With captured Japanese helmet and weapons on Guadalcanal:Because of the activities of souvenir hunters during operations on more than one Pacific island, much material of known and probable value was carried away, and almost all enemy documents, personal papers, weapons, and equipment were so rummaged through and scattered about that their eventual salvage was either unnecessarily delayed or rendered impossible. Souvenir hunting was not confined to any one unit or group, but was undertaken by construction battalions, defense forces, and ship's crews—personnel who came ashore after the assault phase had been completed. Not that there had been any lag between the assault and the beginning of the souvenir hunting. Even by mid-afternoon of the first day, considerable damage had been done, for houses, stores, and barracks had been stripped almost as fast as they had been taken.
Souvenir hunting
Souvenir hunting
http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/souvenir/index.html
Thanks for posting the photo's. My neighbor was a Marine Corps veteran and was wounded on Iwo Jima. I can still remember him showing me his war souvenirs when I was a young child back in the mid-60's. I remember he had a shoebox full of photos of Japanese soldiers. He had a Japanese rifle with the longest bayonet I ever saw! Just a few years ago he brought out a Japanese flag with writing on it and waved it at me.He passed away a few years ago-but I was looking at the new book on Iwo Jima by Eric Hammel and I believe he is on page 149-the mortar man with the "thousand yard stare"! Thanks , Larry