Dieter3

Thanks Great Dane, good eye Windu!!!

And wow!!!! A whopping $416.00 for the document and $530.00 for the medal!!!! YIKES. Unless this soldier was somebody of special note, these buyers either have very deep pockets and can afford it, or they were on serious drugs!!!! The seller is smiling all the way to the bank!!! Hey, more power to the folks that can and are willing to drop this kind of coin on these babies. This is a new record that I've seen. Like I said, unless this person was of special note......

And sadly, not even to the same buyer....

There was a random display of military wares and uniforms aboard Mikasa - nothing unusual here, but I don't know what the red/white/blue medal in the center is. Can anybody ID it for me? It's not shown here, but across from this was a display of Naval uniforms, one of which had a ribbon bar pinned to it that all of the ribbons matching these medals including that r/w/b one. It wasn't clear if these had belonged to a particular individual or not though:

And Emperor Showa:

This is the burial site of Emperor Taisho. The mound is somewhat higher in elevation than that of Emperor Showa so somewhat harder to see. The steps are unfortunately off-limits except to Imperial family, so I couldn't get any really close-up photos. Still, these sites are very impressive:

Not to far from Tama Cemetary was the Imperial Mausoleum located at Takao, a more "hilly" part of Tokyo outskirts. Here are the final resting places of Emperor Taisho and Emperor Showa, as well as the Empresses. This was really awesome - the place is gorgeous - extremely peaceful, very clean - there was an army of people combing the stone paths for any form of debris - not a single piece of trash, vending machine, or even a cigarette butt to be found anywhere - which is somewhat of an accomplishment for Tokyo. The people really respect this place and the grounds keepers do an outstanding job. An armed police officer is stationed at either grave site, and there is a small troop of them at the entrance to the grounds. The shot is looking down the paths to both sites; the Tama site for Emperor Taisho and the the Musashino site for Emperor Showa. Simply gorgeous:

Mound:

Family monument:

Closer view of his monument:

Here is Admiral Yamamoto's plot. There are only partial remains here, and a portion of the remains are located elsewhere in Japan:

The remains are apparently located withing these stone mounds behind the monuments, this is Togo's:

Family Monument:

His wife's monument:

A close-up of his monument:

I had a chance (made it a point) to visit Tama cemetary in the Tama area of Tokyo. I really wanted to visit the grave of Admiral Togo as I'm particularly fascinated with the Russo-Japanese War. It so happens that Admiral Yamamoto's grave is right next to Togo's! Unfortunately, I had not enough time to explore completely this place - there are lot of interesting people here including other military persons. This was a great experience, hard to describe really (except for the blood-thirsty mosquitos that were out in full-force!). Here is Admiral Togo's full plot:

Yeah, it's too bad this eBay seller is parting the medal and the document in this way. I do hope they go to the same bidder - that the bidder has interest in both items, that is if the seller's claim is true, I imagine it is. I always hate to see this happen. :banger:

My pleasure!!!

A small shrine on the property dedicated to his two sons, both killed in the Russo-Japanese War:

A view into the suicide room, placards marking where the bodies were found:

The window at the top of the house looks out from the room that his sons used. The one on the bottom right was used by his wife, the bottom left where the two committed suicide. I don't recall which one, but at least one of the trees in the fore was planted (or ordered planted) by Douglas MacArthur: