war correspondent patch?

[harley guy]

hi ...i was wondering if anyone could translate this patch...i was told it denotes war correspondent... after the end of the war in occupied japan...thnx in advance

[harley guy]

back

[plmurphy]

The characters translate as American Army Photographer but I suspect it is Taiwanese rather than anything to do with Japan.

[blinky]

Paul, is that because of the style of kanji or something else? I've seen similar patches that were described as being used in occupied Japan but with no solid history behind them. The pattern is pretty much the same as the US Army Photographer/Correspondent patch but the construction I've seen on at least one of them is similar to that of post-war Japanese police patches.
Interesting pieces, I really want to know more about them as well!

eric

[plmurphy]

Paul, is that because of the style of kanji or something else? I've seen similar patches that were described as being used in occupied Japan but with no solid history behind them. The pattern is pretty much the same as the US Army Photographer/Correspondent patch but the construction I've seen on at least one of them is similar to that of post-war Japanese police patches.
Interesting pieces, I really want to know more about them as well!

eric

What makes me think it is Taiwanese is the second character from the left. The first two characters are Beikoku in Japanese or Meiguo in Chinese, meaning America (literally "beautiful country"). The character for country is of a very old form that was used in Japan before the war but replaced by a more simple version in (I beleive) the early 1950s. Taiwan (and Hong Kong) still use the older version of the character seen here.

Regards,

Paul

[blinky]

Makes sense because the US pattern was worn into the 1950's I believe.

eric