Japanese fighting knife ??

[helmetbuyers]

Hello forum...

a friend emailed me photos of this knife he has.

He wanted to see if I could get it translated.

It was removed from a dead Japanese soldier.

I think it's a threatre made knife the Japanese soldier must have made or bought along the way.

does it say something on the leather scabbard.. or is that just a symbol?

sorry for the poor photos. I have not seen this in person.

he thinks it's made of brass.... but looks steel to me. thanks for the help. Robert

[helmetbuyers]

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[helmetbuyers]

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[helmetbuyers]

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[Paul G]

Reminds me of a prison shank! It looks aluminum to me. Also, the design on the scabbard does not look like Japanese Kanji, more of a design, or a GI attempt to copy Kanji characters.

PG-

[Paul G]

Also, the rayed sun design has 10 rays instead of the normal 16. Looks like its more probably a GI made item.

PG-

[GHP]

Looks like an attempt at "Military"

軍

Romanized as "gun" but pronounced "goon"

Or perhaps

一
車

Car # 1 (but wrong syntax, I think)

--Guy

[traderray]

I have been looking at militaria since age 14 now 66 i have only seen 1 knife refered to as a utility fighting knife on page 169 in the book War in the PACIFIC pearl harbor to tokyo bay by bernard c. nalty. this belongs to the marine corps museum and looks like a butcher/skining knife. The blade is similar to the knife you have here so to me its possible but i believe its us gi made. I have a question also for anyone. I have never seen a japanese machete other than the southeast asian nata type supposed to be copied and made by japan in ww2. I once read an i witness report of japanese landing in new guinea equipt with shouvels that were holed and machetes.does anyone know if the japanese used captured us or british machetes or even purchased some before the war?