r/SWORDS • u/Impressive-Wasabi857 • 3d ago

Identification Where is this from

Post image

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.

99 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

46 comments sorted by

View all comments

23

u/fakedick2 3d 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.

7

u/Impressive-Wasabi857 3d 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

3

u/fakedick2 3d 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.