Piece of shrapnel with note

[Daniel Griffin]

I bought this at a flea market in Osaka, it is a piece of shrapnel wrapped in a piece of paper and housed in a small cloth pouch. Can anyone translate the writing? Thanks for your help.

[Daniel Griffin]

The flea market in Osaka

[GHP]

砲彈
Houdan
Artillery shell

破片
Hahen
splinter

[ROBB]

Why do Japanese people wear surgical masks ? you see them in London trapsing arround and you are thinking what is there the SARS virus out there and only the Japanese know about it ? . Anyway nice find . Rob

[J7W22007]

Why do Japanese people wear surgical masks ? you see them in London trapsing arround and you are thinking what is there the SARS virus out there and only the Japanese know about it ? . Anyway nice find . Rob

It' s common to see Japanese people with masks on. Lot of Japanese people have　allergic inflammation or hay fever. Some have minor symptoms and some have severe symptoms. They have to wear it to avoid as much grass pollens as possible, and a form of hygiene.

By the way, that's a neat piece of history.

Regards,
Taka

[Walter Schmidt]

Which market is this? I might be going back to Osaka sometime and I wanna know which ones have militaria.

[GHP]

It' s common to see Japanese people with masks on. Lot of Japanese people have　allergic inflammation or hay fever. Some have minor symptoms and some have severe symptoms. They have to wear it to avoid as much grass pollens as possible, and a form of hygiene.

By the way, that's a neat piece of history.

Regards,
Taka

Also, people who have colds will wear masks so as not to spread their germs to others. I can't count the times my wife has caught a cold because somebody (American or Japanese) was NOT wearing a mask. Then she says, "if they were raised properly they'd wear a mask!" (Kind of forgetting that it is not a U.S. custom )

--Guy

[Daniel Griffin]

砲彈
Houdan
Artillery shell

破片
Hahen
splinter

Thanks very much for the translation.

[GHP]

Thanks very much for the translation.

Glad to be helpful.

--Guy

[Papa Nambu]

Makes me wonder if someone picked it up on the battlefield or had it removed in the hospital.

[GHP]

Makes me wonder if someone picked it up on the battlefield or had it removed in the hospital.

Or had a near miss -- near enough someone would want to keep a souvenir.

--Guy

[Bill D.]

Very interesting piece, Dan!

I'm pretty sure that somewhere out there is a collector who could tell us the type of artillery round that fragment came from !

[JCB]

Japanese flea markets

Dan, I visit your website all the time. damn, I wish I could visit Japanese flea markets!

Jim
Japaneseordnance at Yahoo.com