Japanese Passbook

[kingsmountaincollector]

I recently purchased a Japanese passbook and have spent some time trying to translate it. The service history pages are full and all of the soldier's personal information is filled out. It seems that a lot of the entries are from 1935-1939. It also lists his awards and civilian life before the war. I believe he was an Infantry Sergeant. I would be interested in any information on the soldier that owned this passbook. I was also curious if this soldier served in WWII as it has a Joint Intelligence stamp.

[tomp]

He was in the 11th Division, 12th Infantry Regiment, Infantry Gun Company. Lots of nice battle/garrison entries, including training maneuvers from 1935 until when he entered an army hospital in 1940, where the entries end. Also a Nomonhan Incident entry in there, too. Parts of the 11th Div. were shipped off to Guam, but there are no entries past September, 1940 to connect this booklet to that island. It is a head scratcher, at least to me, why the stamp is in there. Maybe a new booklet was opened for some reason for the soldier, but that is doubtful. You don't often find intel. stamped booklets. Unfortunate that there is no further info. within to point to a definitive location of capture.

Tom

[kingsmountaincollector]

Thank you for the information Tom. That is interesting about the stamp, considering the entries appear to stop at 1940. The 12th Infantry Regiment was at Guam, but like you mentioned, there doesn't appear to be any later entries. Does it list any other battles or any specifics about the Nomonhan Incident?

[tomp]

It looks like his unit was providing defense at that time. There is one prior entry connected to the Nomonhan blurb, but it is obscured. It is the two entries straddling the binding in the center on last page of entries/second to last page.

It looks like a lot of the battle/garrison entries occur in the late summer through autumn of 1937.

Tom

[Jareth]

So he was possibly killed before making that entry?

[tomp]

If I am understanding your question correctly, Jareth, I would say no. A whole bunch of entries would need to be present to make a connection to US involved wartime with the Intel. stamp, including movement out of China, movement to the island to be garrisoned, etc. A lot of my captured wartime examples have such movements and usually end with roughly: "garrisoned on island X" as the last entry. Maybe there are other artifacts out there with Intel stamp #190 that have extensive provenance.

Tom

[Nick Komiya]

His name was Kiyoshi Iwazawa. His first tour of active duty was from Jan. 1935, at the age of 22 and he was discharged in November 1936. All that time, he remained in Japan. After the China Incident, he got called back as a reservist in Sept. 1938 and after his stint in Nomonhan, etc, he made Sergeant in Sept. 1940 after a 2-month hospital stay for Bronchitis, where entries end abruptly. He obviously did not die, as that would have been recorded by the company that kept his pass (they did not carry passes on person in the field). They probably issued him a new pass for lack of pages.

[kingsmountaincollector]

Thanks for all the extra information on this passbook and the owner. I was not aware these were kept by the company and not carried in the field. As you mentioned, he was likely issued a second one.