Paul L Murphy

Next up, the same guy 14 years later. He is still a captian but now boasts a Rising Sun 4th Class, Sacred Treasure 4th Class, Taisho Enthronement Medal, 1914-15/19? Medal, Showa Enthronement Medal, Manchurian Incident War Medal, Manchurian National Foundation Merit Medal and Red Cross Life Member Medal. The photo is dated 1936 and says that it was taken upon his return from Shanghai. He was obviously a busy little boy way out west to have ended up with a 4th class Rising Sun as a captain rated administrative official !

Next up we have a nice photo of an Administrative Official in the rank of Captain Equivalent (these were uniformed civilian specialists such as paymasters etc) in his full dress uniform wearing the Sacred Treasure 5th Class, Sino Japanese War Medal, either the 1914-15 or 1914-19 War Medal, and the Taisho Enthronement Medal. You can notice that the gold braid on the sleeves and shoulders appears to be two different colours. It is a mixture of silver and gold which is what distinguished these uniforms from the normal officer dress uniform where all of the braid was in gold. The waist sash is also blue grey and white, rather than red and white.

Hi folks, I am back from Japan, jetlagged and wide awake at 5am in the morning (not a usual time to find me up and about). I am busy scanning some of my latest purchases from the flea markets and here are some nice photos of Japanese medals actually in wear. These types of photos are scarce enough to find but I got a nice haul of them this time around. First up is a picture of a civilian wearing the Red Cross Life Member Medal. He is a bit slovenly since the rosette is hanging off the ribbon and he has not bothered sewing it back on properly.

It is for the later medal. The characters on the lid say that it is for Taisho Year 3 to 9 (ie 1914-20). The only difference between the two lid inscriptions is the 7th character from the top, ie it changes from a four to a nine. Best regards, Paul

The problem is that the press can be a very blunt instrument and they could end up gutting all collectors (ourselves included) in the process. The last thing we want is successfull pressure to prevent the sale of Irish medals a la some other misguided legal jurisdictions around the world. Joe Public will not care about the subtleties and will tar us all with the same brush. I think naming and shaming within the collecting community would be more effective. However I have to agree with Ricky on this one, things like this make you lose you faith in Darwin from time to time !

Are you sure he is English ? He may only be residing in England ?

It is the name of the owner. The family name is Nakamura but I am not sure of the forename. Regards, Paul

This is utter stupidity and disregard for history on the highest scale. Words fail me. He has turned a valuable and historical group of items into a number of anonymous pieces from which the historical importance and unique nature has been stripped. Hopefully he will make a loss on this and it will keep him away from such endevors in future.

Not meaning to boast but I have both of these. The 1874 turns up from time to time and at present costs about $5,000 or so in Japan if you can find one. They are difficult to find but not impossible if you are patient and have a large bank balance ! The GEAWM is harder to find and repros abound. The repros are actually made for veterans who feel they are entitled to it and can be found easily in Japan. The originals turn up once every few years, normally when an old collection is sold. Paul

Genltemen, Many thanks to you all, I suspect you must have pinned him down for me. I am in Japan for New Year but will be traveling to Ireland in early Feb and promise to bring the hat back and post a photo after that. I suppose the next step is to find out more about the unit and what they did (I guess counter intelligence against Japan would be high on the list given the fact that Fujii was obviously a Japanese American ! Paul

Hi sname is Wakabayashi (Wakadayashi). In the Dictionary of Jpaanese Naval Officer's he has very little info against his name. He was married with a son and came from Ishikawa Prefecture. He enrolled as a Naval Cadet in Meiji Year 44. According to the Dictionary of Japanese Naval Admirals he was born in Meiji 22 and die in 1968. Rear Admiral in 1939 and Vice Admiral in 1943. Had a series of staff positions when an admiral, his last position being head of one of the naval schools. He was put on the retired list in September 1945. All in all appears to have been one of the many faceless senior officers that made things tick over rather than a blood and guts front line fighter. Still, the information above suggests that he saw some interesting front line service in his younger days. Cheers, Paul

The cap is in Ireland at the moment but I will be bringing it to London in Feb so I will post pictures after then. Cheers, Paul

Hi folks, One of the items in my collection is a WWII period US officer's visor cap which is named on the inside to a "Lt Roy S Fujii, Ft Snelling". Is there any way of finding out more about who he was ? The name suggests he was a Nisei and I would love to be able to put some detail behind the man. Cheers in advance, Paul

Are there any numbers on the reverse prefixed with G or H ? These are official military heraldry registration numbers so I can find out what the insignia are if I know the number (since I have the list).

Put us out of our misery, pleaseeeee. Especially since most of my reference books are still boxed up.

Photos pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Pretty bloody difficult ! The chances of you surviving that amount of combat were probably pretty slim. If you assume a couple at the bronze star level for being wounded in action you must still have five or six citations for bravery. I have a WWII C de G with 5 palms, 1 silver star and 2 bronze stars to a Legionnaire who was with the 6 REI and then switched sides to the 13 DBLE (the 6 REI went Vichy) and his was the result of five years of almost constant combat. In WWI it would have been no different so your recipient would have had to spend most of his four years in the trenches while not keeping his head down all the time ! Have you got a bunch of documents or just the medal ? Cheers, Paul

I was not sure whether to stick this here or in the French section. I thought I would share with you one of my recent acquisitions. This is the unit badge of the 4th BDL (4th Levant Battalion), one of the local infantry units in the French era Levantine forces. It is a nice pre war piece by Drago. Enjoy

The reverse picture is upside down ! Also, the Ko-sho badge is more common than the Sen-sho version since far more people ended up invalided out of the army as a result of illness and disease (even in the 1930's) than battle wounds. The enamel on these is very weak and you normally find it with hairline cracks. I was actually married in the shrine in Kobe where Kusunoke Masashige is enshrined as a god so I suppose you could say he was an important participant in my wedding ! Nice badge.

These two beauties both date back to the Civil War period. The first is a cavalry officer's tunic button made by Jennins & Co London. The next one up is 2 cms wide and has no maker mark on the reverse, but is also London made. Were these worn by staff officers since they lack the letter on the shield ? Stay tuned for some more old buttons from a lot which I recently purchased.

Hi Brian, Bad news, these are not kanji. They look like the sort of scribble type characters you see when people who cannot write Japanese are trying to create something that looks like kanji so I think that supports your belief that the sword is a copy. Regards, Paul

Thanks guys. I was tending towards good old warm water and babysoap myself. Some of them are already rubbed etc. so I do not want to make anything worse than it already is. Most of them are, thankfully, in excellent condition and some will be posted here in due course. Paul

I have purchased a large lot of military buttons, many of which are over 100 years old, and some of which are gilded bronze and brass. Any tips on how to bring them back to their former glory since some of them are suffering from old age, ranign from dullness to mild corrosion. All help gratefully received. Paul

If I make it anywhere close to 83 I will be very happy ! As an aside, one of the items in my collection is a gramata to a long service KGB officer signed by Kryuchkov in the late 80's. Paul

A Fort Vaux defender That was definitely 35 Euros very well spent.