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Japan Self Defense Force shoulder patches


teamski
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Back in the early 90's, I saw these Japanese Self Defense Force patches on the back cover of the ASMIC Trading Post and fell in love with them. To my astonishment, I mentioned them in a letter to a fellow member while trading, telling him how cool I thought they were. Well, that gentleman was a retired USAF CMSgt and happened to be stationed in Japan at one point. I got a package in the mail and these were in it. I was thrilled! These patches are of woven silk construction and each feature the color of the branch of the wearer on the top of the patch. Examples of the colors are (From what I know, errors possible!):

 

Yellow: Artillery

Brown: Quartermaster

White: Airborne

Light Green: Ordnance

Red: Infantry

Orange: Armor

Dark Brown: Engineer

Dark Blue: Transportation

Light Blue: Aviation

 

-Ski

 

p.s. The missing patch was a returned favor to the CMSgt. A year after I got the patches from him, I found a rare Japanese National Reserve patch which was the only one he was missing. When I found out about it, I removed it from the page and sent it to him. It was the least I could do!

post-185479-0-41619300-1544933614.jpg

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I would have thought there would be a website identifying these, but I have yet to find it.

 

Here is a partial answer on Wikipedia:

 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/Japan_Ground_Self-Defense_Force_Locations.png

 

Also, page down on this one:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Ground_Self-Defense_Force

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Yeah, I probably should have ID'ed them right away. Here Goes:

 

Top Right: General Staff Office

Middle Left: Director, General Units

Middle Right: Northern Army

Bottom Left: Northeast Army

Bottom Right: Eastern Army

 

post-185479-0-89048600-1544935226.jpg

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Top Left: Middle Army

Top Right: Western Army

Middle Left: 1st Division

Middle Right: 2nd Division

Bottom Left: 3rd Division

Bottom Right: 4th Division

 

post-185479-0-89753600-1544935450_thumb.jpg

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Top Left: 5th Divison

Top Right: 6th Division

Middle Left: 7th Division

Middle Right: 8th Division

Bottom Left: 9th Division

Bottom Right: 10th Division

 

post-185479-0-86534400-1544935580_thumb.jpg

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captainofthe7th

Hey Ski -- you're bringing out all kinds of neat items! These patch designs are very nicely done...nothing that I've seen before. They have a great style to them.

 

Rob

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Hey Ski -- you're bringing out all kinds of neat items! These patch designs are very nicely done...nothing that I've seen before. They have a great style to them.

 

Rob

 

Thanks! That's what happens when you don't specialize!

 

-Ski

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