Japanese Souvenir Pin

[Brian Keith]

A buddy has this Japanese pin a relative brought back from Okinawa after WWII. Can anybody ID it? I don’t think it is actually military. It might say something like “Buy Buster Brown Shoes”.  It is about 1 inch in diameter.

Thanks in advance,

BKW

 

 

 

[Eric Queen]

伏敵 (fukuteki) "Defeated (literally "laying face down") Enemy"

 

There was a book with this title written in 1892. What the badge represents I have no idea. 

 

 

[vintageproductions]

Eric- My translator, Hitoshi said in old style it reads, "Surrender" but in new style it says "Peace".

 

[Eric Queen]

Interesting. Perhaps it's one of those things that is open to interpretation as it is not a "real" Japanese word, at least not any more (not found in modern dictionaries) 

What I gave, as I said, was the literal meaning of the characters. 

 

Edited August 21 by Eric Queen

[vintageproductions]

I always find it interesting that depending on where the native speaker is from in Japan, the translations are always different.

[Brian Keith]

Thanks for everyone's help with this! This discussion has been interesting.

BKW

[Joe]

I believe 伏敵 is a shortened form of 敵國降伏. At Hakozaki Shrine in Fukuoka, a tower gate with the inscription 敵國降伏 is informally referred to as 伏敵門 (門 meaning gate).

 

For 敵國降伏, the shrine itself uses the translation “may the enemy nations prostrate themselves [in defeat]”. 
 

敵國降伏 comes from Imperial calligraphy, apparently first written down by Emperor Daigo in 921, which are included in the shrines treasures. It is associated with Mongol invasion as the shrine was burned during attacks in 1274. It was rebuilt and with the assistance of Emperor Kameyama a plaque with the inscription 敵國降伏 was put on the tower gate.
 

The name of the book mentioned (伏敵編) also appears to originate from 敵國降伏 and is at least partially a history about the same Mongol attacks. 
 

My guess is the pin is a patriotic pin of some kind.