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Arm band


robinb
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Kouyou (公用) means "Official Business"

 

The top is the official business registration number (49)

 

Honor ( = yo) Unit number 11935

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robinb,

These were arm bands, many worn by military personnel on business or leave. The several I have seen were preprinted and come with stripes that designated you could have a vehicle or a horse. Yours appears to be hand made which certainly was possible. Examples of these armbands can be seen in Mr. Nakata's first book "Imperial Japanese Army and Navy Uniforms and Equipment" on page 195 and I'm sure its in the second edition also. Many have a place for a safety pin to secure it on the sleeve. Hope this helps.

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Kouyou (公用) means "Official Business"

 

The top is the official business registration number (49)

 

Honor ( = yo) Unit number 11935

 

It's even more interesting than you think...

 

Homare is the code name for the 43rd Division, which was destroyed on Saipan.

 

誉11935 Butai is the 136th Infantry Regiment.

 

No doubt a Saipan pick up. Great piece!

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That is interesting. Great to know. Not being a Japanese collector (with very few exceptions) I would have had no idea regarding the history of it.

 

kun yomi = homare on yomi = yo

 

I assumed (wrong) that it would have been yo in this case. Thanks for the great information.

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My pleasure guys.

 

Thanks for posting it Robin, I'm happy I got to see it.

 

Eric, even though you're not into collecting Japanese military stuff, I thought this may be amusing. It shows the correct pronunciation of for each (kanji) code name. It's based on the "50 sounds", a similar idea to the order our alphabet is taught in. Sometimes even the Japanese need assistance with their language.

All names under "ケ" begin with the sound "ke (ge)": Left side, first vertical row

劍 12th Div. = "Ken"

決 93rd Div. = "Ketsu"

玄 96th Div. = "Gen"

建 51st Army = "Ken"

巌 24th Independent Mixed Brigade = "Gen",

敬 28th I.M.B. = "Kei"

post-185162-0-25550600-1548948999.jpeg

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That is very cool Rod. Have not seen that before. Do you happen to know where someone could locate a larger version of it? Characters are so small cannot read most of them.

 

Thanks

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Hi Eric, I'm happy to oblige...

 

Document name: 50音兵団文字符表 昭和20年10月28日

 

JACAR http://www.jacar.go.jp/

 

Search by Reference Code: C12121216500

 

Click "Browse" button.

 

From pop up screen, next: click button on top right side of page, "Image batch download". It will take you to a downloadable PDF copy.

 

Cheers, Rod

 

 

 

 

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And then I realized the chart abbreviates unit types; division = D, brigade = B, etc...

 

http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/ttt09/japanese-map.html

 

Abbreviations sometimes used instead of symbols are usually in English letters, but the Japanese are often careless in the matter of capitalization.

 

A Army, also field artillery

AA Antiaircraft artillery and/or AA position

B Brigade

b Battalion

biA Infantry battalion gun unit

c Company, troop, battery

D Division

F The enemy -- foe, foeman (cf. Feind--German)

Fc Air squadron (Japanese, not enemy)

(F, in combination, loses its "enemy" significance)

FeA Heavy artillery

FM Air unit

G Imperial guards

H Howitzer

HA AA gun

HMA AA machine cannon (artillery)

HMG AA machine gun

i Infantry

iA Infantry gun unit

iB Infantry brigade

iH Infantry mortar

iK Infantry cannon (gun)

iR Infantry regiment

 

Follow the link above to Lone Sentry for more... this list is part way down the page.

 

 

 

 

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