Need some help with Japanese items

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vtcivilwar

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May 15, 2014
As my name implies, I collect civil war but love all history. A guy brought in a Japanese wooden box from WWII and some of the items would indicate the US Soilder was stationed in Japan. The aviation part is a chart on white plastic showing where to drop the torpedoes to hit a ship? Any help would be appreciated. There are also some photos of planes and I will try to post those also.
 
I am sending the photos to my son who lives near Osaka and perhaps he can help. Unless of course one of our forum contributors, Shinpachi, sees these and is able to provide more rapid assistance.
 
The bottom one is for a fellow named either Robert Manuel or Manuel Robert, who was 24 years old and whose "meeting place" (best I can do, the card says "Tagpuan", which is a Tagalog word, not my specialty) was Pangasinan (northwest Luzon).
 
Second one (with the circles, boxes and numbers) is a fuel tank selector card for a twin-engine aircraft, showing settings for the fuel collectors for normal feed, direct feed from the wing tanks to the engine on each wing, cross-feed, setting with wing tanks and setting with fuselage tank.
 
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Your guess is as good as mine for the top one, could well be for use in torpedos, but I can't make out how. The characters to the far right are "For use with Type 3" - there was a Mod. 3 for the Type 91 torpedo, but I'm guessing with that. The characters just to the left of those, inside the label area, are "1400", "1200" and "1000" - range? The characters at the other end, just inside the left-hand end of the scaled area, are "Enemy Speed", but as the coloured tracks go up to 160, I'm assuming the tracks are for angle on the bow, towards / away from the aircraft, not the speed of the ship. Maybe the whole thing is meant to clip onto some other kind of register, which would then allow the crew to determine the correct drop range for a target moving, say, at 20 knots angled 15 degrees away. Dunno.
 
Son came back with for first photo, 'Niko' tooth brush. He says the kanji appears archaic and no longer used. No other info.

for second photo: Robert Manuel, "the dog pan" (???!!!) he is 24.
 
After a bit more snooping, I think the top one is part of an "enemy heading bar", which I suppose means that the "For use with Type 3" characters are referring to a Type 3 Torpedo Director.

Have a look at this rather excellent YouTube clip, especially around the 5:15 mark.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq-4Z8UDCYI

There's more info on Japanese torpedo directors (including, significantly I think, a "Type 3 Target Course and Speed Instrument") here:

https://www.google.com.au/url?q=htt...Y2MdCQ&usg=AFQjCNEtfXiLI6AGWJabwTlCCd00i6vruA

Edit - On reflection, whatever "Type 3" is, it's not the one described in the pdf, which weighs 840 kg! I assume there must have been a fairly light, manual device for use in aircraft.
 
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Thanks for all the help. I did find some more items. The photo may be the corporal the pin belongs to? Nice wooden box that everything was in and a belt band ? The little red dots are sewed and the flag is printed. The small book looks like a log book?
Thanks again for all the help. I am looking for a reference guide for Japanese military items if someone can recommend one. If you can identify the man in the photo is there a chance of finding the family to return it?
 
Wow, so much information. Big Thanks... is there a way to trace Koichi's family? I know if I had a relative in WW2 and someone came across some personal items of his, I would love to have them back..
 
This website is in Japanese, however it shows a recent find of many similar such items, an almost identical box (Type 2, instead of the type 1 in the picture and the type 3 for which the torpedo aiming table is used), and a pic of the instrument it was used on:

???????????????????????????????????

Haven't had time to read it in detail, however the "26 K" on the left hand side of the torpedo calculator strip is, according to the website posted above, indicative of a target ship travelling at 26 knots. I guess different strips would be used for targets travelling at different speeds, makes sense. I also get the impression that two clips were used on the torpedo sight, one for targets to starboard, another for targets to port.

Edit - Don't worry about the "????" in the link - it's because the relevant characters are in Japanese.
 
If you want to return the items to the family, I recommend contacting the nearest Japanese Consel or Embassy. They can direct you to the Japanese Repatriation Bureu in Japan. They are the organization in Japan who specialize in these matters. I've used them for Japanese Flags.
 
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