KIA and Yasukuni Shrine Soldier Enshrinement Badges

[TracA]

Greetings,

 

I have finally obtained a boxed KIA Badge, more literally translated as a Military Bereaved Family Badge. My badge came with a single Yasukuni Shrine Soldier Enshrinement Badge with ribbon. I have no idea if the Enshrinement Badge, for attendance in the applicable ceremony, was given to the family member who was the actual recipient of the KIA Badge that I have obtained, or if the two were separate and simply combined at some point in the past. I would assume that the latter is more likely.

A brief description of who qualified for the badge, how it was obtained, who the approving authority was, and who presented it can be found in Murphy and Ackley’s In the Name of a Living God. The non-government badges and medals of Imperial Japan, including Police, Fire Brigade, Red Cross, Veteran, and Patriotic Groups. (San Ramon, CA: Falcon Books, 2005). You may also wish to consult Rich Catalano’s old Dai Nippon website archived via the Wayback Machine, found at https://web.archive.org/web/20200204141015/http://www.imperialjapanmedalsandbadges.com/kia.html and https://web.archive.org/web/20200225125252/http://imperialjapanmedalsandbadges.com/yasukuni.html. The old Dai Nippon website notes “The Yasukuni badge was not given as an award. It was given to the bereaved family members at the enshrinement ceremonies and served as an ID just for the events. These ceremonies were held twice a year (spring and autumn).”

 

I’m going to appropriate the brief description of the KIA Badge, with additions, from Murphy and Ackley: the medal is a dark silver color, approximately 25.4mm in diameter, and in the shape of a cherry blossom. The obverse is a stylized cherry blossom with a pebbled background and it is superimposed on a plain cherry blossom shape, with the ends of each offset. The reverse of the badge is plain except for the name of the badge, written in a row of two kanji with the remaining four kanji in a column below the center. The badge is attached to a tasseled purple cord tied in a bow, the length of which from the top of the cord to the ends of the tassels is between 76.2mm and 101.6mm. The top of the tassel loops through a ring that is attached to a safety pin assembly. The wooden box is approximately 120.65mm long by 63.5mm wide, the lid of which has the name of the badge in gilt kanji. The interior of the box is a yellow velour at the top of which protrudes a small brass hook. Since the medalbed is not fitted, the badge's safety pin “rests” on the brass hook and this is what holds the badge in place inside the box.

 

Regarding the Yasukuni Shrine Soldier Enshrinement Badge with ribbon, not mentioned in Murphy and Ackley, that I have in my possession: the bright silvery badge is thin and of light weight. Made of aluminum? It is approximately 25mm wide. The obverse reproduces the stylized cherry blossom of the KIA badge (minus the pebbled background and one shape superimposed on another) and the reverse is plain except for the month and year of the particular enshrinement ceremony for which the badge is applicable. I note that on my example and the examples on the old Dai Nippon website the kanji for the year and month are either (1) in two (or three) rows on the bottom of the badge with regnal year and month from right to left or (2) in two columns roughly down the center of the badge with regnal year in the right column and the month in the left column. There may be other configurations. The badge is affixed to a colored ribbon stitched to a thin, coarse looking white cloth with stitching around its perimeter. On my example the ribbon consists of a central 14mm white stripe with a 3mm blue stripe running down the center. On either side of the white stripe are 11mm copper brown stripes each with a 3mm blue stripe down the center. Total width and length of my example is 35mm x 70mm. On the top of the white cloth on my example is the regnal year from right to left followed by the season corresponding to the particular enshrinement ceremony for which the badge is applicable. On the old Dai Nippon website there are examples with the kanji from left to right. Below the kanji, on my example, is the number 1 in bold red and below that is the number 83 in bold black. All but two examples (a third possible example is unclear) on the old Dai Nippon website conform to this pattern, albeit with different numbers. The two “counterexamples" are attributed on the website to either “an earlier version or perhaps very late war” or the year 1944.

 

On the old Dai Nippon website, where they are dated to pre-1940, are examples of the badge in gilt with a rising sun emblem in the center. However, not all pre-1940 badges have such a design. There is also an example of a ribbon without the date on the white cloth. Generally the ribbon color pattern is specific to the ceremony for that year and season/month, and is changed for the following ceremony, which is changed again for the next ceremony, etc., etc. However, on the War Relics Forum thread (see below) it was noted that the 1940 badges for both ceremonies had the same color ribbon in, what I assume to be, the same pattern.

 

What is the meaning of the color pattern on the ribbon and the numbers in red and black? Using the only three sources that I could currently find, the old Dai Nippon websites (referenced above) and a 2020 thread from the War Relics Forum (https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/japanese-militaria/yasukuni-badges-776793/), does not result in a consensus explanation.

