Original Items: Only One Kit Available. The documentation of dental materials used in the USA during the WWII era is readily available, while references for the Japanese are minimal, unfortunately.

Both war and medicine alter the human body, but in two different ways; war uses violence to harm and kill, while medicine strives to save and maintain the body. Despite this essential disparity, the two fields have been intimately connected and mutually contributive since early in history. This connection reached new heights during the “Modern era,” as war expanded and became increasingly medicalized.

This dental kit is a prime example of the “modern era” war being fought at the time. Dental hygiene is generally important, but one could forget to or even neglect to care for their dental hygiene. While in the Marine Corps, we couldn’t deploy if our dental class wasn’t high enough. The reason being? You don’t want to be taken out of the fight all because of a toothache or infection, and if you have ever had a bad infection, then you know just how painful it is. You take care of your body and your body takes care of you. The military has a strategically structured system set in place to care for the soldiers. A medical department isn’t just a medic treating gunshot wounds, it’s much more than that. “Thanks” to WWI, battlefield medicine evolved to unprecedented levels, allowing for humans to somewhat evolve and obtain better knowledge.

This is a complete kit with all the tools you would expect a dentist to be equipped with. The kit is a lovely stainless steel and appears to have either never been issued or only used a handful of times. There are 17 tools in total secured in the kit and appear to be free of any damage. The kit retains its original canvas bag, which retains lovely Kanji marking on the face.

The kit comes ready to display!