Japanese 1000 Stitch Belt with History.

[one50]

Some of you know my collecting interest. It's a pretty narrow area of focus....collecting items from Corregidor US (503rd RTC) and Japanese 1942-1945.

My favorite part of collecting is when both 503rd and Japanese items come together. 503rd Vet bring backs from Corregidor are a deep pleasure of mine.

Short story....

Doing research on Corregidor I see the aerial photos the maps etc.,

I have a set of aerial photos taken hours before the the 503rd Jumped on Corregidor...they are massive photos, larger than 11x17 and the details is awesome.

In researching the photos I found the man who took the photos and we quickly became friends.

He just so happened to have published a book a while back about his time in the war...I purchased a copy from him.

No surprise he had a section about Corregidor...but one of the photos floored me.

Here is an exerpt from the book.

I contacted him a few years back and mentioned "when the time is right, I'll look after that tiger belt for you"

About 2 years ago I put the bug in his ear again and at that time he informed me his basement flooded and the local church came over and cleaned out the basement.

The belt had vanished.

BUMMER

In the trash and long gone, just missed it.

As luck would have it, 2015 rolls around.

He emailed me and said "i found it, and as promised, I will send it to you.

It arrived today...it's a great piece.

It was given to him by a 503rd trooper after they all returned back to camp.

Since the photographer was in the plane all the time, this 503rd trooper wanted to give him a present from the battle.

[sundance]

Very nice item. I'd love to come across one of those some day. (Or should I just say " when the time is right, I'll look after that tiger belt for you" )