Help me translate WW2 Imperial Japanese Army Tag

[darsch]

Hi all,

My first post here, I recently acquired a WW2 Imperial Japanese Army Dog Tag and wondered if someone could translate it for me. I believe it came from one of the Pacific Islands. Possibly Guadalcanal. The photos show each side of the same tag.

Any help you could give me would be much appreciated.

[stulev]

Unit 1302 was the 2nd Divisions 16 Infantry Regiment

[hysteric]

Nice Tag!

The front is as Stulev says.

On the cancelled side (back) of the tag:

Right side: 歩一六 = 16th Infantry Regiment
Middle:中 九 = 9th Company (which is in the 2nd Battalion)
Left side: 番 一七七 = Soldier 177

The 2nd Division, including the 16th Infantry Regiment, fought on Guadalcanal. do you have any of the tag's history?

[darsch]

Thanks for your help. A relative of mine worked in the Solomon’s in the sixties and I got a small number of artefacts including some USMC buttons, coke bottles.

There was also another Japanese tag but there was nothing legible on it, as well as a 5 sen coin and some other Japanese uniform items (look like officer emblems - I'll post a photo later). I also received a much more macabre item but it might not be a good idea to post here.

As for the tag above is it possible to identify an individual soldier or would the records have been lost?
Thanks

[darsch]

I have posted the photos of the USMC buttons I also received.

Does any one know what the Japanese items are? Would be interested to know.

Also, in reference to the above, what does it mean when the tag is 'cancelled'. I did a little research and it seems to imply that the tags were reissued but the examples of those seem to have the individual sybols struck through with an X rather that the whole tag.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Akira Takizawa]

> Does any one know what the Japanese items are?

They are closures of Jika-Tabi.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jika-tabi

Jika-Tabi was often used in IJA.

Taki

[hysteric]

As for the tag above is it possible to identify an individual soldier or would the records have been lost?
Thanks

For some reason in the Imperial Japanese Army that information travelled with the unit and was largely destroyed in the field or at the end of the war. There's a good piece on how unit documents fared here:

http://ajrp.awm.gov.au/AJRP/AJRP2.nsf/4 ... enDocument

"Cancelled" tags are usually retained by the same soldier and associated with a transfer from one unit to another. It appears this man was reassigned within the 16th Infantry Regiment but I can't say what the (35) means, he was soldier 14 in his new position. The "B" was his blood type, when this side was the back of the tag the B would have been the only mark on it.

hysteric