Imperial Japanese pay book and other?

[Thanatos]

Gday all,
Picked up these two WW2 era Japanese books the other day and not quite certain of their identies. I feel sure the one with the star is a military pay book but I am not certain of the tan coloured one.
I don't collect Japanese militaria and was hoping someone out there could identify them for me.



The images were mixed up when I downloaded them.
The "paybook" page images are numbers
2,3,4,5 and 11
The remainer are the unknown book.

The loose slip of paper came from the supposed the "pay book".
The pages are very fine and appear to be made of rice paper (I think) in the tan example but the pages of the "pay book" are somewhat thicker and appear more Western like in construction and material.
The "pay book" also has internal flaps which protect the pages and seal the book.
Any assistance with these would be appreciated gents.

Sorry the images got mixed up when I downloaded them and that I can't seem to get them in order.......apologies again.

Thanks for looking.
Cheers and all the best
Dave

[Eric Zentner]

Very dang cool mate..

[Thanatos]

Gday Eric,
Something very different for me I must say.
I tend to stay clear of Japanese militaria for some reason but picked these up cheaply.I may on sell them as yet, not sure.
The one with the star I am quite certain is a general services pay book but the other I have no idea what it's purpose was.
Have a good one mate
Dave

[tomp]

The tan colored booklet is what is called Seinen Gakko Techo (Youth School Handbooklet) From what I understand, this school was an alternative to the junior/senior high schools, and was focused on future factory workers/farmers. Basic military related drills were included in this kind of school. The other booklet with the star is called Guntaitecho (Army Unit Handbooklet). All IJA soldiers were issued one. It included basic information on the soldier: name, DOB, address, superior/sub unit ID info., as well as his history with the unit he was in, unit transfers, unit movement, hospitalizations, battle participation, promotions, and sometimes death entries. Although there is a section that includes pay entries (mostly in regards to unit tranfsers), a lot of other information was entered. It looks like your two booklets belonged to the same soldier. It is rather uncommon to find the two booklets together. The entries in your army unit booklet are limited. It shows his year of birth was 1918 as well as two roll call stamps for the years 1942 and 1943. Basically he showed up for a yearly rollcall which was entered in his booklet (The two bluish rows of stamped Japanese on one of the pages. ) Little else is written in the army booklet. These are fascinating pieces of history! Sometimes a booklet can show a soldier's lengthy history within several units. I have a few in my collection that show the soldiers fighting in units based in Manchuria and then being transferred to units in the Pacific--places like Iwo Jima, Eniwetok, Saipan. Thanks for sharing.

Tom

[Thanatos]

Gday Tom,
Thanks a bundle for that mate,greatly appreciated.
Picked these up here in Australia and from what you read this guy appears to have had limited military service.Maybe he was employed in an essential war time occupation and never left Japan.
I guess It's possible that these two handbooks were picked up during the post 45 occupation of Japan by a BOCF serviceman?
Speculation on my part though.
Thanks again Tom you have done me a great service mate.
Cheers and all the best
Dave

[tomp]

No problem. With the wide use of Ebay these days, its possible they could have made their way to Australia from Japan fairly recently (past decade). I follow several Japan based dealers on Ebay who sell Japanese militaria and these pop up fairly often. Without further entries in the army booklet though, it is hard to say where exactly they came from.

Tom

[Thanatos]

Thank you again Tom.