Japanese Medals

[stoogeco]

Hello ALL! I'm hoping I might be able to get some help with these medals. There are 2 medals and a small pin. They were brought back from WW2. The DAD was on the USS Taluga when it was hit by a Kamikaze bomber. Everone aboard the Taluga survived. These medals were taken from the pilot of the bomber. The American soldier was Alexander Theodore Cieplik. I am trying to get information on the medals, the rarity, and the value. The family is looking to sell them, and I just don't have any info on them. Any help is greatly appreciated, as always. Thank you for your help!!

Dave

[Paul G]

I can't comment on the medals, however I would be very careful with a story like that. I would expect any medals that were on a bomb laden Kamikaze aircraft to be nearly obliterated!

PG-

[stoogeco]

Thanks Paul. I do believe the story though. The Taluga survived the bombing without too much damage, and the planes were not obliterated. Thanks again.

[Papa Nambu]

The one with the yellow writing I can't read because it's a bit too stylized for me, and the photo of the back isn't clear enough to be helpful to someone of my skill level.
The second one is an award for good attendance or diligence 精勤 the photo is upside down.
The last one is some sort of school pin.

None of these are military, they are probably school pins. While it is entirely possible a Kamikaze pilot, fresh out of high school, might take a few mementos along with him, without any documentation no one is going to believe they are kamikaze associated, and without that they aren't worth much. Japanese schools, sports, and other various civilian organizations used (and still do use) all sorts of pins and badges, you can find boxes of them at any Japanese flea market.

[chen]

The one with yellow wordings means " To praise your merit ".
The other one has two vertical rows of wordings. The right side , I guess, has the following meaning while the left side I can not see clearly.
1. Japan
2. a name of certain class
3. heavy
4. industry

[Nick Komiya]

The first badge, if indeed worn by the pilot, would indicate the pilot likely came from Korea. The badge is a merit badge for employees of a Japanese steel company who were located in current North Korea.
Here some company history. http://www.koshuha.co.jp/eng/history.html

[Torpedomaat]

My font is not the same as that of the medal, but hope this helps.

Haruki

[chen]

My font is not the same as that of the medal, but hope this helps.

Haruki

The picture is still too small to see.

[Nick Komiya]

So that rules out Korea and puts the worker in Tokyo.

[stoogeco]

Thank you

Thank you all. Here is another photo of the back. Thanks again!

[chen]

After reading the right hand side translation in post #5, then continues at the left hand side as follows:
1. company ( this 4 wordings is typically a japanese type "company")
2. product
3. ?
4. workshop

[Nick Komiya]

The new photo simply confirms that Haruki's reading was spot on and adds nothing new. He would have been an employee of the company's Tokyo plant.　Either way, as Papa said, despite the story, they are unfortunately not valuable nor really desirable in the militaria sense. With such a big story attached to it, the trinkets are worth much much more to the family than to any collector, so it makes no sense to pursue them for resale.