Postcard from Manchuria, help needed with unit translation.

[Rod]

Who am I kidding, Nick, Guy or perhaps Tom this one is for you.

I've circled in red what I think are good translations for the beginning and end of this unit's name but may be mistaken, corrections are most welcome. For the life of me I cannot figure out what the un-circled 4th kanji could be. Help with this is much appreciated.

Rod

[ghp95134]

Clipping with red marks:

16694 ２航軍＊通隊
＝＝＝＝
Postcard:

愛知県知多郡旭村 日長七
安藤飛行場内
安藤梅行殿
Aichi Prefecture Chita-gun Asahi-Mura Hinaga 7
Inside Andō Airfield
Andō Umeyuki
[google translate says 梅行 is Takeo]


新京中央郵便局 軍事郵便使＊気付
満州第一六六九四部隊河本隊
神宝明範
C/O Shinjing Central Post Office, Military Mail *
Manchuria, No. 16694 Corps, Kōmoto Corps
Shinpō Akinori

河本 can be read as either Kawamoto or Kōmoto. When I look up "満州, 河本" (Manshu, Kawamoto) I get Kōmoto Daisaku. Kōmoto was a colonel and recipient of the Manchurian Order of the Pillar of State, First Class. I do not know if this is the man whom the unit is named after.

This Japanese pdf says:
...第二航行軍教育隊 (第一六六九四部隊) 河本隊...
2nd Army Flight Training Group (Troop/Squadron/Corp No. 16694) Kawamoto Corps.


--Guy

[Rod]

That's outstanding Guy, thanks so much! You've given more info than I'd hoped for.

I believe in this case Kawamoto Tai or Komoto Tai (whichever is the soldier's immediate commander's name) is like a house number for postal destination Manshu 16694 Butai. Great to get the Shinjing post reference too!

You've made my day, thanks again!

Rod

[ghp95134]

Rod,

Glad I could help. Let's now wait for Nick to correct any errors and fill in the gap.

...I believe in this case Kawamoto Tai or Komoto Tai (whichever is the soldier's immediate commander's name)

Correct; so, since Kōmoto Daisaku was a colonel in Manchuria, there's a good chance he was the "Komoto-tai" commander.

That Japanese Wiki article I cited above states:

Komonto Daigaku, 1883 (Meiji 16) January 24 - 1955 (Showa 30) August 25, was a Japanese army soldier who worked in the early Showa era. Known as the mastermind of the case of Huanggutun bomb incident.

Huanggutun Incident (English!)

Col. Daisaku Komoto, a junior officer in the Kwantung Army, believed that the assassination of Zhang would be the most expeditious way of installing a new leader more amenable to Japanese demands, and planned an operation without direct orders from Tokyo. His subordinate, Capt. Kaneo Tomiya, was in charge of executing the plan. The bomb itself was planted on the bridge by Sapper 1st Lt. Fujii Sadatoshi. When Zhang's train passed the bridge at 5:23 a.m. on June 4, the bomb exploded. Several of Zhang's officials, including the governor of Heilongjiang province Wu Junsheng (吳俊升), died immediately. Zhang was mortally wounded and sent back to his home in Shenyang. He died several hours later.

Cheers,
--Guy

[ghp95134]

IF you don't mind plodding through the Google Translate version ... here's "the rest of the story"...


In 1883 (Meiji 16) on January 24, he was born as a child of a landowner at Mikkatsuki Village in Sayo-gun, Hyogo Prefecture (now Sayo-cho). He graduated from the Army Military Academy (15th Class, graduation ranking number 97, infantry department) in November, 1903 (Meiji 36), after upper elementary school, the Osaka army local youth school, the middle youth school. He went to the Russo-Japanese War next year, seriously injured. In 1914 (Taisho 3rd year) he graduated from the Army College (26th term, completion order number 24). While a Colonel at the time of the Kanto Army's staff, a bombing incident (1928 - June 1943) occurred, suspension, waiting, transferring a reserve. The 15th term of the military academy is synchronized with the secretary of the second son of Nogi Yoshinori (infantry department, battle dead in the Russo-Japanese War).

Zhang Wu bomb killing case
For details, see "Chingaku killing murder case"
Status of Changwon killing site

In 1928 (Showa 3) on June 4, Zhang Chengbin, who was on the way to return to Manchuria from Beijing under the pressure of Chiang Kai-shek's northern fall, was murdered on the South Manchurian Railway in the vicinity of Fengtian (Cheng Bomb killing case). Originally in the Japanese newspaper was pointed out the possibility of a Chinese spy of the KMT led by Chiang Kai-shek (flight squadron) and was pointed out as a serious incident in Manchuria, but Kohmoto of the high-ranking staff of the Kwantung Army planned the plan afterwards, It was discovered that it was carried out using the independent garrison captain Tetsuo Tohno who was in charge of site security and Kirihara Tadahisa Engineer lieutenant who was dispatched from the Korean army.

The involvement of the Kwantung Army has been rumored since the beginning of the incident, and in a report addressed to Foreign Minister from Consul General Fengtian, it is stated that there were many local Japanese journalists thinking that it was the work of the Kwantung Army. Kohmoto himself said in a letter sent to an acquaintance in Tokyo a few months before the incident, "It is safe to say that one or two people in a crown crewmember could be dead without any doubt, this time I will do it ... .... It is my wish to only rain blood at Mt. Mengni. " Mr. Chantaro Muraoka of the Kwantung Army commander had told Lieutenant Colonel Yoshiharu Takeshita to do the work to eliminate Zhang Cheng in the Jinan garrison army, but Kohmoto held down this and held his own plan.

