My dad was stationed in Manila right after the end of the war. He has passed away so I can not ask him about this object. My mom thinks he recieved it from a Japanese soldier. It is a vey thin piece of wood with Japanese writting on it.It is 1 inch wide and 2inches long. It has a small hole in the top as if it was worn with the dog tags. I am redoing my dad’s scrapbook since the original was falling apart. My mom had this item in a box. She though it was a pay chip. I would appreciate if anyone could help. I have not seen this item on any sites that have or sell WWII Japanese items. Thank you, a proud daughter.
It will be helpful to post a pic of it if that is possible, someone here will know something about it.
The written description of the item put me in mind of something I saw as a kid which was either attached to or associated with a Japanese samurai sword brought back from the war.
The picture doesn’t look like my very vague mental image of the tag I saw, which was a simpler piece of plain wood with Japanese characters on it, and possibly burnt into it.
Maybe a translation of the characters on it will tell what it is.
hi
sorry for my bad english
the written character is “mi gawari fudo”
means “Vicarious victim”
(身代不動)
“mi gawari fudo” is one of shrine in japan.
in my guess, the object is contents of japanese amulet, maybe
but i cant say clearly.
This item is a charm - a type of which was commonly given out to visitors to shrines in and around Japan. It was common for soldiers on leave to visit local shrines at which they’d attain a charm like this and carry it with them for luck. In other instances these charms were obtained by family and sent to soldiers, or included in ‘comfort kits’ sent to those fighting by schoolchildren.
Thanks for sharing!
- Ron Cole
I think much of the Japs hang it either on their neck or their doors.