Japanese Dog Tag Identification
Article about: Hello, Im really starting to like the japanese dog tags, im sure some of you in this forum have seen these 2 japanese tags before... But i still would like to get some Info on them both to h
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Ben, I know the collection you are buying from and have had contact with both the collector and seller. I have absolutely no doubts or concerns about the honesty of either man, in fact I found both to be terrific people.
The collection contains over 500 overwhelmingly original Japanese tags and engraved plates from various sources, including battlefield ground-dug ones. It was begun in the 1980's and continued to grow until recently, so the chances of finding a questionable item or two exists to the same extent such items came into the market from time to time.
The para tag and Kempeitai plaque are original and rare. Wish I'd gone for that para.
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The stamping kits for the unit would have been kept by the master sergeant at company HQ, so basically all WW2 tag stampings were completed in the field by stamping the field unit's code in the right most line. Thus tags were supposed to be all "field made", using stamping dies. I have seen a few screwdriver tags that were believable, but your tank regiment tag was not done by a Japanese, because it is misspelled in terms of stroke order, see here.
Though I do believe that tags partly done with screwdriver may have existed, I find it almost impossible to imagine a scenario where a master sergeant has no access to a stamping kit.
Tags are first issued by the training unit in Japan, then stamping is added at the field unit when assigned. Master sergeants of both the training unit and the field unit using a screw driver becomes doubly unthinkable.
An exceptional case would be a soldier losing his tag and being ordered to make a replacement himself as punishment, but in that case I would expect him to get the Japanese right.
If you are not specializing in Japanese tags and don't know the language, I strongly recommend you to stick to ones that are 100% stamped.
Aluminum tags are not a problem for WW2 as explained here.
I have no issue with the tag for the 3rd para regiment nor the MP one from the 1st Ship Freighting HQ (Nr.6168). Is that photo cropped or is that tag really shaped like that?
Here is the stroke order for 撃
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Nick,
Thanks for looking into it i really appreciate it… Also thanks for the Map... Really nice to see where this tag exactly was before... that’s pretty cool info, possible he was an officer I thought maybe MP guys weren’t issued tags… therefore leading to private purchase fancy tags like this one here... Because not deployed overseas they maybe werent priority to be issued tags by the Military in the first place... Was my thought atleast.
I will definitly keep those pictures for later reference, so was the 6168 Code for that Unit or does it mean something else how did that work, were they assigned to this unit as MP guys????
- Ben
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The kanji 暁 (akatsuki) was code for Army Seafaring Units of which 6168 was one of the 12 Freight and Transport commands established in various ports in 1940. The MP unit came under the command of this 1st Army Freight and Transport Command HQ and was obviously responsible for the security in the Chikuko area of army warehouses, etc.
MPs were 100% army units, though their authority covered the navy as well as civilians, so they had normal army tags for EM and NCO ranks.
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First ID Tag:
歩三四
中 四
番一八二
Infantry 34
4th Company
No. 182
＝＝＝＝
2nd ID tag:
陸軍
軍医少佐小川馨
Army
Military Doctor Major Ogawa Kaoru
Note: I'm used to seeing 醫 for doctor instead of the simplified form 医.
According to Wiki, simplified forms were used, but were seen as inelegant!
Cheers,
-- Guy
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Hey guy!
Thanks much for the fast translation. I'm glad both plates seem authentic and I didn't get "screwed" with a screwdriver marked fake plate!!
These are really neat and I can see why so collectible.
Cheers and take care!
Ben
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I cannot claim to be knowledgeable in dog tags but I have to say I am not comfortable with the second tag. For one, the notches on both ends for the tape are clearly crudely hand cut; even though officers’ tags were private purchase items, I would expect that they would have had access to proper blanks at the Kaikousha (army officers’ club which also doubled as a Kleiderkasse, sales outlet for uniforms and equipment.). Second, the rank designation of “陸軍軍医少佐”- Army Medical Major is strange, almost as if the wear of army uniform was not sufficient and they had to add the word “Army” to have the man recognized as an army officer. Incidentally, the use of the character “医” to denote doctor here is proper. Although the character “医” did not get used until 1946 to denote doctors (it originally meant quiver as can be seen by the arrow “矢” in an open ended box), it was used as an abbreviated form of “醫” where writing the full character was difficult.)
Third, even officers’ tags had unit designations whereas here they are none. It seems that a major is a rather high rank to be left idle without proper employment.
I will paste a link to a useful article on the evolution of army dog tags written by my late brother as well as a site which show some examples of original army doctor dog tags. The collector posting the second site has a truly impressive collection and I suspect he himself is a doctor based on the special interest shown in army doctors’ items as well as the occasional use of medical tools to prop things up, etc.
Dog tag article: Wehrmacht-Awards.com Militaria Forums
Site showing army doctor tags: 帝國陸海軍で活躍した軍醫達！
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