About the process of this case, Prime Minister Yoshikazu Tanaka reportedly told Emperor Showa to strictly deal with it if it was the fact that there was a possibility that the Japanese army was involved initially, but in the later report aiming to conceal, the anger of Emperor Showa I did not have the cabinet resigned in full. Kohmoto stayed at a mere light procedure on manpower to be transferred to the reserve role in April 1929 (1949) without being subjected to the military law conference, the case was canceled. In response to this measure, General Matsui Ishinro army opposed and continued to demand severe punishment of the mastermind Kohmoto until the end.

In addition, Russian historian writer Dmitry Prohhorov insists that Kohmoto is not the mastermind, but GRU has taken over as a mastermind. For details, see "The crime of the Soviet special agency bureaucracy"

After the incident

After that he became the director of the South Manchurian Railway in 1932 (Showa 7), and became the president of the Manchuria Coalmine in 1934 (Showa 9). It is said to have been attributed to the Kwantung Army that he took over the responsibility for the case of Zhang Winki incident. In 1942, he was appointed president of Shanxi Industrial Co., Ltd. as a national policy company by mediation of Hideya Hanatani of Chief of Staff Chiefs of Staff, and lived in China even after Soviet troops invaded Manchuria.

After the war
For details, refer to "Shanxi Province Japanese Army Residual Problem"

After the war, Shanxi Industry was taken over by the ROC government and changed its name to Northwest Industrial Construction Company, but Kawamoto was appointed as the company's top adviser under the direction of the ROC government and continued to operate the company.

Half of the Japanese civilians who served in the company before the war returned home in the end of the war, the other half remained in the same treatment as before the war, and Kohmoto himself remained with the title of "overall adviser/consultant". The number including family members was more than 1,200. These residuals were due to solicitation by Kohmoto.

Afterwards, Kohmoto was appointed Chairman of the Japan-Oriental Club, Together with the Japanese of Taiwan cooperated with the Shanxi Army of the Chinese National Party of Yanzhou to fight the Chinese Communist Party army [4], but in 1949 (1949) the Chinese Communist Party The military suppressed Taiyu, Kohmoto became a prisoner of war, and was held in the Taiyu camp as a war criminal.

On August 25, 1955, Kohmoto died of disease at the camp. Year of age 72. Inside the camp there was a story [2] from other Japanese detainees that they were being insulted such as "Because of you caused this kind of thing". The remains of Kohmoto were returned to their homeland together with other Japanese detainees and Japanese remains in the 12th Chugoku return ship (Koseidomaru) which arrived at Maizuru port on December 18th the same year [5].

The following funeral was held at Aoyama Funa on January 31, 1956 (Showa 31). At this time, a large number of participants including former Army officials and people from Manchuria Country attended the event. Friend's representative Fumio Okawa gathered "Kawamoto makes me strangely flexible and stiff with both mind and body.It's free to stretch and never fold, never breaking never-to-be, extremely bold, thoughtfully thoughtful, carefully prepared, I will go down routinely. " [6]

In addition, history of Mikazuki Town in his hometown Kawamoto said that "the innocence of the Republic and its decisive action will be recorded for a long time" [7]. There is a prize monument built in 1965 (Showa 40) in the precincts of Meikoji next to the birthplace of Kawamoto by local volunteers. The monument is said to be "war criminal and sick at the camp".
biography

Zenko Hirano, "Fateful foot after Manzhou's conspirator Kawamoto Daisakusa" (Free national company, 1959)
[NOTE: Try this instead: Manshū no inbōsha : Kōmoto Daisaku no unmeiteki na ashiato // The Fateful Footsteps of Manshū Conspirator Kohmoto Daisaku]

[Rod]

Absent the commander's proper name I'll tentatively use Kōmoto (brackets Kawamoto) with the record for this card. That's a great piece of history Guy! I'd love to own something associated with it.

Thanks again!

Rod

[Nick Komiya]

The unit appears to have had a somewhat tentative nature, as the designation you had difficulty making out in the list says 第二航空軍臨時通信隊 (temporary/irregular communication unit). Then a memoir from 1944 has it as 第七航空軍特殊無線隊（Special Radio unit) and then in 1945 it's a training unit as Guy said, but the man went to radio communication school before that, so they did radio related training.

The commander was not that Komoto. Note that the card is dated 28th September 1944; by that time, Guy's Komoto was running a business in China, not a military unit commander.

[Rod]

Thank you so much Nick, it's wonderful that you've identified the unit's formal name and even it's history going forward!

第二航空軍臨時通信隊 (temporary/irregular communication unit). Then a memoir from 1944 has it as 第七航空軍特殊無線隊（Special Radio unit) and then in 1945 it's a training unit as Guy said, but the man went to radio communication school before that, so they did radio related training.

Note: Nick gives the unit's full name, my source shows only an abbreviation of its name.

The commander was not that Komoto. Note that the card is dated 28th September 1944; by that time, Guy's Komoto was running a business in China, not a military unit commander.

Thanks too for the clarification. I guessed as much but in honor of Guy's efforts he will remain Komoto, to me at least, until I learn otherwise.

Nick and Guy, you're terrific!

Rod