Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Japanese WWII Sword input requested.

Those bombs saved millions of lives.




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No my Dad was a PFC. He did tell about himself and another Marine hauling a load of ammo from the beach in a jeep through a field of what he called sugarcane. They were on a track beat down through this field of really tall cane, beat down by tanks and jeeps and trucks, when a Jap Zero came zipping along from the coast following this track and strafing them. They jumped out of the jeep, one going left one going right while firing their Garands at the plane. It never pulled up, just kept flying the same course until it crashed into a hill. He didn't think they hit him but that he had been hit attacking the fleet.

I do have, on my dining room wall, an old chain and weight driven wall clock that Dad found in a cave he cleared after a few grenades had been tossed in. It had been some sort of command post or something and the grenades had knocked it off a rock ledge breaking the case. His Dad made a new case out of good old MO. cedar after it came to MO. I've got his Marbles sheath knife that he thought was issued to him on Guadalcanal. The stacked leather handle has been replaced with flattened, stacked cartridge brass and plexiglass from a Zero's canopy. It was what he used hunting for the rest of his years.

Did your Dad ever speak of the Habu snakes?

Might want to check out Legacy Collectables, they deal with WW2 weapons and have Japanese swords on their website. I've never dealt with them but they note appraisal services.

https://www.legacy-collectibles.com/edged-weapons

Thanks for the story and pictures.. glad it's finally home
Chris

No mention of snakes that I recall, us kids would ask him and he’d give vague answers. He did mention a zero coming over. He also mentioned being at Shuri Castle and Naha. And again atone point he was guarding or defending an artillery emplacement over the Bay and saw kamikaze attacks of shipping. One night on guard duty he throughly perforated a goat moving around in the dark.

Some more interesting pics….

There’s a retaining catch that falls naturally under the thumb on the draw.





Note in the previous pic above and below how roughly finished the brass blade collar is…..

The blade was originally polished to some extent, there are a few nicks on the moderately sharp edge. Heck coulda been guys horsing around with captured swords at some point.





The sheath is covered with leather, brass at the top but with a thin wood lining. It feels too light to be brass, maybe wood?

Who knows now what the X II meant. Factory marks?



…and the tip of the sheath….



I’m really happy it’s still in as good a shape as it is. My nephews all knew my dad well when they were kids, this is a great heirloom 😎

Thanks for the helpful input all.

Be careful!!!!

Congratulations on a cool sword. There are alot of variations in the Jap swords. So this is my opinion and is worth what you paid for it.
It appears to be late war fittings probably machine made blade BUT many extremely old valuable swords were mounted in military furniture. It would not be an NCO swords as the handles were metal. The sheath is wood covered with leather I was told leather covered sheathed swords were carried in combat.
You may want someone with experience to remove the wood pin to take the handle of. Some have signatures and dates in Kanji on the tang also Arsenal stamps mostly on non traditional blades.
Chogi oil(clove oil) along with a cloth ball with fine powder is used in cleaning the blade. Yours looks like it needs a more aggressive polish/cleaning.
The blade is traditionally not supposed to be touched with your hands. I have seen blades with finger hand rust on them.
There are alot of books on the care of Japanese swords. I could go on and on as to what the Japanese names are for the swords parts but that would be boring for most.
I used to collect buy/sell alot of swords. A little knowledge can be dangerous when it comes to buying and selling. Have fun learning about and enjoying your piece of history.

If I've learned anything from being there while my wife watched Antiques Roadshow, it is that you shouldn't make ANY attempt to clean or take it apart until a genuine expert looks at it.

That'll look good with your Alamo kit

Wondr if there’s any DNA on the blade?

Pretty cool! I dug out the sword my father brought back from the war. He was on Okinawa in 1945 also, but flying as a bombardier/navigator on a B-25. My father told me in their spare time they explored the caves and bunkers the Japanese had occupied and found a lot of souvenirs.................swords, knives, firearms, flags and more than a few deceased Japanese. He told me he found a much longer and more ornate sword, but it wouldn't fit it in his duffel so he left it behind when they shipped out. It's a wonder this one survived my brothers and I when we were young. Other than some staining, the blade is in good shape and if you get the light right you can still see the tempering line. It doesn't have the locking tab like Birdwatchers, having a leather thong that used to have a snap to secure it to the sheath.

Cool photos, looks like that sword is more ornate than the one in our possession.

Seems appropriate to post this here, taken on Okinawa, my father is in front, in the middle. I never saw this photo until after my father’s death, my mother had it put away with other photos so I do not know the names of the other guys.

My father was always proud of his service, at his request he was wearing his original dress blues in his casket, 21 gun salute at his funeral. He just didn’t like to talk about his experience on Okinawa.



Some time after he made rank, the gentleman standing is also in the Okinawa pic.