Military diary

[JerryK]

Hello,

I found this diary in an old bookstore. It measures about 4"x5". It has the name of the American soldier who found it and the address in the U.S. where he sent it. It is full of Japanese writing, patriotic prints and stamped characters. A slip of paper inside has some information on what I presume was the owner of the diary. No idea if this info is accurate or not. Picture of front and back cover. Any information or ideas on diary would be appreciated.

[JerryK]

inside pages

[JerryK]

inside

[JerryK]

The diary is about as thick s a pocket Bible.

[GeorgeP]

Interesting!
Looks to be a diary used by someone in the IJN, dated 1943. From what I can tell, the person wrote in a lot of names/ranks in the pages posted. From the numbers and kanji, it looks like the owner of the diary may have originally come from the Yokosuka naval base. From all the red stamps, it looks like the souvenir hunter got into the Japanese field post office and embellished the diary. I don't know about the description of the diary in English. There looks to be a mixture of IJA and IJN appropriate words, like "major", "marine" and "division" so at least for me, it is confusing. The IJA 36th Division was on New Guinea during the war, but I do not know if there is any kind of geographic connection there and where it may have been picked up.

Tom

[JerryK]

Thanks for the reply. The soldier who sent this home was in the 24th Infantry Division. They fought in New Guniea.

[mcmike]

This is a very nice find. I wonder if the areas highlighted in red on the map had special significance to the soldier; perhaps places he was stationed.

Mike