1. The Miao Dao was so popular with Chinese warriors that some even took the sword into battle during the Second World War
It wasn’t only the Japanese officers who went into battle with their samurai swords as late as the 1940s; their opponents in the Second Sino-Chinese War had ferocious bladed weapons of their own. Indeed, the Miao Dao was wielded by many Chinese troops during the bloody conflict, which raged from 1937 to 1945. While it may have been no match for a machine gun or grenade, the sword is a deadly close-up, as Japanese soldiers learned to their cost.
Meaning ‘sprout saber’ due to the way in which it resembles a sprouting plant, the Miao Dao is similar to a European military saber crossed with a traditional Japanese sword. Most measure around 55 inches, of which 38 inches is the slightly curved plated steel blade. The long hilt meant that it could be swung with two hands, though it was light enough for a strong soldier to attack one-handed. Alongside being used in the heat of battle, contemporary histories of the war also reveal that the Miao Dao was also used to execute captured enemy soldiers, usually by decapitating them.
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