Gentlemen,

I just returned from the 65th Pearl Harbor Survivor's Reunion with my father-in-law who was aboard the Heavy Cruiser New Orleans on 7 December 1941. While in Hawaii, I met Lt. Commander Abe Zenji at the reunion, who was a dive bomber pilot from the Akagi on that same day. I have just finished his memior, "The Emperior's Sea Eagle" and he has a couple of interesting things to say about his WWII Navy sword.

Lt. Cmdr. Abe mentions that he bought his Navy Officer Sword in a shop in Toranomon, Tokyo for one hundred yen when he was promoted to Ensign following graduation from Etajima. This is interesting because 100 yen was a lot of money at that time and he simply went into a shop and bought the ready made sword.

He later states that he left his sword aboard his carrier Junyo when he was forced to land on the island of Rota after dive bombing the USS Carrier Bunker Hill. Abe then states that since he was stranded on Rota after his plane was destroyed, and was assigned command of all Naval forces on Rota, he was given a new field made sword. He has this to say about it.

"Izumi had someone with blacksmith skills forge the blade from the broken spring of a truck, with a thinly peeled engine fan belt twisted around the sheath and grip. The sword guard was decently hand cast. A clever-fingered person we had there!" He also states he left the sword in a stack of arms when the garrison was ordered to surrender. "On my military sword, I tied a white bandage on which was written in India ink, 'Imperial Navy Lieutenant Commander Abe Zenji: Supreme Commander of Navy Units on Rota', and stacked it with the other arms. I was interested, half in fun, to see whether any of the U.S. soldiers would take it home as a souvenier."

An interesting description of one man's sword(s). It is also thought provoking when thinking about field made swords and the surrender tags sometimes still found attached to Japanese swords.

George

Great story, I wished I could have been at the reunion. One of my Pearl Harbor Vet pals stop going to these reunions due to bad health. He fell off a ladder a few years ago. And never fully recovered. I have questions about Naval swords. Can you still contact this person?

Dow,

Unfortunately Lt.Cmdr. Abe does not speak English, although his daughter who was with him does. They returned to Japan after the reunion. You can get his book through the Arizona Memorial book store where these quotes are taken from though.

What I found interesting is that we often dismiss out of hand any field made Japanese sword. Here is a documented incidence of just that happening on Rota when a new sword could not be procured. I know that I would have very serious doubts if I was shown a sword that had a shaved rubber fan belt wrapping. But, that sword is probably out there somewhere if it was not destroyed. He never saw either of his swords after the war as the first one was never forwarded to his wife at home as it should have been.

George

I have often wondered if after capture or surrender,There was some kind of "promise"That swords would be returned to the families of an officer.I recently got a sword from a very respectable dealer,Paul Vondrak,That had a wooden tag attached to it, With the owners name and address wired to it.It was very clear to me that this sword was extremely important to this officer.Does anyone know of any documentation that exists to support the fact that a sword may be returned to the owners at a later date,or was this just a ploy to help pacify a conquered enemy?

Geoff,

You asked a good question. Abe does not indicate that he had any thought of getting his Rota field-made sword back. He does make it clear that he was very proud of this particular sword as it was presented to him by the construction troops on Rota when he took over his new command and was promoted from Lieutenant to Lieutenant Commander and placed in charge of all island naval forces (1853 mixed naval personnel including the 270 construction troops).

Abe stated in his book that was upset that his other sword was not sent home to his wife from his carrier when he was forced to land on Rota as he had left instructions on what to do with his personal effects in such an event. He was also upset that the Imperial Navy did not notify his wife that he was safe on Rota so that seems to have been his main concern rather than the whereabouts of his first sword or belongings.

This is the only documentation on these identification tags I have seen although they might be mentioned in instructions on how to surrender these arms somewhere in Allied documents. I do know that Gregory and Fuller discuss formal sword surrenders where Allied officers could pick out a sword from those of a similar rank. I would think from this that there was little or no expectation from the Japanese that they would ever see these swords again.

A good discussion topic.

George

Over the years, I have purchsaed numerous swords with personal namd and home address attached. I have tracked down several individuals over the years whose swords I owned. In each case, I was told that they were instructed to bring all weapons to a certain location for confiscation by the Allied forces. None of them ever indicated to me that they ever expected to see their sword at a later date. Possibly, it was a record keeping system insituted by the Japanese military forces. In one case, a sword with a hand written tag was traced to the family of a soldier who never returned. One must wonder what ever happened to this man after he surrendered his blade
Bob