Japanese Militaria at Castle-Thunder.com

mmerc20 · Joined: Jul 18 2009 Posts: 8

Hello everyone,
This is Mike, I'm a member at a few militaria forums, and have been collecting for about 15 years or so, but just found the castle-thunder forum a few days ago.
've had an interest in Japanese militaria for awhile, but only in the past year and a half I started acquiring pieces. I thought I would show off my little collection.

These photos are of my first Japanese acquisition which got me hooked. It is a beautiful shin-gunto signed Ando Kanemoto. It has the seki stamp as well. The saya is wood and I'm pretty sure it's a field grade knot (red/brown) but it must be faded since it's hard to tell which side is red and which is brown.

mmerc20 · Joined: Jul 18 2009 Posts: 8

Here is a beautiful visor cap with it's original box. It was acquired from the original owner (not by me, but another collector) It was owned by Toshio Sekiguchi, Captain (retired). His name is embroidered inside, but apparently he did not use it.

And here is a nice flight helmet:

mmerc20 · Joined: Jul 18 2009 Posts: 8

...and a couple flags. I wish I had a translation of everything on the one.

mmerc20 · Joined: Jul 18 2009 Posts: 8

here's my navy helmet. Sadly the insignia is gone on the front and I'm not totally sure if the cover is original to the helmet. The helmet shell is rusted on one side with the paint flaking off (from the unforgiving saltwater?) but the liner is in great shape and when I took the cover off there is a large stamp inside it. The cover even has some repairs sewn in it.

It's not in the greatest shape, but a nice scarce helmet.

mmerc20 · Joined: Jul 18 2009 Posts: 8

I suppose you don't see personal Japanese groupings every day, but here is one in my collection.

It is of Captain Masakazu Shimizu. He enlisted prior to 41 and served up until the surrender in 45. While serving in Burma, he was the commander of a reconnaisance battalion. The photo of the airplane was one in his unit. He retired a Colonel in the Japanese Self Defense Forces in 1974.
All of the photos are copies but everything else belonged to Mr. Shimizu.

I really like the photos of him in the war and a more recent photo of him.

I played a little with photoshop to try and fix the one picture that had the damage:

mmerc20 · Joined: Jul 18 2009 Posts: 8

...and finally a riker mount of misc patches and rank.

I would really like to get myself a nice knee mortar as well as a grenade, but I'm on my way out of the country in a few days for a deployment and won't be back until next year.

Mike

mmerc20 · Joined: Jul 18 2009 Posts: 8

I forgot to post my early felt field cap with the owners name stitched in the side.

Mike

arisakadogs · Joined: Oct 05 2003 Posts: 191

You've done very well in the past year & a half! Those are some very nice items. I pray your deployment goes by quickly & that you and all your buddies return home safely after kicking some ass!
Thank you for what you are doing & God Bless!
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"A woman, a dog & and a walnut tree. The more ya beat em, the better they be" (From "The Red Bagde of Courage")

gwsiii · Joined: Aug 21 2003 Posts: 2240 Location: Hayden, AL

Mike, welcome to the forum! Very nice collection indeed! Thanks for taking the time to post and letting us enjoy your toys! Stay safe, and thanks for your service too! Trey
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I didn't pay to much for that old Arisaka, I just bought it a little bit too soon!