Who here reads Japanese?, WWII medal

[skelley521]

I was asked by a friend if I could find someone to translate the info on the back of this medal for him. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

[Santa]

i would also like to know what it says
how did your friend get the medal?

[vidcc]

Do you know what medal it was, what the front looked like, was it a ww2 medal, was it a military medal and if it is indeed japanese?

[skelley521]

It was given to him by a family member, they said that it came from a Japanese soldier in WWII.

.910 in. diameter
Sterling silver
Star is either solid gold or heavy rolled gold

[vidcc]

http://img358.imageshack.us/img358/3021/japveteransbadgesmall8jj.jpg


Veterans badge. 28 mm by 18 mm silvered shield bearing a naval anchor with a bronze star. Issued to any veteran of the war against China, Korea, Manchuria, or the Allies.
So far it looks similar to a veterans badge for a particular battle front and not a "bravery award". It may have been issued on departure to an arena, but this is just a guess based on information on similar looking items.

The bird is probably a ho-o.

The rising sun and the "water splash" around the anchor may make it a naval service medal

No luck on the characters but it is interesting trying to find it.

[manker]

So the anchor and waves made you think it's a medal for naval service.

How did you come to that conclusion :P

===

Btw, SnnY speaks a bit of Japanese. I'll point out the thread to him when he signs on.

[SpatulaGeekGirl]

Try some kanji sites, you will have to search for ages but you may eventually find them.

The katakana letter (the thing that looks like a Z) is "su".

[Barbarossa]

I think it says

"Jim fixed it for me to sail with the Japanese Navy" ... :unsure:

[vidcc]

So the anchor and waves made you think it's a medal for naval service.

How did you come to that conclusion :P

The anchor alone doesn't necessarily mean a naval medal, it could be that the assault was a coastal landing. The waves add "extra" IMO. If you look at the veterans badge it has the anchor as well as the star but it is not just for the navy..it could just be military as opposed to a specific service.

[skelley521]

Thanks, my friend seems to think that it is Imperial Navy, but that is as far as he knows.

[manker]

So the anchor and waves made you think it's a medal for naval service.

How did you come to that conclusion :P

The anchor alone doesn't necessarily mean a naval medal, it could be that the assault was a coastal landing. The waves add "extra" IMO. If you look at the veterans badge it has the anchor as well as the star but it is not just for the navy..it could just be military as opposed to a specific service.It's the safest guess in the history of safe guesses.

Right up there with; 'That Pope - I reckon he believes in Jebus'.

[Gripper]

It say's "If found please return to-Emperor Hirohito,Tokyo ,Japan"
Seriously I would love to know what it say's as well,spent an hour searching through websites,when you first posted

[Guillaume]

Skelley, I'll ask at Hongfire.com, I'm sure one of the resident animé freaks enthusiasts will know how to decipher it. :)

[Cheese]

The "No 173" leads me to believe this means Number 173. :vidcc:

[Barbarossa]

EDIT: nvm (hope no-one saw that :blushing: )

[DarthInsinuate]

i did :naughty:

[Dark Steno]

Skelley, I'll ask at Hongfire.com, I'm sure one of the resident animé freaks enthusiasts will know how to decipher it. :)
When you make the thread at HF, I thought you're the one open the thread here. :P

[Guillaume]

Skelley, I'll ask at Hongfire.com, I'm sure one of the resident animé freaks enthusiasts will know how to decipher it. :)
When you make the thread at HF, I thought you're the one open the thread here. :P
Saying "someone I know" was so much faster than saying "someone on another forum I frequent".
I'm lazy. :01:

[hirukenzan]

i thought i could give it an hour or two, but here is all i come up with that wouldn't dig me into a hole and make me look bad if someone corrected me.

starting from left to right: meeting/society (based off looking through korean and japanese character dictionaries　会　in modern japanese), ambiguous character possibly　之 "of" in standard chinese character (meaning old japan and korea would use it as "of"), 軍　military, 郷　hometown, 在　existence.

