Why do you collect Japanese militaria?

[GeorgeP]

I am interested in hearing your reasons for collecting Japanese militaria. My reason springs from being around my grandfathers. Both were in the Pacific during the war, one with the 40th Bomb Group working on B29s in the CBI and then on Tinian, and the other with the 7th Fighter Command on Iwo Jima. I grew up listening to their stories and going to 40th BG reunions, and "the light came on" so to speak. How about you?



Tom

[Paul G]

For me, it all started when my Grandfather in law (George) gave me a late 44 pattern Japanese officers sword. George fought in Europe with the 327th Glider infantry Regiment of the 101st airborne division. George was wounded at the Battle of the bulge and sent stateside for the next 18 months of recovery. George had 29 brothers and sisters (a whole other story) and one of his younger brothers (Eddie) was sent to fight in the Pacific. Eddie brought back 2 swords for two of his brothers, one being George. George knew of my love for history and gave me the sword shortly before he passed away. I had always been interested in military history and collected WW2 German for a while, but that sparked the Japanese bug for me, big time! I love it, and it has now become my main area of military study and collecting.

PG-

[Paul G]

Here is a link with a short story about the sword.
http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...hlight=promise

PG-

[dewoitine]

I'm mainly collecting WW2 steel helmets from all countries (including neutral ones). But after a sales post here by Papa Nambu I got interested in Yosegaki.
After the Yosegaki it was a Senninbari then a gundai techo and since then all: I can find.

I have never taken a single Japanese lesson so each pieces is a challenge and without this board to provide help and clues I may have lost a big part of my interest.

[GHP]

I'm not really a collector, per se; but I have two sake cups and sake bottle from the Rikugun Toyama Gakko. My interest comes from studying Toyama Academy swordsmanship (Toyama Ryu...戸山流). I'd like to find some more Toyama Academy medals, cups, etc. .... but I often forget to place my bid.

Our teacher was trained at the Toyama Academy and taught kendo at a boy's school attached to the Toyama Academy. He was a fencing instructor throuout most of his military career, teaching combat swordsmanship, bayonet fencing, dagger (dismounted bayonet), and cutting.


Dagger v. Bayonet. Sgt. Nakamura on the right with dismounted bayonet


Sgt. Nakamura Taizaburo cutting

Additionally, my father-in-law was a graduate of the Toyama Academy. He later saw action in China, Sakhalin, and the Aleutians. He was a captain at the end of the war; his elder brother was a colonel and received a pension until he died in 1998. My F-i-L missed his pension by only a few months. "All I got was a set of sake cups! Bahhh!"


2LT Funaya Takesaburo

--Guy

[Nick Komiya]

My collecting career started in the early 70s in Japan. The Vietnam War had ended and all the US military surplus items flooded Japan and created a military-look boom in fashion. This further encouraged publishers to introduce German WW2 military fashion by translating the Ballentine book series from the UK, like the book "Nazi Regalia". This generated huge interest in TR items and I was among the first to get hooked in the hobby and built up a substantial collection by 1980 at which time I wrote a book about the German Armed Forces, its uniforms and weapons. A little earlier than that, I started to visit the Sunday fleamarkets in Tokyo and bought up sake cups by the 100s, as they were only about a $1 a piece at the time. I would ship them all to a dealer in the US, whose main clientele were lady's, who didn't mind paying as much as $100 a piece. So this was not bad at all for making money to support the German collection. I would meet collectors of Japanese militaria at these flea markets and we would stop at a cafe after and discuss militaria. It was actually one of them that dropped my name to a publisher, who later requested me to write the book I mentioned.
Having authored the book led to an invitation to join the Japan Military Research Association, where the Who's Who of the Japanese Militaria World were. Chikao Terada, the coauthor of the Nakata book and military technical advisor in many movies, Etsuko Yagyu, a historical costume specialist for movies, who did Tora Tora Tora and a recent reference on IJA uniforms, (a woman, but highly respected by all members, who would address her as Sensei) Shin Ueda, box art artist for scale model kits , Noboru Takahashi, the archive master, author and as a guest member, Warren Sessler were my colleagues there to name only a few. But the drawback was that, having been their youngest member, I had to serve as their standard bearer! The Association had a banner of its own fashioned like a Regimental flag and I had to carry it to the meetings and take it home again afterwards, a real embarassment and drag that eventually caused me to distance myself from the association. I had to part with them eventually anyway, as I started with my job, which took me far from Tokyo. I only really got back into Japanese militaria after coming to Germany. My Panzer collection didn't have much missing, and I was ready for a new challenge. I was blown away by the workmanship observed in Japanese orders and medals, which made the German stuff look quite pathetic, although the latter cost several times more. I collected them in a frenzy and also got a whole set of a EM setup with field gear for Showa and Taisho periods, but that is as far as I would go in view of limited space and resource. I like research and in this forum I tend to pick help themes that seem to have have something new for me to learn. I can't be bothered to translate names, as that can only be a guess at best, and without using the original kanji those names can never be researched anyway. Sorry for being choosey, but those I decide to research tend to get interesting for me as well as the readers, so hopefully it is paying off in the end for all.

