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Pilot Sword


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6 hours ago, Kolekt-To said:

Is there a link to the "Pilot's knife" discussion and/or where can we read more about these knives, either here on this board or elsewhere?

 

 There are some examples here with photo's, but I would be wary. These are not official arms but substitutes and survival knives, much like the tanto that turn up in just wood and leather mounts. 

http://ohmura-study.net/762.html 

 

 

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The pilot who dropped the incindiary bomb started a small forest fire up by Mt. Emily due to issues with fog and navigation; last i knew, the sword was at the police department in Brookings, OR in a display case. I intend to see if I can examine it and get photos sometime in the near future, as I am moving to Oregon again soon.

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On 4/23/2021 at 4:13 PM, ribendao said:

My own little contribution to this topic that you guys probably are already aware of. The Japanese pilot Nobuo Fujita was tasked with bombing Oregon during the war. The picture below is the sword he carried on his mission and is currently residing in a library in Oregon. When thinking of the "pilot's sword" myth, I always think back to this kai gunto that Fujita brought with him and how it helps bust this myth wide open.

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"vonStubben" over at this Wehrmacht-awards Thread - Aerial bombing of the US West Coast started a conversation about this event.  Quite interesting. There is a good 6 min video of the story by one of the news outlets here:

 

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On 2/25/2022 at 8:28 PM, Bruce Pennington said:

Perpetuating the myth, at an auction, listed as a "tank commanders' sword". No provenance given.

 

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 I am pretty certain that this is a post war shotgun job using genuine parts, and a poorly made modern cover to the saya.

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I have found during my hunt for the shortest gunto that most are poorly made, most usually don't have a gunto tsuba and just a leather combat cover over a non military saya. 

 

That being said they do exist. Here is a sword that belonged to Major Kowada (writting on wood lining), it is a high quality piece, but it is definitely the exception. 

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On 7/12/2021 at 6:05 AM, Dave R said:

 

 There are some examples here with photo's, but I would be wary. These are not official arms but substitutes and survival knives, much like the tanto that turn up in just wood and leather mounts. 

http://ohmura-study.net/762.html 

 

 

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I have a wakizashi with gunto tsuba in those identical style mounts with wood and leather handle.  Wonder if this is also a non military mount survival style or perhaps army crew gunto.

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Matt,  Yours looks very similar to the one I had, but the colors on mine more closely matched the one you have laying on the table.  Had a nice Osaka Shinto blade (Tanba no Kami Kanemichi) that fit perfectly.  Wish I had kept it.

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Sharing a few gunto koshirae, including some wakizashi-sized, I purchased a few months ago.  I've not seen some of these exact fitments on Ohmura or the book I purchased on WW2 gunto.

 

Has anyone encountered these before?

Best,

John

 

 

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Interesting thread, I don't think there was any real need for short "pilot swords". If you look at different photos shared, they show hudge aircrafts, G4M and KI-46 bombers, or Aichi seaplane. As we can see, crews could carry full length swords onboard these aircrafts. Whereas on fighters that would be totally impossible to bring swords, even wakizashi. That would be useless and even dangerous having such a hudge object in a cockpit during dogfight. Perhaps kamikaze pilots just for symbol, and as they were not supposed to carry out complex evolutions.

I would say I would rather use a short sword as a trooper if having to walk on long distances with all my equipment.

 

Do we know about some makers of these short swords ? Could also be ancient family wakizashi re-used in Gunto mounts rather than a "pilot" or "tank crew" sword.

 

What's sure is that statistically navy guntos where shorter than army ones but just an inch or two on average. That was for sure not practical to carry swords onboard,, especially for submarines, but there is still a known example of full length sword onboard the midget submarine attacking Sydney that was discussed here :

 

 

 

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10 hours ago, Jrbjag said:

 

Screenshot_20220805-193000_Drive.jpg

 

These are beautiful navy swords, second one with sharkskin saya and last one with its cover leather. The first one looks having a non-regulatory leather wrap on tsuka, don't know if it was customized at the time or more recently.

Thanks for sharing !

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11 hours ago, Jrbjag said:

Sharing a few gunto koshirae, including some wakizashi-sized, I purchased a few months ago.  I've not seen some of these exact fitments on Ohmura or the book I purchased on WW2 gunto.

 

Has anyone encountered these before?

Best,

John

John,

Recommend you start a new thread with these.  I'd like to discuss them a bit, too, but the subject matter is divergent from the "Pilot Sword" topic.

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On 8/6/2022 at 8:30 AM, Bruce Pennington said:

John,

Recommend you start a new thread with these.  I'd like to discuss them a bit, too, but the subject matter is divergent from the "Pilot Sword" topic.

I also have a wakizashi length Kaigunto, so I would gladly jump into this conversation. I'll get one started now.

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This thread is quite old. Please consider starting a new thread rather than reviving this one, unless your post is really relevant and adds to the topic..

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