interestingly enough if you read the last two characters left to right in modern japanese you get 在郷　"living in the countryside" but only if read that direction which leads me to believe it's either they said that in japanese a good while ago or it's not japanese (because it's not in modern kanji dictionaries anyway). um, so the thing to wonder about (and it's probably not this way) is if we are supposed to read from right to left. but i've never seen horizontal writings from that area that need to be read like that.

i tried damn hard to get the first line but first, it's written in the style similar to the earliest chinese characters where all the radicals look only slightly similar to what they are now, which makes it difficult to confirm the characters in the middle and top. the second difficult ... well no, that's the main difficulty.

anyway, as for a guess to the first and second lines. look at the second line only carrying 3 characters. that's the right number of characters for a korean or chinese name. not so common are 3 character japanese names but anyway, i'm guessing it's a name. could even be the name of a japanese-born korean or japanese soldier who was korean or chinese. or even taken from the body of a non-japanese soldier. that's just conjecture at this point.

also of note: i didn't see any characters resembling navy　海軍 or sea　海, or even boat　船. oh what the hell let me go back and use kanji　漢字.

another thing to read is the pushed in mark just left of the No. 173. that is the engraver. i cannot read it, since it's so small but does it say a government/country or something?

[skelley521]

Thanks hirukenzan, I will pass this info on. He has had several dealers look at it also and they dont know either. Still has me wondering though.
Thanks Again

[Santa]

Disgruntled Asian Tattoo Artist Inks His Revenge

http://www.soufoaklin.com/images/blank.gif http://www.soufoaklin.com/photos/tattooartist.jpg
Symbols on the back of a Pitt Student
inked by Sakai (inset) were originally
meant to say, "princess." They really say, "prostitute."

Reprinted from Sept. 2002 -- Pitt junior Brandon Smith wanted a tattoo that proclaimed his manliness, so he decided to get the Chinese characters for “strength” and “honor” on his chest. After 20 minutes under the needle of local tattoo artist Andy Sakai, he emerged with the symbol for “small penis” embedded in his flesh.


“I had it for months before I knew what it really meant,” Smith said.

“Then I went jogging through the Carnegie Mellon campus and a group of Asian kids started laughing and calling me ‘Shorty.’ That’s when I knew something was up.”

Sakai, an award-winning tattoo artist, was tired of seeing sacred Japanese words, symbols of his heritage, inked on random white people. So he used their blissful ignorance to make an everlasting statement. Any time acustomer came to Sakai’s home studio wanting Japanese tattooed on them, he modified it into a profane word or phrase.

“All these preppy sorority girls and suburban rich boys think they’re so cool ‘cause they have a tattoo with Japanese characters. But it doesn’t mean shit to them!” Sakai said. “The dumbasses don’t even realize that I’ve written ‘slut’ or ‘pervert’ on their skin!”

In the last month, seven people unknowingly received explicit tattoos from the disgruntled artist. Kerri Baker, a Carlow College freshman, paid $50 to have the symbols for “beautiful goddess” etched above her belly button, but when she went into Szechuan Express Asian Noodle Shop sporting a bare midriff, the giggling employees explained to her that the tattoo really said, “Insert General Tso’s Chicken Here!”

“I don’t even like General Tso’s!” Baker sobbed. “I’m a vegetarian!”

Sakai doesn’t feel guilty about using hapless college students as canvases for his graffiti.

“I think I’m helping my fellow man by labeling all the stupid people in the world,” he explained. “It’s not a crime, it’s a public service.

[Biggles]

“I think I’m helping my fellow man by labeling all the stupid people in the world,” he explained. “It’s not a crime, it’s a public service".

There is still that basic cruelty in there somewhere isn't there? :lol:

[Cheese]

Disgruntled Asian Tattoo Artist Inks His Revenge

http://www.soufoaklin.com/images/blank.gif http://www.soufoaklin.com/photos/tattooartist.jpg
Symbols on the back of a Pitt Student
inked by Sakai (inset) were originally
meant to say, "princess." They really say, "prostitute."