[GHP]

...I wrote a book about the German Armed Forces, its uniforms and weapons. ...

Nick,

Is your book still available? My brother-in-law has a strong interest in German stuff (especially armor). I'd like to buy a couple of copies if possible.

If it is no longer available, can you give me the Japanese title so I can do some J-Bay surfing?

Thanks!
--Guy

[maverick87]

I think I might be a generation below some of you guys. I'm in my mid-20s and only started collecting a couple of years ago while in college. I didn't listen to much advice early on and made a lot of mistakes instead of being patient, observing and dong my research before being involved in collecting, but after a while, I found my way. When I first started having an interest in Japanese militaria, after seeing my grandfather's items he brought back from the Pacific, I noticed that there was still some really neat stuff on ebay (this was around 2009). Recently though, it seems like a lot of the really rare items (I guess I'm talking about early helmets and navy helmets, navy caps, SNLF gear) are in collections for the most part. I don't know if I'm right, it just seems to be my observation. I really wanted to have something impressive though, something original, so I decided 2 years ago to almost exclusively collect original photographs. I have been working in Japan now for the last 2 years and I go down to Tokyo and swap meets or events I hear about to search for photos. Most of them I end up listing on Ebay under "Kaiguncurry". My particular interests are SNLF, early helmets (army and navy), scenes of China from 1931 to 1937, some late war navy air force, Chinese collaborators and collaborator armies. I really wish I could have been around 30 years ago when I might have had a chance to get an early Japanese helmet (cherry blossom, star vent helmet....), but for now, I'm content with having an original photo of one with a soldier wearing it.

[chen]

Mr. Komiya,
Any photo showing the cover of the book you wrote?

[Nick Komiya]

Here is the book at Amazon http://www.amazon.co.jp/WWII-%E3%83%.../dp/B000J8APY4

[GHP]

Here is the book at Amazon http://www.amazon.co.jp/WWII-%E3%83%.../dp/B000J8APY4

Thanks Nick.

--Guy

[Nick Komiya]

You might also find the book among collectors in the USA, as George Petersen sold my books there, despite it being in Japanese. It did break fresh ground, mainly because of the numerous full color photos, very uncommon at a time when only B&W was standard fare. Also, I got helpful input from George Petersen and Roger Bender, so the content was pretty good for that time. But that was all back in the early 80s and the knowledge base in that part of the hobby has greatly expanded since then, so you are better served picking up a more recent book.

[Nick Komiya]

No one else? I thought I should contribute to this thread, because I am genuinely interested in the topic and wanted to hear how people got started in this hobby. In Japan, I think Japanese militaria didn't have such a big following in the 70s, as it was a reminder of misery. In those days, there were still many handicapped former soldier/beggars, typically amputees with no legs, etc dressed in army uniforms or in hospital whites, playing the accordion or harmonica on the streets. In those days, the hardcore Japanese collectors tended to be those who had experienced the war-time education, but missed the war, having been too young. I feel that the younger generation only started to join in the 80s or so, by when the negative image started to fade. Thus prices went up in the 80s, and when the economy crashed in the 90s, prices also took a steep dive and has shown slow recovery since.

Some collectors of Japanese items seem to have Japanese partners. Was that a factor in starting the collection? How does a Japanese partner feel about it? Does she see that as a positive interest in her cultural background?

[GeorgeP]

Thanks for the information Nick (and thanks to everyone who has contributed so far)! It was interesting to run into first hand opinions about the war in Japan whenever I went to flea markets that had dealers with wartime items. I remember a time at a flea market in Tokyo when I found a dealer with a few sake cups for sale. I got into a small conversation with him about the cups and basically it boiled down to: "Few people collect this stuff, we lost the war." And although I am sure it was a humorous end note on the conversation before I left, I will never forget what the dealer said with a smile: "We will win next time!"


Tom

[Jareth]

My Mother's Father was a Merchant Marine Captain. He lead an exciting life from traveling up the Yangtze River in a side wheeler with the Dollar Line during the 1920s, being torpedoed by the German's and in a life raft for two days, being cluster bombed by the Japanese, crossing the equator numerous times & through both major canals. I sat on his knee while he told me many wonderful stories and showed me many period photos. He gave me my first Japanese item. It was the cluster bomb that fell on the ships bridge. Luckily it was a dud. The crew dewatted it & presented it to him as a gift. I have all grandpas uniforms, medals, photos, certificates, ship logs etc. My Father was an antiques dealer. Anything military that came in I earned by working around the shop. I gravitated to the Japanese items because of Granpa & because of the Japanese art my Father collected.