Japanese Letter, Research Question

[zachb]

I have this letter written by a Japanese Colonel as you can see below. I have searched before to try and find information pertaining to Japanese commanders and officers in Malaysia at the end of the war, and the colonel specifically, but to no avail. I have Fuller’s SHOKAN , but of course it has, mostly, general officers and admirals’ biographies.
Before having the letter framed one could see some interesting water marks in the paper, and there is printed Kanji at the bottom of the document. One can see the notation at the bottom presumably made by the British commander to his adjutant/secretary. Any ideas where I might find out information about Colonel S. Tajima? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Many Thanks, Zach



“ September 29, 1945

To the British Military Commander
in charge of the Malacca District.

Sir,

Although on the 23rd inst. I made a written petition to you, I beg you again the following items most urgently needed to be approved by you with special consideration. Those are : -

1. Please let the Japanese Military Committee Representative and his attached officers, 3 in number, who have been dispatched from the Headquarters at Taiping, immediately go back to the Headquarters. The Japanese Military Representative for other districts were already sent back to Taiping.
2. Please send the civil officers to their respective main bodies, because they are the officers who had been staying at Malacca left behind their main bodies in order to hand over public services to your side.

Yours Obediently

Colonel S. Tajima
The Japanese Military Committee

Representative at Malacca.”


“I will see this Col. on 4 Oct.
(Thursday) at 1000 hrs.

ﻍ 3/10”


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[zachb]

Hanging in the War room.

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[zachb]

No one has any ideas? Thanks for looking.

[imperialjapan]

I had a look, but it is puzzling since it is written in English. Having the Colonel's full name in Japanese would help a lot. And, as you are probably aware, investigating lower-ranked soldiers is difficult unless they did something noteworthy (good or bad).

I notice there is a stamp in Japanese at the bottom. What does that say? And how would one translate 'The Japanese Military Committee?' Is there a specific phrase used by the Japanese? Cheers, Rich

[zachb]

Rich,

Thank you for your interest and help. I'll search the web tomorrow and see if I can find any more info on the use of "Japanese military committee," somehow that didn't occur to me (though I have assumptions on what it might mean). Here is a picture of the Kanji at the bottom of the letter. Also, before I had the letter framed one could see water marks in the paper (seemed like a bird motif if I recall). Thanks again, any further ideas would be greatly appreciated. By the way welcome to the Forum, glad to have your participation. Zach

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[imperialjapan]

Looks like the blue stamped line merely refers to the type of paper used. Not sure about the bird watermark, but on some official military documents one can see the Imperial Paulonia Leaves watermark. If it is a bird, perhaps they used the Imperial Ho-o (phoenix-type creature). Cheers, Rich

[zachb]

Thanks Rich for the further information. I figured the Kanji was just a label for the stationary.

[zachb]

I'm putting this back to the top in the hope that somebody might have a fresh idea on finding information regarding Colonel Tajima. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.