Chinese Dadao swords, polearms, spears and other weaponry, captured and seized by the Imperial Japanese Army, seen here, stored in Japan for familiarization purposes during training with troops who will be sent to China.
The Chinese, who were split into warring nationalist and communist factions, were often equipped seemingly random equipment. While the Nationalists in the South and West were supported by Allied lend-lease and were supplied with adequate arms and combat training (which was mostly stored until taken over by the PRC, and, ironically, used against the US in Korea), the Communist armies of the North were sparsely supplied by the Soviet Union and relied somewhat significantly on older, home made weapons – with the intention to capture Japanese weapons. It was not until the war against the Nazis turned to the Soviet’s favor that the Chinese communists were able to receive significant assistance in the form of arms and ammo.
