, but all the men are wearing a tunic (the type 98, or possibly the later type 3) rather than a tropical shirt. The standard tunic came in summer and winter weights, both of which looked the same, so it is only the sun-curtains that make these hot-weather troops. The breeches, puttees (with ‘cross’ strips) and boots every soldier here wears are all standard, and the majority wear a helmet, leaving a handful wearing just their peaked field cap. Everything about this costume looks good and is accurate.

The supply of uniforms could be very difficult, particularly for garrisons far from Japan, and the same was true of the men’s equipment. The standard personal equipment was a rather old-fashioned arrangement of two leather pouches on the front of the waistbelt, and a larger one at the back, but this ideal became increasingly rare as the war progressed, and only one pose in this set sports this full kit. The rest have to make do with fewer pouches deployed haphazardly on the belt, as well as some water bottles and haversacks, though these are not worn by all here, so this mix of items and positioning illustrates well how far from the ideal many Japanese soldiers looked by the later years of the war. One item in particular caught our eye, and that was the entrenching tool. Generally Japanese entrenching tools were attached to the pack, and carried with blade and handle separate, having to be attached and secured before use. Four of these poses have such an item, and while one man in the second row is waving his over his head, the rest have theirs hanging from a string on the left hip (since none of these figures have a pack). When attached to the pack, the blade was below the handle, and the same is true here, though we could not find any photographic evidence of this arrangement, and it does look somewhat strange. If the tool is already assembled then the handle is rather short, although various sizes were actually issued. No one has a mess tin, but we had no problems with the equipment on show here.

Every man apart from the officer carries a rifle, which makes sense as these men are in a melee. Japanese soldiers habitually had their bayonet fixed when in action, but here the men using their rifle as a club do not have one (perhaps this is why they have resorted to using it as a club). The rifle seems well done as far as can be seen, but noticeably all the bayonets have a straight guard, rather than the common ‘J’-shaped type, which we would have liked to have seen. The men have their bayonet scabbard on their left hip, and the officer has his sword in the same area, although this is hanging from a baldric rather than the waist belt. The officer also has a holstered pistol, so all of the weapons here are suitable given the theme of the set.

The sculpting is fairly good on these figures, with decent detail and good proportions. The faces are okay, but the definition on some of the hands is basic or missing the fingers completely, and the overall appearance is good rather than great. However these figures are let down by the quality of the moulding, because they have a fair amount of flash on almost every seam, and this is often quite thick and angular rather than a smooth line following the contour of the figure. It will come as no surprise to learn that there is also quite a lot of excess plastic in areas that the mould could not reach, particularly on the last pose in our top row and the second man from the left in the second row, both of whom are moulded as you see them. This is of course a problem with highly energetic poses like these, and for the most part the sculptor has handled this problem admirably, though there are limits when all the figures come as one piece.

Perhaps a discussion of the poses is the most important aspect of this set. It must be said that rifles are not clubs, and any army would be horrified to see soldiers using them as such, as they would often then be useless for anything else. In any circumstance this would be a measure of desperation, but at the end of a long and highly unreliable supply line, damaging a rifle might well mean you then had no replacement and would be of little further use (not to mention every recruit knew his rifle was the property of the emperor, and not his to destroy). That is not to say it never happened of course, and often Japanese troops were indeed desperate, but the clubbing poses in this set, while adding much drama to the scene, are not the most useful of figures. Those using their rifle as some sort of shield to parry a blow are also in danger of damaging their weapon, although if they see a blow coming towards them this would be a natural reaction. However the poses that would warm the hearts of their officers are those using the bayonet. The use of the bayonet was linked with the sword of Japanese history, and greatly emphasised as we have said, and several here are using it in various ways. Whether they all conform to the standard drill is doubtful, but all looked pretty realistic to us. Generally, some of the poses are a little awkward, but these are challenging positions to model with a traditional two-piece mould, and on the whole we thought the sculptor did well in conveying something of the violence of a hand-to-hand fight.

Although Japanese troops engaged in close-quarter combat have been made before, this is the first time that a whole set is devoted to the theme. Despite the inherent problems that such poses offer the sculptor, this is a pretty good effort at depicting such a struggle, and the accuracy is also good, with a nice variety of clothing and kit. The quality of the sculpting is somewhat tarnished by the amount of flash, but nothing that can’t be trimmed off with a little patience. With many sets of Japanese infantry already available, this set should mix well with them, and add a bit more action to a scene as these latter-day warriors struggle face-to-face with the enemy.