 

• The red and black numbers are either (1) a key to finding the deceased’s name and hometown in the Yasukuni Shrine record books or (2) seating/group arrangements for the ceremony and/or perhaps the festivities afterwards.
• The ribbon color pattern functions as (1) a signification of seating arrangements or (2) color coding for crowd control or (3) a color coded security system used to identify who was permitted at a particular ceremony or (4) perhaps a combination of these functions.

 

I would like to point out that on the old Dai Nippon Yasukuni Enshrinement Badge page either a single badge and ribbon is depicted or two badges and ribbons with matching red and black numbers are depicted. There are no pictures of three or more badges and ribbons with matching red and black numbers. Evidence that the ceremonies were limited to two attending family members?

 

Any and all correcting or corroborating information, as well as additional information, is welcome. If you have it, then please consider replying.

 

I find the Military Bereaved Family Badge appealing in its relative simplicity, and I find the enshrinement badge fascinating in its practicality.

 

All the best,

 

Tracy

 

Obverse of the Military Bereaved Family Badge:

 

 

Reverse, with the inscription 人軍遺族記章 for Military Bereaved Family Badge:

 

 

Box lid with the badge name in gilt kanji:

 

 

Box bed with the protruding brass hook:

 

 

Yasukuni Shrine Soldier Enshrinement Badge with ribbon obverse. The kanji are 秋年四十和昭 for Showa 14 (1939), Autumn.

 

 

Badge reverse with 十月年四十和昭 for Showa 14 (1939), October.

 

[No one]

Dear TracA,

 

If I may:

 

 

 

 

 

Yours sincerely,

No one

[TracA]

No One,

 

As always, thank you for the clarifications.

 

All the best,

 

Tracy

[TracA]

Greetings,

 

I have obtained another boxed Military Bereaved Family Badge, but this one came with two Yasukuni Shrine Enshrinement Badges. In addition, I have the Bereaved Family Badge award document as well as the Yasukuni Enshrinement ceremony invitation and the envelope in which it came. The number on the enshrinement badges matches the number on the invitation envelope. All of the items were neatly and carefully packed into an Imperial Gift Foundation Imperial Soldier’s Relief Association lacquered box.

 

I will add posts in stages, as I work through the award document, invitation, and envelope. As my guide I have used the old Dai Nippon KIA Badges webpage via the Wayback Machine (referenced above) as well as Michael J. Martin’s book entitled Japanese Military and Civilian Award Documents 1868 - 1945 (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2016). The seller of the items also contributed, but I always try my best to use the wonders of the Internet in order to verify and hopefully add the kanji to my cataloging write-up.

 

It really is fascinating to have all of these “pieces” together and ostensibly for the same deceased individual and his mother. 

 

I hope that you enjoy and as always, please add your corrections and additions.

 

Tracy

 

Obverse of this particular Military Bereaved Family Badge, a simple yet aesthetically pleasing design:

 

 

The reverse, plain with the exception of the name of the badge:

 

 

The award document for the badge.

This is the cover, and the central column is 軍人遺族記章授與證書 for “Military Bereaved Family Badge Certificate of Conferment/Record of Issue”. 第號, for “number”, are printed on the cover but the number itself is handwritten in blue ink. I believe that it is 参七三二六 for “37326”; or perhaps it could be “37226”, as the long horizontal line between the two sets of two shorter lines could possibly be a way of separating 二 and 二. I am purely speculating here. I note that 参 is document kanji for 3.

 

 

This is the first page on the inside of the cover.

The first column on the right is as above. The next column is “deceased/late” and the branch of service in printed, black kanji. Here it is 故陸軍 for “deceased/late army” and in handwritten blue ink is what I believe to be 伍長河原末吉毋 for “Corporal Kawahara Suekichi, mother” and the next column in handwritten blue ink is what I believe to be 河原タルヱ for “Kawahara Taruwe”. Altogether the three columns could be read as “Military Bereaved Family Badge record of issue for deceased army corporal Kawahara Suekichi, to his mother Kawahara Taruwe”. 

The next two columns are translated by Martin as “A bereaved family badge is conferred to the person stated to the right in accordance with the Soldiers’ Bereaved Family Badge ordinance” (Martin, p. 161).

The sixth column begins with the date. Of course the kanji for the era (Showa), year, month, and day are printed in black with the actual numbers handwritten in black ink. We have 昭和十六年七月一日 for “Showa 16 [1941] July 1st”. The old Dai Nippon KIA Badges webpage notes that this is the date that the badge was issued and not the servicemember’s date of death. After the date is 陸軍省 for “Ministry of the Army” and the red seal is, I would believe, the seal of the Army Ministry.

