SteveM

Sorry Victor, there is nothing in those photos that would give me a good idea of when/where the sword came from. If its 20", its wakizashi size. Could be a sword that was made before the war, but its tough to tell in its current state of polish. Well, my guess would be that its an older sword, judging from the furnishing, but its just a wild guess. The army didn't issue soldiers with swords containing those kinds of furnishings (the round hand guard, and the seppa spacers). But those could be items that were assembled after the war to give your sword the appearance of being old.

Anyway, you would need to get it polished, or get a window opened up (where the trained polisher just polishes one spot) to see if its anything worth saving. I think even then it will be tough to justify the cost and hassle of doing this. It would probably cost you $2k to polish it and bring it back to health, and at the end of the day it still might not be worth $2k, even after it is polished. 

I would say to enjoy it as is (an interesting artifact from WW2), and keep it safe. There are care and handling instructions in the FAQ which is linked in one of the links at the top of the forum page. Don't be tempted to polish the sword yourself, as it takes a trained expert to polish a Japanese sword. And youtube is full of people who destroy Japanese swords by grinding them or sanding them, hoping to make them shiny. 

Hello Victor,

I don't think any of us can't tell you much about the sword. We'd need to see better pictures of it, and also a picture of the tang. Normally Japanese swords are made so that the handle/pommel can be easily removed by taking out the bamboo peg that secures the handle to the tang. 

The writing on the scabbard says

久須美 = Kusumi. Presumably a location in Saitama Prefecture, although it can also be a family name. I am guessing in this case it is the location of where the owner lived.

小林嘉平 = KOBAYASHI Kahei. Presumably the name of the owner. 

Hello Daniel, I'm sorry to say I don't know why he used that variant on your item. I don't think there would be any deep significance - just a different style. It's kind of a rare variant. Maybe someone in the artist's circle (a teacher or mentor) also used it, or taught him the variant. Sorry I don't have any definitive information on this. 

Oh, sorry, I didn't see that second photo. The date is 

昭和十八年十月

1943, October

Hello

The inscription is the maker's name: 菊秀 (Kikuhide)

You can read more about him and this type of sword in this long thread here. 

an