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Named Group of Japanese Navy Swords and Naval Dirk


Kanemono
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Here is a group of souvenirs brought home from Nagasaki, Japan, by USMC veteran Private Leroy Stanley Gibson who was WIA on Roi-Namur Island and also fought on Okinawa. He then spent a year in Nagasaki, Japan, as part of the occupation force. I was told that this group is all to one man. Gibson bought the group from the family. The photograph identifies him as Ensign Uebayashi. The photograph is not dated so I have no idea what rank he eventually attained in the IJN. The group consists of a 1893 design IJN dirk with a hand-made blade and high quality fittings with applied decoration, a pattern 1896 dress sword and a Naval Kai-Gunto officers pattern sword introduced to the navy in the early 1930’s based on the traditional tachi (slung sword) it has a 1930’s hand-forged, signed blade. Also included are his naval cap badge and belt buckle. The sake cup says “Duty is heavy as a mountain, death is light as a feather.” He served in China before the start of WW2.

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