Yokosuka Naval Arsenal Worker's Badges
While combing through the archives I came across uniform regulations for workers at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal. At the end I found badges featuring anchors, which I think someone had once asked about on a forum.
As they are otherwise obscure badges, I thought I should put them up here in case anyone asks again.
Getting a pebble out of the shoe
Here are badges from the Sasebo Arsenal, according to their 1927 regulations. One can see that Weapons Dept, Shipbuilding Dept and Engine Dept were distinguished by the badge design.
This chart also helps to finally put to rest the identity of the small aluminum badges, which have the kanjis 山 and 王, one above the other. We had been on a long wildgoose chase for some years, because of reading it as two Kanjis, as "Sanno", but actually its not 2 characters, but only 1/3 of the kanji 徴, featuring only the middle one of the 3 vertical structures comprising the single kanji. It is the same thing the navy did with personal ID numbers starting with the naval base abbreviation, followed by whether one was a volunteer or conscripted.
This rarely used 1/3 abbreviation stands for conscription, meaning that those who wore these badges were conscripted into war production services. I can understand the abbreviation in the ID number, which you have to write so often that cutting out strokes really helped the sailor, but in the case of this badge they could have easily featured the whole kanji, so it is puzzling why they abbreviated it here.
This obligatory labor service was introduced in July 1939, based on the National Requisition Ordinance (国民徴用令). At first, it was only Japanese nationals, but from August 1944, the Korean population was also required to serve, which is still a nagging diplomatic issue between these two nations.
Early Showa worker badges were different for each arsenal, but these badges for civilians called into labor service likely were universally used at all arsenals (so many had to be made all at once, so it would not have made sense for each arsenal to make their own) . The photo below shows it being displayed at the Maizuru Arsenal Museum.
It has long bugged me like a pebble in the shoe, so I simply had to deal with it, though the badge is hardly worth anything.
This information is excellent! Thanks, Nick!
Tom
Nick how would you identify these two? I assume larger one is a cap badge. Smaller obviously a button. Kanji says " factory"?
A few more
I.D. worker badge Sasebo Arsenal
.group leader shipbuilding department
,
I had this identified but lost notes!
You probably already know this much:by Jareth
技術
Gijutsu
Technology
横須賀海軍工廠
Yokosuka Kaigun Kōshō
Yokosuka Navy Arsenal
Hopefully Nick can fill in the details.
--Guy
Similar Threads
Posting Permissions
.
Bookmarks