Japanese Dog Tag Identification

[benpitch]

Wow...this is very interesting info Akira!! I appreciate all the work that your late brother put into researching these plates. You certainly are a huge help... The link you provided is really good history on this piece too. Many thanks again...I'll wait and see if anyone else chimes in on the authenticity of this one. Cheers!

Ben

[Akira Komiya]

I have also reread my brother's research and found that prior to November 14, 1917, ID tags for Warrant Officers and above were to bear only the rank and name of the bearer and only with the November 14, 1917 specification change were officers and warrant officers to have unit designations inscribed on the tags. See posts 4 and 5 at the following link: Wehrmacht-Awards.com Militaria Forums

However, my previous statement that the Doctor's tag is wrong still holds as the rank of Medical Major "軍医少佐" did not exist prior to 1937.
I think carefully studying my brother's research is an absolute must for anyone interested in collecting Imperial Japanese Army ID tags.

[benpitch]

So under that designation it would be correct except the rank, Medical Major did not exist at the same time period suggests it's not authentic. I will definitely do some more digging into your brother's research which is a huge help!

Thanks again Akira! Cheers

Ben

[Akira Komiya]

Yes, prior to 1937 the major equivalent rank for an army doctor was “三等軍医正” a rank I was at loss how to translate into English and thus omitted in my previous post. Since then, I found a reference book which translated the rank as “Master Surgeon Third Class” which I thought was a masterful translation. (No pun intended.)
Thus, the company grade ranks were “三等軍医”-Surgeon Third Class, Second Lieutenant equivalent, to “一等軍医”, Surgeon First Class- Captain equivalent and the field grade ranks were “三等軍医正” Master Surgeon Third Class- Major equivalent to “一等軍医正”-Master Surgeon First Class- Colonel equivalent. These got changed to the normal army rank designations with the “軍医”-Military Doctor prefix on February 12, 1937, but by then it was mandatory to carve the person’s unit designation at the rightmost line with those awaiting assignment to a unit leaving the rightmost line blank to be entered into once he got assigned to a unit.