ww2 Japanese pay/record book

**jeeplover** · 11-26-2023, 11:57 PM

Thank you for the information I think I found a little more information on the 51st army
Fifty-First Army (Japan) - Wikipedia

**Akira Komiya** · 11-27-2023, 07:17 AM

The first Paybook belonged to infantryman Shinsuke Sato from Yamagata Prefecture who entered service on December 1, 1939 and served in the Chinese theater of war as a motor vehicle driver, which must have been a very rare skill in those days. He served in various infantry units including HQ 24th Infantry Brigade, the 24th Infantry Division's Medical Unit and the 3rd Company of the 32 Infantry Regiment until he was discharged on March 6, 1943 at the rank of 兵長（Lance Corporal). He was awarded the Chinese Incident War Medal on April 29, 1940 and a good conduct chevron on January 1, 1941 and upon his discharge received a good conduct certificate as well as certificate of eligilibility as an NCO.　
The second booklet belonged to signalman Shigeo Nakagomi (there are other possible readings of the surname as in case of almost all Japanese names but "Nakagomi" seems the most common reading) from Yamanashi Prefecture born January 1, 1926 who was drafted to what appears to be the Manshu (Manchuria) No. 806 unit -the photos are too unclear to be certain-on March 9, 1945 but stayed in Manchuria for less than 2 months as he was transferred to the Ken (建）No. 7590 unit under the 51st Army upon its establishment and reported for duty to the unit at Kasama, Ibaragi Prefecture on May 4, 1945. He was chosen as potential NCO material on August 10, 1945 which was cancelled on September 1, 1945 for obvious reasons and was instead promoted to Private 1st class on the same date. As Guy-san wrote, deciphering paybooks is a pain even for native Japanese so this is as far as I can go.

**ghp95134** · 11-27-2023, 08:41 AM

Wow, Akira-san -- that is a great abstract of both books. Thank you so much.

-- Guy

**tomp** · 11-27-2023, 03:19 PM

Some great info already! A couple of extra points, I hope they are of help:
The notation of automobile driver is highly unusual to see in these booklets, for whatever reason. Interesting to see.

The soldier spent a good chunk of his time in Manchuria, in the province of Dong'an.

This part is heavy conjecture: If this came out of an antique store, I suppose there is a good possibility that it is a vet. bringback (with the flood of items coming out of Japan via YahooAuctions and ebay over the past several years, this can more and more be called into question, unfortunately). Although there is a discharge entry in 1943, I can't help but wonder if he was picked back up for the 32nd Infantry Regiment and sent back out to someplace like Okinawa in 1944. There is interesting fighting history of the 1st Battalion, 32nd Inf. Regt. on Okinawa during the war. Ultimately, one can only go by what is actually entered into the booklet and add possibility to the rest. I have a heavily soiled 14th Div. example that was possibly picked up on Peleliu with similar entries ending a few months prior to the battle of Peleliu in 1944 and feel that it was picked up there, but no entries directly point to that.

Thanks for sharing!

Tom

**jeeplover** · 11-27-2023, 06:36 PM

Akira Komiya
Words cannot even begin to describe how grateful I am that you took time out of your personal life to translate these for me. I will be printing out these translations and placing them in the books that way the next caretakers of these pieces of History (hopefully my kids) will be able to enjoy them as much as I do thank you very much.