Comfort Bag

[MichaelB]

This Comfort Bag version is done in silk and has a large red sun in the front, much like the white cotton variety previously posted. This bag has 4 characters rather than the standard 3 that say, "Imon Bukuro". In this instance, the 4 characters literally say, "honorable comfort article", the difference being the character at the bottom of the vertical line of script. MichaelB

[grimnar]

Great thread Mike.

Here are two of mine.

[grimnar]

A comical looking example. I believe the right side says "Soldier San" and the left says "How are you?". From my research I think it might be referencing a popular 1939 song called "兵隊さんよありがとう". Maybe, maybe not.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FW39uioyR8 (The song)

[grimnar]

Lastly, while not a bag is did play the same purposes as the imon bukuro.

[MichaelB]

Grimnar-
Thank you for posting your Comfort Bags. I have never seen the second one with the various faces on it. Thank you too for providing the translations. Did you translate the information lines on the first bag (the example with the sun on the front)? I enjoyed the image of the box that you posted as well. Did this contain various "comfort items" inside it? Or, Was the box used to gather and pack individual comfort bags that were sent to the men overseas?

MichaelB

[MichaelB]

I wanted to make an observation with regard to Comfort Bags: there seems to be a variety of commonly seen bags; by commonly seen I am referring to the artwork on the bag. Many of these more typical bags are generally encountered in an un-used condition, so are probably dead stock items or ones that never made their way into the field. In addition, I have observed a number of these dead stock bags gathered together in groups of 10 bags or more and sold as a single lot in Japan; so, they are not un-common. Some of those never used bags (as well as used), may be observed to still have their price control labels affixed to the bag after all of these years. Others have the official control tag as well as the store's paper price tag still glued to the outside of the bag. For a discussion on Price Control Labels, please see Nick's thread linked below:

War time labeling of Civilian Goods

It appears that for that small group of Comfort Bag collectors, the bags that have their, "To:..." and "From...." columns filled out, seem to be more heavily collected. Like anything, a bag with a story can be more interesting for someone wishing to research an event or place in history. This thread provides examples of both complete and incompletely filled out bag.

MichaelB

[MichaelB]

This Comfort Bag was recently sold. I have not seen this variety in the past: it contains a navy style anchor with sakura blossom near the top. Many of the bags encountered seem to have army or land based themes on them. The bag shown also has a number of lines of characters inked to the front. I apologize for the poor images as I have used the publicly posted photos to illustrate here.
MichaelB

[MichaelB]

The following Comfort Bag is interesting as its theme shows a bird flying along with a nobori or banner in its mouth. The 3 vertical kanji on the banner say, "Imon Bukuro". To the left of the bird, one may see the outline of a bomb being dropped. The character in the bomb's tail fin says, "To:...". The bomb itself is blank, allowing for someone to write inside it the name of the person, etc. to where the comfort bag might be delivered The price control tag and price may seen as well.
MichaelB

[grimnar]

Thanks Michael.

The used imon has the address and name of a student from the Ouchi School District, Suzakujo Town, Kyoto (大内学区朱雀正会町) Unfortunately I cannot work out the sender's name, but I do know the imon bukuro was sent to 2nd class private Yamaguchi of the 80th Infantry Regiment whilst he was in China.

From my understanding, the box contained similar sorts of items as the bag. I'd presume it was for more fragile and bulky items that wouldn't survive in a bag.

Cheers.
Matt.

[Nick Komiya]

That box would have contained filled bags. Unless you could join a large collection drive done by the municipality, one would pick up such a box from the local post office and fill it with bags. The box is already pre-marked as prepaid by the army for delivery to a consolidation depot where contents got inspected and joined other bags in wooden crates for rail and ship transport.