Japanese soldiers' identification tags

[Quiet 1]

Taki-san, THANK YOU!!! The depth and breath of your knowledge of these things and your willingness to share that knowledge is mind-bogglingly appreciated.

Regards and Domo arigato gozaimashita, Lance

[Davidin]

Hello friends;
This tag slightly damaged. Any information about her? Thank you

[Akira Takizawa]

8066
0851 (Soldier no.)

Unit code of 8066 means 21st independent AA gun company. But, it stayed in Japan homeland and did not go out of Japan. I don't know where you found the tag, but it will not be in Japan.

Taki

[Davidin]

Hello Taki,
It is bought on ebay. The seller from China. Thank you. David

[Alan soles]

I came across this tag while taking a old house down on our property. Ive tried to translate it and even thought bout sending it back to japan but id like to know what it means and all of this research ive done has got me confused . I came across this site and was hoping id find the answers that im looking for if snyone csn help me out it be greatly appreciated thanks

[hysteric]

Hello Alan,

Interestingly katakana マイシン is Maishin 邁進 the 120th Division's code name. Usually the code kanji are used over the code number. This is the code name and number 邁進13954

The tag is 邁進13954 meaning the 120th Division Artillery Unit
Soldier #575 (out of 617 in the unit)

The 120th Division began life began in Dongning, Manchuria on Nov 21, 1944 and ended in Pyongyang, Korea in August 1945.

hysteric

(Removed リ from マイシリン)

[Akira Takizawa]

The Katakana is マイシン.

Taki

[hysteric]

Thanks Taki, リ was careless of me.

[Alan soles]

Thank u guys so much for that. I guess theres no way of finding someone to return it to or find a name is there?i really dont feel right owning it for some reason. I know if i was a family member it be really cool to have come up after all these years.

[hysteric]

Thank u guys so much for that. I guess theres no way of finding someone to return it to or find a name is there?i really dont feel right owning it for some reason. I know if i was a family member it be really cool to have come up after all these years.

You're welcome Alan!

To put your mind at ease, there's no chance of finding out who the tag was assigned to and I believe the odds are better than even your soldier made it home to Japan after the war. If you still feel uneasy about owning this tag let me know.

hysteric

[SignalCorpsLeonard]

Could someone translate this Japanese armed force ID tag?

My late father-in-law obtained it in the Philippines while serving aboard Landing Ship Medium 34 in 1944 & 1945.

Thank you.

(Moderator: Thank you for letting me know that my previous post was rejected because the link was giving a 404 error. I attached the image instead of posting a link.)

[stulev]

On the right side KAKI(16th Division) 6559 (16th Engineer Regiment)
left side is solder number 298

[SignalCorpsLeonard]

Thank you Stulev.

I have reviewed the information on Japanese ID tags.

Am I correct that this tag as do all Japanese ID tags, only has the soldier's number but not n his name?

Members of the Japanese armed forces would write their names on their tags.

Nothing is written on this one.

[stulev]

some Japanese identification tags do have names on them - these are the tags for officers - I am no sure if all officer tags have names on them but some do!

[SignalCorpsLeonard]

Thank you.

I have submitted this tag to the Pacific Wrecks Dog Tags Return Project.

https://www.pacificwrecks.com/dogtags/

There is a 16th Division, Japanese Imperial Army website. I speculate that is by descendants of the 16th Division just as we have websites for the units of our WWII relatives.

Only 310 of the 13,000 members of the 16th Division survived the fighting on Leyte Island so soldier 298 probably did not survive.

A Japanese-American colleague has contacted them to see if they can facilitate returning this tag to family members.