Is this an IJN anchor variant? Also, translation help, please.

**WeezyB** · 09-06-2019, 04:48 PM

This looks like an IJN anchor insignia, except for the stock is different. Anyone know why and its significance? Also, can someone please translate the kanji on the clock face and side? That may offer a clue as to authenticity and origin. WWII? Thanks, Tod

**Adrian Stevenson** · 09-10-2019, 06:46 AM

Hi Tod, sadly not something I can help with, but I am sure you will find help here.

Cheers, Ade.

**christek** · 09-10-2019, 08:11 AM

Very interesting item. I have not yet seen that symbol. Merchant Navy?

**ghp95134** · 09-10-2019, 05:42 PM

This one was not easy for me. I had to look at each kanji and presume what the meaning was ... which is not a good way to translate Japanese.

一週間捲陸用二型
One-week Winding, Land Use, Type 2
(I'm guessing it's good for seven days with one full winding???)

横突航備
Transverse Navigation Equipment
Here's the problem for me: I do not know if 突 is a prefix or a suffix! Is it 横突 (yoko totsu) or is it 突航 (tokkō)? If a prefix, 突 is an emphatic. Arrggghhh. I. don't. know!!!

While searching the phrases, the only find was "一週間捲陸用二型" showing a photo of your clock, and the writer stating that with that phrase, someone might be able to find the manufacturer ! She said

その際に、Nの祖父にことづけて、
「帰ったら受け取るから、とりあえず自分の荷物を一緒に持って帰ってくれないか？」
と、この時計と、小さい刀（わきざし）を渡したそう。

その後、結局その軍人さんを見つけることが出来ず、何年も時が流れ。

her [American] friend's grandfather was aboard a ship when the war ended and he returned to the US without landing; another soldier who had been on Okinawa asked him to take this clock and a wakizashi and keep it for him till after he out-processed. He never was able to find that friend afterwards, so ended up keeping the table clock. [Or words to that effect.]

**Jareth** · 09-10-2019, 09:56 PM

Regarding anchor symbol it's just a variant in design. I can't comment on age of clock. That I leave up to Guy as to WW2 period or post war

**ghp95134** · 09-10-2019, 10:23 PM

by Jareth

....That I leave up to Guy as to WW2 period or post war

Bad advice, there!!! I'm no expert -- but judging from the link I provided above, it should be a pre-1946 clock.

(^__^)

-- Guy

**WeezyB** · 09-11-2019, 01:02 AM

Thank you very much for your assistance with deciphering the writing on this clock, which arrived today. I normally don't buy first and ask questions later, but that's "normally." I will take it apart and clean it, which almost always offers more information about its age. The guy who sold it to me included a handwritten two-page note, entitled, "The (Perhaps True) Story of Your Clock." It hung on the wall of his grandpa's tavern in WA from 1945 to the early 1960s, when the place closed. At the end of WWII, a bar patron named "Lefty" donated it to the tavern. He said he brought it back from Japan, where he was stationed during the occupation. "He obtained it from a Japanese Naval office which was being used as a headquarters for the U.S. Navy. Lefty and a few of his buddies started a fake fight in the hallway, which gave Lefty an opportunity to remove the clock from the wall. Putting it in his duffle bag, he left the building and kept his clock treasure in that bag till he came home stateside." Maybe, maybe not. But any bar story with a guy named Lefty bears repeating!