This has already been in another post. Thanks for all the great information. There are couple of new pics. The Nambu pistol was brought back from the Philipines by my father, the 1942 canteen and the 1944 cup were bought for a couple of bucks apiece at the Army/Navy store when I was a kid. Used to use them for Boy Scout campouts.
The following text was copied from my previous post.
The knife was given to me by a neighbor of my parents over 25 years ago. I must have been around 16-17, and had grown up with these folks as neighbors and family friends.
The husband had recently passed, and the widow was over for dinner. Before we ate, she told me she had something she wanted to give me. She put a big knife in my hands and told me that her husband's brother had given it to him before he went to China to serve with the 14th Air force (he was not a flyer).
Caroline, who had been a BAM in the war, was a tough old gal, and she told me that Rod had "killed a Jap" with the knife. She said this in a way that I believed her, and I had talked to her husband a good deal about the war and I have little doubt that it is true. They were the type of people that did not say these sort of things lightly and I know where he served and some of what he went through.
She then went on to demonstrate the best way to use the thing, and that I'll leave to your imagination.
When she walked out of the room to go help my mother with dinner, I was standing there with the knife, a little spooked. My father, a WWII Pacific Vet, who had been in the room while she was giving me the knife and telling me the story, got an odd look and said, "That's his Randall. He showed me that knife. My god, she just gave you his Randall." He looked at me for a minute and then he left the room and I was standing there with something I didn't understand but that I knew was special.
I realize that this is a pretty incredible second hand story from someone none of you know, and I'd probably be sceptical too.
All I can say is that these were honorable people who both served. When the husband was still alive, I spent a good bit of time talking to him about the war. Fortunately I was always interested in it and he had some amazing stories. At the time, my father did not want to talk much about his service in the Pacific, so I talked to my neighbor.
Here's the amazing part.
Before the war he had been trained as a commercial artist and he had stacks of drawings and paintings that he had made during his time in China, as well as hundreds of photos and, believe it or not some color movies, which he screened for my family and me on several occaisions. He had insignia and flags from the squadron as well as a lot of other stuff that was like candy for a kid like me. It was like a museum.
What happened to all this stuff I have no idea. The widow subsequently moved to California to live with family, and they had been estranged from their only child for many years. She also has passed. I only hope that the stuff made its way into responsible hands as it was a veritable treasure trove of documentation, and the color movies are very rare. I'm sure I did not see all of the stuff but the photos and movies were amazing. My efforts to locate the family have not been successful.
That's the story behind the knife.
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