 

 

This is the second page.

According to the old Dai Nippon KIA Badges webpage it is rarely filled out. It has a title and then four columns. All translations are taken from this webpage. The title is 軍人遺族記章繼承之證 for “Military Bereaved Family Badge, record of [the] departed” and the four columns are (from top to bottom): “Date of Death”; “Name and Rank of Departed”; “Stamp of City/Town/Village Headmaster”; “Cause of Death”.

• Question: it appears as if 繼承 is translated as “departed” or “deceased” but I cannot for 

  the life of me verify that. What am I missing here?

 

 

The back page of the award document.

This describes the order of precedence for which family member receives the Military Bereaved Family Badge. Per the old Dai Nippon KIA Badges webpage the order is “...widow, children, father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, etc.” Obviously there would be an order of precedence among the surviving children. You may also wish to consult Murphy, Paul L. and Steven L. Ackley. In the Name of a Living God…, p. 1.

 

Edited September 24, 2023 by TracA
Style

[No one]

Dear TracA,

 

" Question: it appears as if 繼承 is translated as “departed” or “deceased” but I cannot for the life of me verify that. What am I missing here? "

 

The answer is very simple, the translation is far from being correct, a part is missing 繼承 means to inherit.

"遺族" is "Bereaved family"  遺族 - Wikipedia

 

 

"故" is "deceased / dead"

 

 

№ 3716

 

 

 

 

 

Yours sincerely,

No one

 

Edited September 25, 2023 by No one

[TracA]

Dear No One,

 

Thank you, as always, for the correction and edification. I will need to redo my documentation, especially the translation of the second page of the Award Document.

 

Thank you again!

 

Tracy

[No one]

Dear TracA,

 

In his book, page 161, Michael J.Martin use this word "conferment" for " 繼承", 

well, I have to admit I didn't pay much attention when I read it first, a few years ago.

And give this translation, I quote " Certificat of conferment of Soldier's Bereaved family Badge (to) ... ".

 

In your case :

 

"Certificat of conferment of Soldier's Bereaved family Badge (to) the mother of late army Corporal Kawahara Suekichi".

 

Yours sincerely,

No one

 

Edited September 26, 2023 by No one

[TracA]

No One,

 

Ahhh, thank you. On and off all day I thought about how to make the translation smooth or smoother in English using the word "inherit". "Conferment" does the trick.

 

Thank you again for helping me to make my documentation as complete and accurate as possible.

 

All the best,

 

Tracy

[No one]

Dear TracA,

 

You are welcome. This sentence was a real challenge.

I had the same problem. It's one thing to understand a language, it's another to translate it and find the right word in any other language. 

Michael J.Martin's book is both informative and helpful. I would never have thought of 'Conferment' for " 繼承".

So thank you Mister Michael J.Martin.

 

Yours sincerely,

No one

 

[No one]

Dear Gentlemen,

 

 

I forgot " 元 "for " 1 ".

 

Yours sincerely,

No one

Edited October 9, 2023 by No one

[TracA]

Regarding the Military Bereaved Family Badge Award Document above in my post from September 24th, I’ve been working on the translation of the second page. I’ve been rendered tremendous assistance by No One, especially with the translation of the second column, and could not have arrived where I am now without that key assistance. I feel that I have to make some corrections to the translations in my post from September 24th. The translations were taken from the old Dai Nippon KIA Badges webpage and I do not take questioning/changing any of Rich Catalano’s translations lightly, but I feel it necessary to do so in this instance. I am not claiming that my translations are definitive, but I like to think that they are of value. Any and all corrections are of course welcome.

 

All the best,

 

Tracy

 

Military Bereaved Family Badge Award Document second page: The title is 軍人遺族記章繼承之證 for “Proof of conferment/inheritance of the Military Bereaved Family Badge”. The first column is 繼承年月日 for “Date of conferment/inheritance”. The second column is 繼承者氏名及 for “Name of the person who inherits and” 死亡軍人トノ續柄 for “family relation to the deceased soldier”. The third column is 市町村長證印 for “Stamp/Seal of Municipality/Town/Village Leader/Mayor”. The fourth column is as above in No One’s post of October 9th: 繼承ノ理由 for “Reason/Cause for conferment/inheritance”.

 

Recall from the September 24th post above that the first page (inside of the cover) of the award document has a date on it, and per the old Dai Nippon KIA Badges webpage that is the date that the badge was issued. I assume that the date referred to in the second column of the second page would be handwritten, and therefore something like the actual date that the family member physically received the badge, the date that it was physically conferred on the family member.

