229th Infantry Regiment Tag ????

[muddyboots]

I picked this tag up and suspect it’s from the 229th Infantry Regiment. The center column is what is giving me trouble. I think it’s 4th Company and below that is replacement and the markings after that I can’t figure out. Any corrections and help would be greatly appreciated. I haven’t got it in hand yet to take a better picture.

[Nick Komiya]

I cannot read the stampings at this fuzzy focus. When the tag was issued, the first column was blank and the second column was stamped with the replacement unit where he got trained. An old tag from pre unit code days was used still having the default 中 there. When he eventually joined the field unit, the first line was finally entered with the code number of that unit. In this context, the middle column no longer indicated the company.

[muddyboots]

Thanks Nick and it’s a interesting tag and I can’t wait too get it in hand to take a better picture and post it.

[muddyboots]

I finally got the tag today and there was a lot of tape residue on it that I slowly removed with boiling water and a toothpick. Still got a little to go but it’s readable. The very last mark in the center column. It looks like it might be this 面 but I’m not sure because of the lack of strokes at the top. Any thoughts are welcome.

[Jareth]

Acetone will safely remove residue & not polish your tag

[ghp95134]

... It looks like it might be this but I’m not sure because of the lack of strokes at the top. Any thoughts are welcome.

That's an older way of writing 回 kai/iteration/turn

[Nick Komiya]

Now we can be sure that the tag is from the 229th Infantry Regiment. The only muddled part is which unit supplied the induction training and sent him off to the 229th Inft Rgt as replacement, which is recorded as the middle column. The middle column has been obscured by adding 3 gibberish stampings, but it originally was stamped 中　補　第１, short for 中部補充第１部隊, code for 留守第３歩兵団 (3rd Ift Reserve Corps). Both the 228 and 229 regiments were components of the 38th Division, a division having only 3 Inft Rgts composing 1 Corps instead of the traditional 4 Rgts, composing 2 Brigades.

The photo below is from the regimental standard bestowal ceremony of the 229th as held on 14th Sept. 1939.

Here is a memoir of a former regimental standard guard (one of the guards sandwiching the standard bearer). in his case, he was assigned to the 229th from 中部第4部隊 code for 68th Infantry Regiment Reserves.
Google translator's result is surprisingly readable in English, though it is originally in Japanese. He writes how as guard of the flag bearer, he was never allowed to keep any tunic button unbuttoned even in the sweltering tropics, unlike his comrades.

[muddyboots]

Thanks Guy I never would have figured that one out. Now I’m hoping for a way to figure out it’s use on the tag.

[muddyboots]

Thanks Nick for breaking that down and so there’s a possibility that this is a early tag. I wish I had this soldiers pay book and when he entered service.

[muddyboots]

There is slim chance this tag might have been picked up in the Admiralty Island’s. The 229th sent about 550 men of the 1st Battalion there in early 1944 and there might be a link that a 1st Cavalry Regiment Veteran may have brought this back. The gentleman I got this from had a uniform to the 1st Cavalry Division along with other Japanese items but he got this stuff with a bunch of other stuff from a gun shop years ago. So slim link but without the pay book no real chance of proof.