Why do you collect Japanese militaria?

[Sgt. Steiner]

My mom served as a nurse in the US Navy in the Pacific during the war. She had a 12 year old brother and sent him a lot of gear and items the GI's and Marines gave her. She was smart enough to keep the Type 99 rifle and NCO swords out of her brother's hands and even from her sons until we were older. That personal connection is what started it for me.

[dog soldier]

I will be honest I was into German combat helmets but that became far to expensive a habit , so I kicked it and moved onto a Japanese headgear addiction .I can afford the cravings at the moment but I am needing better quality gear so it's becoming expensive.

Plus to be truthful the pacific series got me interested .now am sitting with 8 helmets ,4 NLF of which two are netted and 4 army of which one has a cover with the guys name and a follow the leader stripe .

I have a beauty of an army with the guys name unit etc sown into the liner , I have never seen so much detailed info sewn into a liner

Graeme

[Paul G]

There are some nice reasons here! Great to hear the stories.

PG-

[grimnar]

A very interesting subject. I have been interested in history for as long as I can remember and having my grandfathers and a great uncle(POW in Changi) serve during WW2, I naturally started collecting bits and pieces concerning Australia's involvement in the above war. After much reading and learning I decided that a yosegaki hinomaru would be a nice addition to the collection....... and that's where it started! Next it was a Senninbari and then it was a tunic and then a medal, another flag and it all went down hill from there.

So as well as having a ww2 Aussie and American army and marine plus an Aussie and US army Vietnam war collection, I have a Japanese army collection to round it all out.

I also have a very amazing wife who allows me my pleasure and has even allocated a whole room for me to indulge my hobby in.

Cheers fellas

[jonsey2001]

Dear Nick,

I have enjoyed reading your writing in this forum. I have been collecting (hoarding) for only a few years. My interest in Japanese items is not focused on any specific area. I have yet to fully understand the code of honor (as I call it), my feeling is that the Japanese served with such loyalty and honor, that is it is a privilege to own or possess anything from war time, that belonged to a Japanese soldier. Secondly, I collect because it is fascinating and I enjoy the social aspects, having met a couple of amazing veterans. One in particular was a US Navy Pilot who was on the Hornet when it was sunk he spent a few days on a beach of Iwo Jima. He showed me a set of wings he had purchased and he boldly stated, "I earned MY WINGS in 1942!"... This is why I collect.

Kind regards,

George

[gunto]

I started in 1981 with samurai swords when I saw Shogun on television.
My father have always collected arms from denmark , so I have had swords, uniforms and headgear around me all the time.
In the late 80's ,i got my first NCO gunto and then it was shingunto and other stuff from the japanese army. Then sold it all and keapt the navy stuff insted.
So im only collect navy stuff now and samurai swords, tsuba's and what ever I fall for.

[Bill Grist]

I too collect Japanese Items... One of my first weapons was a T-38 Rifle given to me by an Uncle that had been an infantryman in the 81st. Wildcat Division on Anguar and Luzon... I also had another Uncle that was a Marine at Midway and Guadalcanal, His unit was Marine Scout Bomber 241...BILL

[MikeB]

Why I collect Japanese Militaria

I grew up hearing stories about World War Two from my dad, who was a B-17 pilot and from my uncle, who had fought throughout the Pacific. My uncle was pulled from a front line position and told that he was needed for a top secret mission. Prior to the War, he had worked as a heavy cargo loader/operator in the Libby Glass factory in northern Ohio. Once he made his way to his new position, he was told that he would be used to help load a new weapon onto a B-29. The bomb, he discovered, was supposed to be of such horrible character, that it would bring the War to a hopefully, swift end. After that, Paul Tibbets and the Enola Gay took off and flew into history... One of my first Japanese items was a good luck flag, that I was lucky enough to purchase when I was a young boy. Earlier, I had developed an interest in flags of the world. That first Japanese signed flag was all of the collecting bug I needed to ignite a passion that has continued for a lot of years.

[GHP]

... My uncle was pulled from a front line position and told that he was needed for a top secret mission. .... help load a new weapon onto a B-29. ....After that, Paul Tibbets and the Enola Gay took off and flew into history... .

Now THAT family history is just too cool! You have a relative who actually was involved with ending the war! Wow!

--Guy

[Don S]

I stared collecting Japanese back in the late 60’s early 70’s, don’t remember exactly what year. I took a couple of adult ed. machine shop classes at the local public high school. The instructor collected 1911’s and U.S. military rifles. We got along well because I was interested in guns and things that went boom. Back when I was 14-15 I was making black powder. Making pipe bombs before there were fashionable, making exploding arrows and bullets, also made rockets and other fun things. I am lucky I have all my digits, partial hearing and eye sight but that’s another story, 
Well I started going to gun shows with Ron and several other collectors in town and at a show in Cedar Rapids Iowa, Ron said I know you want to collect something why don’t you start collecting this stuff and he pointed o a T-14 Nambu. I bought it and it went from there.

