Japanese Displays

[Eric Zentner]

Very nice thanks for showing!

[Alan M]

Ritchie , tell your friend i`m in heaven looking at his wonderful collection

[Wagriff]

I sure hope this lad has full Insurance on his collection! He has enough value in there to float many a boat! Very impressive, for sure!

[tomp]

I am curious about some of the items in the collection:
1) I cannot make out the kanji on the cap tally of the IJN sailor's cap, is it for an IJN machinists school?
2) I see that there is an IJA unit hand booklet in the collection (right in front of the Kempei armband)--Is there unit information marked within the booklet?
3) There is an IJA dogtag as well--Is the unit known?
4) Anything unusual about the swords? -- shrine blades, unusual stamps, etc.?

Always nice to see a collection.
Thanks!

Tom

[RichieC]

Thanks guys!

Tom, I'll forward your questions ASAP.

Regards,
Richie

[RichieC]

Hello Tom,

This is what I received in regards to your questions. If you are able to translate some or all, he would be interested in knowing...

[tomp]

Thanks for the closeups. I will see what I can find out for you. What I can say initially is the sailor cap is unissued and is from the Yokosuka Naval QM. A very unusual cap tally, something I will have to verify, but it is connected to an IJN school for sure. The dog tag is I want to say for a fortress construction duty company, but I cannot recall the exact unit. I will have to recheck my source for more information. The booklet (guntaitecho) is highly interesting, to me at least, in that it looks to have been canceled out and reissued to another soldier! All IJA soldiers received this booklet to record things like unit designation, uniform measurements, unit movment, sickness, etc., so it is a mystery as to why a different soldier would be given a used booklet. I don't know if your associate has the time to take more pictures, but within the booklet, there should be an area in the booklet (maybe two or three pages past the page in the above pic.) that has handwritten kanji separated by small red stamped circles. This page with the red circles has the soldier's activation, unit movment, transfers, hospital stays, etc., and might be able to shed more light on the history of the booklet. Unfortunately it looks as if the superior/sub unit sections on the photoed page have been left blank, but I believe that such a lack of stamped/written info. is not horribly uncommon in these booklets, particularly in the mid/late war era.

Tom

[Ben Evans]

Looks like a couple of nice German buckles just winking out

[milmuseum]

Very nice collection. I like the knee mortar round. It's in great shape, I have one still in the can with the sock and fuse.

Thanks

Burt

[tomp]

Some extra info on a couple of the items: The cap tally basically says "Naval Machinist School". I would think that this is a rare tally in the grand scheme of things--the first time I have seen such a tally. Your dog tag has the unit designation: "west" 2774, which is for the 6th Fortress Construction Duty Company. The middle number 6 reiterates the company number and the left column is #14, for the individual soldier number. This unit's superior unit was the 32nd Army, which was based on the Ryukyus (one island being the famous Okinawa). There were other garrisons on surrounding islands (like Miyakojima) that saw limited/no combat in 1945 and this tag might have come from one of these garrisons. Ultimately I cannot say. Unfortunately I do not have more detailed OOB on this unit--it may very well have come from Okinawa. A tag with an interesting unit designation, especially when so many tags found have infantry regiment unit designations. Hope this helps.

Tom