The LOC pistol. An example of Nazi chicanery.

[ccdjg]

It must be wonderful to be 100% sure about something.

[Benelli B76]

After 7th December 1941 the Americans would have preferred the German origin over Japanese.

Baz

[silva]

It must be wonderful to be 100% sure about something.

"It is very rare and was only available in the USA in about 1938-1939. There has been much debate about the truth of the “Made in Japan” mark, and there are two schools of thought. Firstly, the statement could be true, and the pistol is a Japanese copy of the Dolla Mark II, or secondly it was a German-made Dolla MK II with fake markings, intended to deceive the US Customs at a time when Nazi German imports were banned. If the markings are true, then that would make it the only the second spring air pistol known to have been made in Japan. The pros and cons of these two schools of thought are discussed in detail in the Vintage Airguns Gallery here"

I like a good yarn as much as the next man, but though tariffs were placed on german goods, I believe German imports were not banned by US customs until 1940 or 1941 as far as I am aware, by which time the USA was at war with Japan.

Not sure about the tariffs on toys but Nazi imports were not banned. Stoegers were importing DWM and Mauser made Lugers into the US until 1940, so imagine they were letting air pistols in until then. Pretty sure Mauser had a US dealership too for its sporting rifles.

https://www.landofborchardt.com/1930ms3-sect10.html

[ccdjg]

Yes, you are correct, America did not totally ban German imports until 1940. But prior to that there was an imposed 25% extra tariff on German imports, and there were other factors that made it expedient for German exporters to conceal the 'Made in Germany' origin. The
"Ask Historians" website discusses the same question, (https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistoria...ng_ww2_before/) and states:

The transatlantic trade between the US and Germany was decidedly anemic by the invasion of Poland in 1939, and Britain's naval supremacy destroyed what was left. As the January 1940 issue of Survey of Current Business put it, "direct shipments to Germany, relatively small in recent years, fell almost to zero." . Direct American exports to Germany were nugatory while German imports trickled into the US via third-parties and typically consisted of smaller items like glass Christmas decorations.

There is uncertainty about the dating for the LOC pistol, due to total lack of any catalogue data or any other type of documentation, so the dating 1938-39 could be 1939-1940, or even wider. The important thing is that there would be an incentive for Anschutz to fake "Made in Japan" markings at that period of time when trying to get their products into Germany, and this is much more likely than a Japanese company suddenly starting to make a rebadged version of the JGA pistol at that very difficult time.

Even so I, am not 100% certain, only 90%.