Reprinted from Sept. 2002 -- Pitt junior Brandon Smith wanted a tattoo that proclaimed his manliness, so he decided to get the Chinese characters for “strength” and “honor” on his chest. After 20 minutes under the needle of local tattoo artist Andy Sakai, he emerged with the symbol for “small penis” embedded in his flesh.


“I had it for months before I knew what it really meant,” Smith said.

“Then I went jogging through the Carnegie Mellon campus and a group of Asian kids started laughing and calling me ‘Shorty.’ That’s when I knew something was up.”

Sakai, an award-winning tattoo artist, was tired of seeing sacred Japanese words, symbols of his heritage, inked on random white people. So he used their blissful ignorance to make an everlasting statement. Any time acustomer came to Sakai’s home studio wanting Japanese tattooed on them, he modified it into a profane word or phrase.

“All these preppy sorority girls and suburban rich boys think they’re so cool ‘cause they have a tattoo with Japanese characters. But it doesn’t mean shit to them!” Sakai said. “The dumbasses don’t even realize that I’ve written ‘slut’ or ‘pervert’ on their skin!”

In the last month, seven people unknowingly received explicit tattoos from the disgruntled artist. Kerri Baker, a Carlow College freshman, paid $50 to have the symbols for “beautiful goddess” etched above her belly button, but when she went into Szechuan Express Asian Noodle Shop sporting a bare midriff, the giggling employees explained to her that the tattoo really said, “Insert General Tso’s Chicken Here!”

“I don’t even like General Tso’s!” Baker sobbed. “I’m a vegetarian!”

Sakai doesn’t feel guilty about using hapless college students as canvases for his graffiti.

“I think I’m helping my fellow man by labeling all the stupid people in the world,” he explained. “It’s not a crime, it’s a public service.

Funny but it is a fake article though:(

[enoughfakefiles]

Disgruntled Asian Tattoo Artist Inks His Revenge

http://www.soufoaklin.com/images/blank.gif http://www.soufoaklin.com/photos/tattooartist.jpg
Symbols on the back of a Pitt Student
inked by Sakai (inset) were originally
meant to say, "princess." They really say, "prostitute."

Reprinted from Sept. 2002 -- Pitt junior Brandon Smith wanted a tattoo that proclaimed his manliness, so he decided to get the Chinese characters for “strength” and “honor” on his chest. After 20 minutes under the needle of local tattoo artist Andy Sakai, he emerged with the symbol for “small penis” embedded in his flesh.


“I had it for months before I knew what it really meant,” Smith said.

“Then I went jogging through the Carnegie Mellon campus and a group of Asian kids started laughing and calling me ‘Shorty.’ That’s when I knew something was up.”

Sakai, an award-winning tattoo artist, was tired of seeing sacred Japanese words, symbols of his heritage, inked on random white people. So he used their blissful ignorance to make an everlasting statement. Any time acustomer came to Sakai’s home studio wanting Japanese tattooed on them, he modified it into a profane word or phrase.

“All these preppy sorority girls and suburban rich boys think they’re so cool ‘cause they have a tattoo with Japanese characters. But it doesn’t mean shit to them!” Sakai said. “The dumbasses don’t even realize that I’ve written ‘slut’ or ‘pervert’ on their skin!”

In the last month, seven people unknowingly received explicit tattoos from the disgruntled artist. Kerri Baker, a Carlow College freshman, paid $50 to have the symbols for “beautiful goddess” etched above her belly button, but when she went into Szechuan Express Asian Noodle Shop sporting a bare midriff, the giggling employees explained to her that the tattoo really said, “Insert General Tso’s Chicken Here!”

“I don’t even like General Tso’s!” Baker sobbed. “I’m a vegetarian!”

Sakai doesn’t feel guilty about using hapless college students as canvases for his graffiti.

“I think I’m helping my fellow man by labeling all the stupid people in the world,” he explained. “It’s not a crime, it’s a public service.

Funny but it is a fake article though:(

Do you think this one could be fake as well chebus. :unsure:

http://img309.imageshack.us/img309/3147/untitled1copy2zd.jpg