Japenese soldiers glasses?

[maximus71]

Hi All,
I picked these up to add some personal touch to my pacific theater items, they are broken and the story goes they were taken off a japanese soldier, not sure dead or alive, but anyway what do you think? do they stand a chance? and yes I know, buy the item and not the story but I figured I would ask. Thanks for any help
John

[ghp95134]

永田眼鏡店

But yours is written from right to left:
店鏡眼田永
Nagata Megane Ten

Nagata Optician [/Optical/Spectacle] Store

[reversing the order to modern "left to right" readings:

上[諢?]訪不局[?]
Probably the street address; I know the first questionable kanji is incorrect .... but it looks something like that.

電話二六一番
Denwa ni-roku-ichi ban
Telephone number 261

--Guy

[maximus71]

Thanks guy, the case is made of steel I believe and the cloth is a olive green color. Frames are a tiger stripe pattern I assume this was available during the period of WW2. Whoever wore them was pretty blind because the lenses are thick.

[haru]

Some pictures of similar ones in use.
I use a pair myself.


(Note the bowl cap on the guy on the bottom right. Never seen it being used with T98 before!)

[Dean]

Looks like the Japanese wanted their men to see the target.

[haru]

I think the second pic is because they're all cadets mobilized from top colleges. You know you're screwed when you have to send your best nerds to the front.

[ghp95134]

I think the second pic is because they're all cadets mobilized from top colleges. You know you're screwed when you have to send your best nerds to the front.

In the second photo -- the officer with the sword is Lt. Takesaburo Funaya .... my father-in-law; the others are not cadets, but his soldiers. Later a captain of artillery, he served at Attu, Kisska, Sakhalin Island, Manchuria, and South Pacific. His older brother was a lieutenant colonel. He graduated Waseda, then graduated Yokohama Business College (sort of like grad school). I asked why he attended two colleges, his answer: "To delay going into the military."

Otoo-san (father) said his troops respected him because he did not hit or abuse them.

Nerds? Well, I guess so. Artillery troops were always more intelligent due to the mathematical requirements for plotting, calls for fire, adjustment, etc. Same with mortars.

Original post at WAF

--Guy

P.S. He also graduated the Sendai Officer's Academy then went to the Rikugun Toyama Gakko for further army studies to include fencing, both kendo and gunto swordsmanship. When I told him I studied Toyama Ryu swordsmanship, he said, "That's not budo .... that's real combat swordsmanship!".

[maximus71]

Very interesting, do you have any of your father in laws items?

[ghp95134]

Nope. Just copies I made of his photos. His son, my brother-in-law, has the diaries and original photos. He also has a ranking in kendo from the Butokukai, but I was unable to find that when we went through his papers. I wanted to get a copy of that for my wall. The Dai Nippon Butokukai was the award authority for all martial arts during that period ... and I so wanted his certificate (kendo, but don't know which rank).

He received the set of sake cups for his military service after 1945 -- but he was extremely upset because he missed a pension by only a few months, so he threw the cups away. His older brother, the Lt. Colonel, did receive a pension (and when the brother died, the wife continued to receive 100% of the pension).

Wish he kept the cups. Oh, my wife remembers playing with his Officer of the Day sash (seen in the photo above) and his wind-up leggings when she was little.

Cheers!
--Guy

[maximus71]

Ahh I see, I was hoping you would say that you have that sword in the photo on your wall, now that would be neat!
I purchased this photo to display with the glasses