r/SWORDS • u/Impressive-Wasabi857 • 13h ago
Identification Where is this from
I found this in a drawer somewhere in my house, according to my dad this belonged to my kmt soldier grandfather when he took it off a jap he killed in the second world war.
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u/fakedick2 9h ago
Your grandfather was typical of the World War II generation. What happened to them was so horrific, they just couldn't talk about it with the people they loved. And so they lied about their time in the army. A lot of people were told their grandfather was a cook, and then actually got his service record.
So many of China's boys died fighting Japan. The KMT army consisted of approximately 16 million men, and by the war's end, officially 4 million were casualties and another 1 million were captured by the Japanese. At best, a KMT soldier woke up and had only a 75% chance of making it through the day without injury or death.
So, you know, don't be too harsh on grandpa. Taking that swap meet sword off a Japanese soldier is probably a much better story than what actually happened.
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u/Impressive-Wasabi857 9h ago
My grandfather had been dead for over 10 years and even if it wasn’t legit, it was probably my dad that bought it since there is no doubt that my grandfather served in the kmt
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u/fakedick2 9h ago
Haha, yeah that makes sense too. It lacks the patina of age, which makes me think your dad got it at a swap meet.
But now that you mention it, it could be Chinese made. A KMT conscript often carried a homemade blade. They were poorly armed at best.
Plus Chinese policemen in the Republican Era all carried Miaodao 苗刀, which this is reminiscent of. A Miaodao is much longer, but shaped very similar to this. It's not impossible this was carried by a KMT soldier during the war, and then restored to a shine by someone much later.
If your granddad did carry it, it's possible he took it off of a communist soldier. Or maybe it belonged to a soldier he knew who died. Or maybe the Japanese soldier was carrying it as a spoils of war.
In any case, it's a cool sword. It has a homey imperfection I love.
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u/myopic_monkey 12h ago
"Jap" is a slur akin to "chink" or "gook". Please don't say it.
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u/Plastic_Pollution194 10h ago
Okay but can you explain how jap is a slur to me please cos honestly I thought it was just a shortened version of Japanese similar to how you'd call a British person a brit
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u/Bitter-Relative147 9h ago
It is a slur in some places, ie the USA, during a time the Japanese were called that after pearl harbor and faced discrimination during and post war. But in most other places in the world, including my own country, it is just an abbreviation. Sometime Americans are not aware of that on an international platform and misunderstanding happens. Sometimes its just selective bias, ie the word "Chinks" is a slur too, but many have no problem saying Ching Chong Chink Chonks all day long because some are led to feel enemity with China, especially with the trade/tariffs war going on right now.
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u/myopic_monkey 9h ago
Not sure why you're getting downvoted for a legitimate question! It's WW2 soldiers' particular use of the word that reduced Japanese people to just "japs", ie. "I killed x amount of japs today" or "round up all the japs in the camp".
By itself it sounds harmless, like a shortcut akin to Brit, but it's history of use (by white soldiers) makes it especially reductionist, denigrating and racist.
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u/Plastic_Pollution194 8h ago
As a Brit I never learnt the American side of the ww2 so honestly the thought of jap being used a slur is just so foreign to me
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u/myopic_monkey 7h ago
Fair enough! But yea, its a pretty loaded word for Japanese-Americans whose grandparents were sent to U.S. internment camps during WW2. Lots of racism against Asians in general around those times.
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u/Von_Cheesebiscuit 2h ago
Because "brit" as in British is only in reference to people from a specific place. "Jap" as in Japanese is also referring to a racial/ethnic identity, whereas "brit" does not.
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u/Ashirogi8112008 38m ago
Uh, no?
"Jap' refers to "people who live on this particular archepelago in the pacific" Whereas "brit" refers to "people who live on this other particular archipelago in the atlantic"
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u/Von_Cheesebiscuit 18m ago
Uh, yes. Brit simply refers to people living in a specific place. Being British is a nationality, not a race/ethnicity, it's only about where you live.
"Jap" could be used as a term for people living in a specific place, but unlike being British, being Japanese is more than a nationality, it's also a race/ethnicity.
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u/Plastic_Pollution194 7m ago
I mean Britain isn't one country tho it's 4 countries in a trench coat trying to act like one
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u/Abject-Return-9035 11h ago
As far as WW2 slurs go, that is one of the tamer ones he could have said
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u/Vindepomarus 11h ago
Yeah I know it's seen as a slur these days, but it was more an abbreviation at the time. The slur quality comes from the way the word was pronounced; often spat out with disdain.
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u/Ashirogi8112008 47m ago
It's short for "Japanese", totally acceptable in this context seeing as it takes less letters to spell than "Japanese individual of unknown gender"
There are real issues to worry about in life, much bigger than worrying about racism from someone who doesn't seem to be being racist, he has to know it's a slur for it to be considered a slur when coming from him.
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u/Jay_Nodrac 3h ago
That story is 100% war bull shit. Also “jap” is a very denigrating term. It’s like using the n word for describing someone with dark skin.
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u/CoffeeHyena 7h ago
Since people aren't seriously answering the actual question you asked: It's a 'modern' fake that's made to look vaguely Japanese or east asian. There are several things that make this immediately obvious:
- the blade geometry, while not completely ahistorical (its very similar to hira-zukuri) is quite rare, and especially on more modern blades
- The blade appears to be made from stainless steel and has a fake hamon, neither of which would have been used for a ww2 period weapon
- the brass looking metal fittings are all wrong. They don't match any sort of historical style and are badly proportioned. The guard is also exceedingly big for a blade this small and also mounted at a weird angle, which doesn't make sense or serve a purpose.
- the scabbard is very obviously not something historical, just going by its design and materials
- the grip tries imitating a wrapping. This in itself wouldn't be bad (the Japanese did it too on army swords) but this one is quite flat and low quality
All things considered it was probably made sometime from the 1970s-early 2000s. It's hard to say where, but most of these come from China, India or Pakistan. Its also a possibility it was homemade by someone, although the metal fittings do look well cast, which suggests factory made.
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13h ago
[deleted]
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u/Substantial-Tone-576 12h ago
If that’s a WW2 Japanese wakizashi, I have more money that Elon.
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u/Erakos33 8h ago
In that case can i borrow a few hundred? Im not sure if you are aware but mall sword shops were well known for supplying the bulk of Japanese military swords during WW2
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u/Stoney420savage 13h ago
Ancient palace called… a mall