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Post-War souvenir patterns?


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                A friend recently presented me with a volume entitled “The Stories Behind the Treasures of World War II” by Bill Shea. I recommend the book. In fact, there seem to be several volumes in this series and I have not seen them all. Shea is a serious militaria dealer, but he seems to have carefully recorded how and when items of his discovery were acquired by the GIs who brought them home. Virtually all of his material is 3rd Reich German stuff. I have no particular interest in that gear but his stories are very interesting if only because it seems to me that the accounts that came home with European souvenirs are essentially different from the stories I either discovered or heard regarding Japanese souvenirs. Is it possible that German militaria was collected differently than comparable Japanese material? Was the Occupation of Japan different from the process in Europe? Was the IJA simply different from the Werhmacht? Certainly, Japanese soldiers appear to have worn fewer pips and dingleberries than their German allies. Could it be that Japan was poorer or more completely destroyed than Germany? Or did GI’s only have eyes for really good stuff – ie. Japanese swords?

Peter

 

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Perhaps part of it was that Japan simply did not have as much modern military history behind it as Germany did? They had to play a rapid game of catch-up and therefore did not develop as many field-use items as their European counterparts. It could also be that our GI's were drawn to the flashier items like swords (which the Nazis did not really make much use of in the field). GI's were allowed only a certain amount of 'war trophies'. So they'd rather use their allotment for the more eye-catching pieces like swords.

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I have managed once again to raise an issue, ask a question, that NO ONE cares about. Golly, a test of the operation of NMB got more play this morning than did my sincere attempt to consider the processes that brought swords in large numbers to the post-War world.

Maybe the modern collecting community has reached a new generation so that the activities of Post-WWII GIs no longer matter. Collectors today may care more about Token DaiIchi, the complexities of Juyo judgements, and EBay than they do with the greedy desires of young men presented with piles of surrendered weapons in 1945. But I am sounding remarkably like an old guy, myself so I will stop. .  .    .

But only after I say that Bill Shea has informed me that he IS assembling another volume on the recovery and collecting of Japanese militaria. Keep your eyes open...

Peter

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Also, but maybe my answer is tinted by the way history books in France focus more on the European part of the war for obvious reasons, I think that the Japanese were seen merely as a secondary part of the Axis and not as the main enemy. The Nazis were literally the Dath Vadors of real life and the fight was good versus evil, so bringing back nazi paraphernalia probably felt as if you’d beheaded the proverbial dragons of legends.

 

I love golden age comic books and if you look at them, even in the USA, the bad guy is more often a German nazi than a Japanese, so I guess this probably reflects the spirit of the time. There was probably more glory felt in bringing back a German trophy (a swastika a a symbol universally recognizable) than, say a Japanese medal. Swords were probably the best known symbol of a country that had opened to the world not so long before...

 

Then again I may be completely be off the mark.

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I care just about, not one little bit, about Nazi, IJA, Russian etc. WW II memorabilia. The sword in its purest sense, whether Japanese, Cossack, French, British, Persian etc. is of infinite more interest. To Jean-Pierre, I read many comics having as villains Japanese soldiers and they were very disparaging character assassinations. In fact even more so than the Nazi villains portrayal. Some cartoon reels between features carried on this depiction, true propaganda. As to why was great gobs of stuff exported by foreign GI's; if it isn't nailed down, swoosh, appropriated, the colonial mindset. Japan

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People who fought in the European campaign had access to all sorts of German items including pistols, edged weapons, medals and of course when German fell there were plenty of things to be collected. A friend of mine once told me he know a fellow in the American Army stationed in Europe who's "job" was opening safes when a town was captured. He took the military documents for his superiors and for himself "collected" the small, easily transported things hr found in the safes, mostly diamonds. What people "collected" depended a lot on what was available where they were and what they could easily bring or send back home. An late uncle of mine who was in the OSS "liberated" a Leica 35 mm camera, a Luger pistol and some wrist watches among other things when he was in Europe. Perhaps the most valuable things to be found in Japan were swords, daggers and pistols since as pointed out earlier, there weren't too many choices. 

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Like Brian, I read, thought about it, and couldn't come up with anything that I thought was substantial enough to add.

Some of the things that popped into my mind:

 

Length of the war in the Pacific and failure of Japanese production capacity to consistently supply soldiers with items? 

Climate in the South Pacific and East Asia was harsher on items, making them rust or deteriorate faster?

Most or many soldiers located in China, and so access to these items was restricted after the war and China's civil war? (Also access to items in Korea being interrupted by Korean war and partitioning of the country). 

Comprehensive firebombing of Japanese manufacturing centers, affecting production capacity. 

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I’m also wondering if there wasn’t a greater cultural component to this issue? Most Americans at that time had a Euro-centric background and it may simply have been a certain level of comfort with the items being taken. European ‘booty’ and culture was ‘familiar’... Japanese items and culture were... well... for lack of a better term... ‘foreign’. Japanese styles of art, painting, ceramics, militaria, in fact, pretty much everything would simply not have interested a common GI. Just my theory.

 

My next statement might be a little more controversial and VERY generalized, but while there was a certain level ‘hatred of the enemy’ in both theaters of war, I think it was more difficult to carry the grudge in the European theater (where your enemy pretty much looked like you) vs a totally foreign adversary as in the Pacific theater. It may have been seen as socially inappropriate or unacceptable to bring home Japanese items vs German items?

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Another thing or two come to mind.

 

After the Allied forces landed in Europe, the nazi forces were in disarray, retreating to Germany and leaving a lot of stuff behind them.

 

The Japanese fought to the end and the sword served two purposes. It was a weapon, of course, but also an object of propaganda. So it was probably more desirable to get one than any other item. The fact that the Japanese were submitted to a sword hunt is no coincidence. It wasn’t the most dangerous weapon they had, but the most symbolic one.

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quick list of points to consider-

 

massive culture difference so a lot of the Japanese things had no transferable value like a german thing would.

ww1 already happened and everyone brought pike helmets back from that. expectation second time around was bring me something.

germans had a massive array of medals, combat clasps etc. because their army was structured to be a meritocracy almost to the absolute. us army actually copies their uniforming practice as a result. (air assault clasp, close combat clasp etc) 

Japan wasnt that advanced (towns still wood, yeah they had amazing mitsubishis)- trinkets werent that interesting for your average gi. swords, well who doesnt like those. Tea cup? I'll pass. German helmet, yes please= hells angels later on

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