IJA ID Tags Asistance Sought

[Oldmarine06]

Seeking any assistance in the identity for these two IJA ID Tags w/ the end game of returning them to any living family member . My father obtained these some place in the South Pacific During WW II. I have tried to do due diligence, through "Official Channels" but No Joy.

 

RS

Tom

[AnDuc49]

You could try OBON2015. It's risky though, you have to send it to them first and if they can't find the owners, they keep them

[AnDuc49]

Asked someone for a translation, here it is:

 

 

 

Not sure about this at all because it looks like some marks have been added later. It looks like the dog tag on the left says　(from left to right).

 

番一五七 = Number 157

中騎旅（コ）四　Chu Ki Tabi (ko) 4　I think the コ (ko) is a later addition

騎一五　Ki 15

 

Usually Japanese dog tags just have battalion unit numbers and functions, and no names. I would assume "157" refers to a battalion or squad number. I'm guessing that "Chu Ki Tabi 4" and the following Ki 15 means something like 15th Regiment of the 4th Cavalry Brigade.

 

The tag on the right is upside-down, but it says

番三六　= Number 36

一兵站四　= 1 Heitan 4

Heitan means Military Logistics. So this tag would be something like "1st Military Logistics Unit, Section 4"

 

Finding relatives would be a real challenge since there are no names on Japanese dog tags. The Japanese government (Ministry of Health, Labor, Welfare) has records and lists of various units, so contacting them is one idea (but a longshot).

[muddyboots]

You can try posting them on Wehrmacht Awards but most likely you will find out where they came from and nothing about the soldier. I do know the first number is the soldiers number and the second is company and the third is usually a code for the division I think. The Japanese government will only release information to families.

[TomP]

Interesting tags!

Your cavalry tag lived a couple of different lives, with it first being for a member of the 15th Cavalry Regiment. That was then crossed out (along with the 4th Company designation) and it looks like it was used within the 2nd Cavalry Brigade.

 

The 2nd tag is for a Line of Communications unit. (either an HQ unit or a unit equal to/smaller than a company)

 

As others have stated, matching these two tags to names within the IJA will be pretty much impossible without also having the soldier's booklet or paperwork from the unit that the soldier came from matching the tag number to a name.

 

That being said, you have a couple of rare tags there. There were only 4 Cavalry Brigades in the IJA (going from memory here), and I have seen neither designation come up in 8 years of collecting IJA tags.

 

Tom