|
Home
>
Worthopedia – Price Guide
>
Militaria & Weapons >
WWII JAPANESE ARMY OFFICER SAMURAI SWORD WITH PAPERS
|
Terms and Conditions for using our site |
WWII JAPANESE ARMY OFFICER SAMURAI SWORD WITH PAPERS
Sold For:
 or Sign In to see what it's worth.
WWII JAPANESE ARMY OFFICER SAMURAI SWORD WITH US ARMY PAPERS ALLOWING THE SWORD TO BE LEGALLY BROUGHT BACK TO THE UNITED STATES
For auction is a great World War II Japanese officer Samurai Sword from the estate of the veteran, retired Captain Edward Raymond Snider O1181767. This auction includes all related items pictured. There are other items from the same estate such as another Japanese officer Samurai sword with US Army papers, his uniform grouping, a cased artillery spotter binoculars set with US Army papers and other smaller items running simultaneously in other auctions. First a bit of information about the officer. Captain Snider graduated from Officer's Candidate School (OCS) on May 5, 1943. During World War II, he was stationed in the Pacific. He graduated from the US Army Field Artillery School Fort Sill, Oklahoma and was, for a period of time, an active Artillery Officer. Prior to the end of World War II, he became a Censor Officer and transferred to Intelligence. Following World War II, he continued as an Intelligence Officer at the Presidio in San Francisco and retired from active duty as a captain. During World War II he served with the Americal Division and the US Army 91st Division. As a Censor / Intelligence Officer, he probably knew what buttons to push in order to bring items back to the United States from the Pacific legally. The original US Army document accompanies this Samurai Sword. This grouping consists of all the following: 1) Copies of documents and photos of Captain Snider during WWII. The family wanted to retain the original documents and photos. In the photo, Captain Snider is pictured in the front row, middle. All auction entries from his estate will have copies of his personal documents and photos; 2) the original document allowing him to bring the Samurai Sword back with him to the United States and; 3) The WWII period Samurai Sword. The sword is as was brought back to the United States and, to anyone's knowledge, has not been altered or changed in any way. Top to bottom, in the scabbard, the sword measures approximately 39 inches. The blade itself measures approximately 24 3/4 inches. The scabbard on its own is approximately 29 1/8 inches in length. That I can tell, there are no maker marks to be found anywhere on the sword except under the hand piece and the Japanese characters are engraved into the metal. I have no way of reading Japanese characters but I have a number of close friends living in and around Tokyo. They are educators, and former educators, and have been living in Japan, one of them, since before WWII. Of course they are not experts in Japanese WWII swords. The following is what they had to say about the Japanese characters: "With the help of three others, I think I can give you a fairly accurate answer. One of the two characters is "gi" which means "righteousness" and the other looks like "katsu" meaning "victory." An expert on Japanese Swords might not agree 100%, but I think it's pretty accurate and I hope the answer is helpful. Fraternally......" The following day I received a correction to the first email in which he states "my brother took another look and made this correction......the character that we thought was "katsu" (victory) is "osameru" meaning "subdue and rule over." The other character, depending on the left side might be the word ceremonial, also pronounced "gi." In that case, the sword would be a ceremonial sword probably belong to a high ranking officer and intended for ceremonial use more than for fighting. An expert on Japanese swords would be able to recognize the subtle differences in characters for a more accurate interpretation. Fraternally....." Another point which comes to light is that the US Army papers referring to this item say "saber" and not sword. I have no idea if this makes a difference. Could be just a clerk that does not know the difference between saber and sword. The overall condition of this sword is in very good condition considering its age. A very rare and well preserved i... 
Items in the Worthopedia are obtained exclusively from licensors and partners solely for our members’ research needs.
View Similar ItemsMore Items from eBay
|
|||||||||||||||||||
Joining is free and gives you access to our Community & Forums.
If you are interested in our pricing data or other paid memberships, try our Full 7-day Free Trial Here.
By creating an account you agree to our Terms & Conditions
