Your concern is a valid one, and I appreciate your approach to this topic. I have also run into the worshipful attitude which some have for the katana, and their consequent ignorance regarding the sword. I would suggest entertaining a related idea which may help exploring this issue of Japanese katana and European sword:
If it were to become common to refer to the katana as a type of "sabre" rather than a type "sword", then perhaps many disputes about one vis-a-vis the other would disappear.
This is not mere semantics. This is about accurately describing things with distinctive words. This is a needed starting point for reasoned and scholarly debate.
If this does not suit the majority opinion and/or vocabulary, then perhaps the majority should reconsider its reasons for insisting upon the status quo. Or take a class in logic or debate.
Now to the idea of sabres: The shape, cross-section, bevel, number of edges (one), curve, hand-guard, cutting dynamics, and so forth make the katana a type of saber. Its similarities to a sabre are most certainly far greater than to any weapon of Oakeshott-type X, XI, XII, XIII. XIV etc., any of which is a sword.
That said, if a simple definitive understanding were reached, then perhaps a better understanding of each type of weapon would be less contentious for all concerned.
If we consider the Japanese katana a sabre, then such would probably lead to more reasonable and reasoned comparison in much the same way as when someone compares a European sabre to a European sword. Get it? <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" />
In any case, it would at least be calling something what it actually is, rather than what most people typically and, arguably, unthinkingly say it is.
Good luck,
