In
1937, the China incident broke out and Japan became war emergency
organization. The officer's dress system was revised and full dress was
stopped in following 1938. In connection with this, the mounting of the
formality Guntō
which abolished Type 94 Guntō's second suspension mount was enacted in
May, 1938.
This is the 1938 establishment army formality Guntō (commonname
Type 98 Guntō).
Substance is not different from Type 94 Guntō.
Blade: The early blade
had many full-scale forging swords. However, supply does not catch up
with demand but the
military special blade of mass production
came to get a majority. Mounting: The grace of a
mounting has four kinds, the first class, the second class, the third
class, and informa-
lity. The scabbard changed with iron, aluminum, and a leather cover
wooden scabbard.
As a custom-made item, there is a rayskin binding or a Japanese
lacquered wooden scabbard, and the kind of
scabbard continued variably.
Therefore, these selections were determined as the officer's
funds and the conditions of a country.
Rushing into Greater East Asia War, quality deteriorated
extremely by the serious shortage of goods which transcends the grace
of these mounting. The quality of the Type 98 Guntō had a very big gap.
After the Type 3 Guntō establishment in 1943 was continued and
manufactured.
The Type 98 is minor change which abolished the second Suspension
mount (Haikan) of the Type 94.
China
dispatch, 51st regiment of the 15th army infantry division
Second lieutenant Tomotaka Shirato.
The 56th term graduation of a military academy. A photograph is
taken on May 27, 1943 on the day of second lieutenant appointment. It
is promoted to a first lieutenant after that. The 15th army division
will be supplied to the Imphal strategy in March, 1944.
The 15th team of Burma Direction milytary have the military power
of about 100,000 persons(the real number unknown) based on the 31st
army division, the 33rd army division, and the 15th army division.
It became abnormal circumstances which dismiss the 31st and the
33rd divisional commander who protested against reckless strategy, and
the 15th divisional commander who fell on the illness.
By strategy reckless and incompetent of Lieutenant General
Mutaguchi of the 15th team commander and the General Staff Office, 80%
of soldiers died and retreat turned into the "bleached-bones highway."
The about a total of 300 was killed in war from the troop of the
150-person organization which First Lieutenant
Shirato commands. Although the first lieutenant came back alive
miraculously, he did the open alligator of the anger to this strategy
which reached to an extreme of misery.
He is still vividly remembered in the troop person killed in war
Equipment of an officer is a handgun and a Guntō (it
had the hand grenade on the war situation).
He answered lucidly "it was a command-sabre in a field battle" to
a writer's question of "what to be with a Guntō for an officer."
He said, "When the commander extracted the sword, the subordinate
consented to it being the command of advance and an attack, and all the
members braced themselves up, catching a sight which extracted the
officer's sword."Although the photograph was wearing the soldier's hat
bearing in mind a "picture of the late him", only the "abbreviation
cap" was worn under wartime. The leather cover for field battles is
attached to the Guntō scabbard.
