Original Item: Only One Available. This is an excellent and clearly stamped dog tag, with translation stating that this soldier was apart of the 11th Mountain Artillery Regiment of the 11th infantry Division. Imperial Japanese Army dog tags were first introduced on 22 June, 1894 by Army Ordinance No.63 as “Specifications and Issuing Procedures for ID tags”, immediately before the Sino-Japanese War, which broke out only a month later.

On October 27, 1943, the final regulation said, “The purpose of an ID tag is to identify those soldiers and civilians serving the military upon death or injury, and are to be issued to officers and below upon mobilization. It is also to be issued to officers and below, who are assigned as replacements to a field unit”. From this time, even officers were now issued tags. As best we can tell, this tag reads (right to left) 山 砲 一 一 (Mountain Cannon 1 1), 番 〇 九 (Number 0 9). The War Relics forum has a very nice thread on these markings, which is definitely a good place to start further research: Japanese Army Dog Tags.

This brass tag is in wonderful condition and comes more than ready ore further research and display!