[TracA]

I am finally getting back to almost finishing off my post from September 24. For my next installment on this topic we have two Yasukuni Shrine Soldier Enshrinement Badges that came with the Military Bereaved Family Badge pictured above on September 24, and the envelope for the invitation to the enshrinement ceremony. You will see that the four digit number on the enshrinement badges matches the number on the envelope. I will post the invitation at a later time.

 

Enshrinement Badges obverse: The kanji on the top of the coarse, white cloth is faint, but it looks to me (and should be, given the inscription on the reverse of the badges) to be 昭和十八年秋 for Showa 18 (1943), Autumn. In red is 23 and in black is 2212. This four digit number is what matches the number on the envelope (see below). The ribbon consists of a central 16mm wide orange-brownish stripe on either side of which is a 10mm bluish stripe.

 

 

Enshrinement Badges reverse: Note that the orientation of the inscription is different from the orientation of the inscription on the single badge posted at the beginning of this thread. Here we have 昭和十八年 for Showa 18 (1943) and 十月 for October. See No One’s September 12 post in this thread for a correct representation of the kanji for Showa.

 

 

The invitation envelope: Column in the lower right: in parenthesis and printed in black is 遺族第…番 for “Bereaved family number” with the handwritten numbers 二二一 二 for 2212. So, “Bereaved family number 2212”. Note that this number matches the four digit number on the Enshrinement Badges. Central column: 故陸軍 printed in black for “deceased/late army” and handwritten in pencil 伍長河原末吉 for “Corporal Kawahara Sueyoshi”. Third column: 遺族御中 for “To the bereaved family”. Fourth column: 東京 for “Tokyo”. Fifth column: 陸軍省内 for “within the Army Ministry”. Sixth column: 靖國神社臨時大祭委員 for “Yasukuni Shrine Special Grand Festival Committee Member”. I assume that the committee member was in the Army Ministry, as I believe that the Yasukuni Shrine was at this time under the control of the Army Ministry.

 

Edited October 15, 2023 by TracA
Kanji correction per No One

[TracA]

I have finally gotten the time to come back to this post and finish it up. Below you will find a picture of the invitation to the Yasukuni Enshrinement ceremony that came with all of the items mentioned in my September 24th post above. The translation for the 5th, 6th, and 7th columns (from the left) come directly from Martin’s Japanese Military and Civilian Award Documents 1868 - 1945. (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2016) and in my laziness I didn’t even try to reproduce the kanji.

 

The invitation is printed on a heavy cardstock and the dark gold cherry blossom badge on the top is embossed. All kanji appear to be printed with the exception of the rank, decorations, and name of the deceased in column 8. These kanji are not as dark as the printed kanji, at least seven of them show signs of slight smearing, and some of the strokes are not as solid as the others. To me they appear to have been applied by brush and ink, definitely not pencil or pen.

 

It was a delight to obtain all of these pieces together and a rewarding challenge to research the items and attempt my best at the translations. 

 

Tracy

 

Column 1: 遺族御中 “To the bereaved family”.

Column 2: 陸軍大將土肥原賢二 “Army General Kenji Doihara”.

Column 3: 靖國神社臨時大祭委員長 “Head of the Yasukuni Shrine Special Grand Festival Committee”.

Column 4: 昭和十八年十月 “Showa 18 (1943), October”.

Columns 5, 6, and 7: “The person stated to the right will be enshrined in the Yasukuni Shrine. This was instructed by the authority on October 14. This is to notify that a ceremony to invite the spirits [of the deceased] and an extraordinary grand festival will be held on the 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20.”

Column 8: 故陸軍伍長勲八等功七級     河 原 末 吉 “Deceased/Late Army Corporal Order of Merit 8th Class, Order of the Golden Kite 7th Class Kawahara Sueyoshi”.

 

Regarding General Kenji Doihara: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenji_Doihara

 

A search online revealed nothing about the Grand Festival Committee, its doings or make-up. I assume that the committee head was a ceremonial or honorary position, given that Kenji Doihara was an army general and at the time of the invitation Commander and Chief of the Eastern District Army, charged with the defense of the Kanto region and northern Honshu. I assume those duties would be too taxing to allow an active role in the committee’s doings, but in truth I have no evidence upon which to base my assumption.

 

I briefly thought that perhaps the Eastern District Army Commander and Chief was always the titular head of the committee, but the ceremony invitation in Martin’s book shows Army General Otozō Yamada (山田乙三) as the committee head, thus serving as a counter example to my theory as the Wikipedia Eastern District Army page does not list the Eastern District Army as one of his commands.