[David J]

I've always been big into wwii. Then when I was stationed in italy, I was blown away at the flea markets seeing actual wwii gear being sold! That's when I got into militaria collecting. German items were just so expensive and so often faked, it became discouraging so I just keep what I had from Italy and didn't add to it. Then a wwii in the pacific-loving coworker got me to looking at Japanese gear and it's just as fascinating as German and also cheaper and rarely faked (or at least the fakes are much more obvious). So now I have a good time working on my Japanese collection.

[J7W22007]

I' am not much a responder, but I will try writing in words:

I always like Japanese Navy stuff while I was in Canada. It all started when I saw the movie "Pearl Harbor" (to much Hollywood) around 2000, the planes were great in the movie which lead me to start building and collecting plastic models. I did a lot of readings on Japanese Aircraft of WWII (2000~2007), and always dreamed of owning a 1/1 scale Mitsubishi Zero.
I stared collecting military around 2007, started as Third Reich, U.S. and Commonwealth related. I want Japanese stuff, but they were hard to come by. I owned a few Japanese stuff: A type 98 Army Gunto, a cavalry sword, and an IJA helmet, but traded them all before I came to Japan.
I was in Japan from 2009~2012 and stopped collecting for around a year, I was by myself and didn't know where to get military stuff from. Not until I got some info on the Victory Show, held once every three months, so I went to the show, and was very great. I've been going there since. However, not until 2012 that I really get into Japanese stuff, uniforms, field-gears....etc It's funny that it took me a while for me to "kick into" the fascinating world of Japanese military.
I think one of the big factor is in WAF also, by doing both translating/studying, without knowing I gradually learn lot of things from people here.
I don't mind IJA stuff, but I' am trying to squeeze my category to pilots/aircraft of IJN, especially "Kamikaze", or "Tokkou-tai" related materials. Since I am half Japanese, and would like to keep and preserve part of my Country's most influential histories.
Lastly, I would like to thank All for helping me getting better understanding on Japanese history and militaria.

どうも、有り難う御座います！
Domo Arigatougozaimasu!

Best regards,
Taka

[Staldion]

I remember your pictures from the Victory Show Taka-san! They are a part of the reasons why I started to collect japanese items from ww2!


When I came on the WAF, I collected Third Reich items, mostly because of related family history, a lot of relatives lived in Alsace / Elsass, captured by the germans in first time after French-Prussian war, delivered after ww1 and taken again after the defeat in 1940.

So I grown up between stories and items from ww1 where they fought with germans and ww2 where some of them where taken in high-school by the wehrmacht to go to the eastern front. One of my great uncle was in Stalingrad. My grand fater just went to the HJ, he was 16 when Strasbourg was liberated and he used to stole a lot of things from germans to trade with the liberators, keeping a few things for him too.

So I was very interested in world wars since my childhood. I saw a lot of films about the war on the Pacific that blow my mind too. I would quote the best and the very first of them: Empire of the Sun, The Last Emperor, Tora Tora Tora. There was also a great japanese anime movie: 火垂るの墓, Hotaru no haka, Le Tombeau des Lucioles in french by Isao Takahata from a semi autobiographic novel of Akiyuki Nosaka in 1967.


Big impact on the child I was, I loved the complexity of the japanese way of mind between duty, culture and feelings, so far from our individualism.


Back then, there was no internet, I was not aware of the (rare) books in french on the subjet, to young to go at what we call gunshows. To me it was even impossible to collect anything else than german and french militaria. The rest did not exist, there was nothing, I cannot imagine to get my hands on anything related to IJA or IJN. We only have very few vet from Indochina even if I know now that they bringback some items too, because the Viet-minh used a lot of captured / hidden japanese weapons and equipement.


My first item was a nobori from germanmilitaria, thanks to internet (and some times after the first subscription of 5 or 10 hours / months to share with all the family) I discovered the WAF, because I wanted to check the originality of a SS belt and buckle taken by my own grand father in 45, that some dush told me it was an awful polish fake mostly because the maker was not know in his books ... I was so shocked, but I talked with some collectors here who told me they are good!


And I discover the japanese sub forum, my first shock was to see so many items on germanmilitaria the second was to see your collections gentlmen. This is how I realize that the american soldier was indeed a heavy hunter of souvenirs, like in my grandfather stories! From small badges to AA guns all the Imperial japanese army was here! More than I ever imagine at that time.


I gave up the Third Reich forever, thanks to people who did not believe an item that your own relative took from german, crazy prices, overwhelming fakes, no speaking of the nostalgic collectors of a regime that hurted my family and many others so bad during the last century.


Japanese where not angels, nobody was but I respect their agnegation to serve their country. Much more than I will ever have to do for mine hopefully. Kamikazes, Hiroo Onoda ... They are a proof of how far the human could go to protect the beloved ones. Even if they were manipulated like so many braves from all country who gave their lives.


Edit: You display is really awesome Thomas!

[gunto]

Edit: You display is really awesome Thomas!

Thanks

[ral6014]

I collect german militaria since over 25 years. Since a few years it became harder and harder to find nice an genuine examples. So I´d begun collecting things of our former allies italy and japan. My main interest area are nihonto swords. I am fascinated in this fine artwork of the old japanese sword smiths and their outstanding skills. Not cheap, in many ways not easy but very very nice