Original Item: One of a Kind. This is great USGI bring back IJN blanket from the Pacific Theater, originally captured on Saipan by Pfc. Richard W. Holt, who would later be killed in action during the battle of Iwo Jima. The white blanket, most likely made from the early semi-synthetic fiber rayon, measures 60" x 84", or 5 by 7 feet. Purchased at a recent military shoe from a collector, the blanket still retains the original issue tag, which gives a date of 十 九 年 二 月, for the Showa 19, 2nd month, or February 1944. The blanket is in good shape, though it is somewhat pilled at worn. It seems to have been washed since being captured, and possibly used for a time.

With the blanket came the following provenance (we have corrected the spelling):

War Souvenir - Japanese Blanket (made from wood fibers)

  Obtained on Saipan from an elite unite of Japanese Marines (they had to be over 6 feet tall to be in the unit) by Pfc. Richard W. Holt of the 25th Marins, 4th Marine Division. Holt gave the blanket to his best friend Elmer Quay, who was servicing in the Navy Seabees at the time. Holt was sounded in the neck on Saipan by a wooden bullet (the Japanese used wooden bullets to wound rather than kill as they believed that it took more toll on enemy resources to care for wounded). Hold was later killed in the battle on Iwo Jima.

  I obtained the blanket from Elmer Quay in 2006. Elmer said that there used to be an anchor emblem on the blanket, but over the years and several washings, it vanished.

We would assume that this "elite unit" refers to the Japanese Special Naval Landing Forces. The blanket also came with a picture of Holt, with the following caption:

Pfc Richard W. Holt
25th Marines 4th Division
Wounded at Tinian Island, July 24 1944.
Killed in action at Iwo Jima, March 13, 1945
He was 23 years old.

The above picture taken on the Island of Maui, a marine rest camp. Picture taken in early 1945

Definitely some great information and research potential here. We're not sure why one caption lists a wound on Saipan, while another lists one on Tinian.

A great USGI bring back from the Pacific Theater of WWII, ready to display!

History of the SNLF:
Before the late 1920s the IJN did not have a separate marine force, instead it used naval landing forces or rikusentai formed from individual ships's crews, who received infantry training as part of their basic training, for special and/or temporary missions.

In the late 1920s the navy began to form Special Naval Landing Forces as standing regiments (albeit of battalion size). These forces were raised at — and took their names from — the four main naval districts/bases in Japan: Kure, Maizuru, Sasebo, and Yokosuka. These SNLF units saw action in China from 1932 in the January 28 Incident and at the Battle of Shanghai in naval operations along the China coast and up the Yangtze River and its tributaries during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Soon, they became involved in successful Japanese seaborne assaults throughout South East Asia.

Other SNLF were later raised from IJN personnel in China, at Hankow, and Shanghai, for service in Canton and on the Yangtze River. On 7 December 1941 there were 16 SNLF units, this increased to 21 units during the war. The strengths of each SNLF ranged from the prewar peak of 1,200 to a later 650 personnel. There was also a special detachment in the Kwantung area, garrisoning the ports of Dairen and Ryojun.

Initially, the SNLF were not a marine force, but were instead sailors who had basic infantry training and were employed in landings during the Russo-Japanese War and the Boxer Rebellion. Soon their training and equipment were improved upon drastically, and their forces were given a variety of other operations as well. In 1941, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Yokosuka SNLF were converted to parachute units. They conducted more combat drops than Japanese Army parachute units during World War II. The SNLF paratroopers were used during the attack on Celebes and the Battle of Manado, to much lauded success by the Imperial government. Aside from the paratroopers, there were also elite squads who conducted reconnaissance and raid operations.

Since then, the Landing Forces have been influential in Japan's expansion of territories, and their tactics of surprising their enemies through sea invasions proved effective. The original SNLF personnel were well-trained, high quality troops with good morale and they performed well against opposition across Southeast Asia. However, like all landing forces they often experienced heavy casualties when faced with determined resistance, such as at the invasion of Timor and the Battle of Milne Bay. This is due to their unwillingness to surrender, and when completely out of ammunition, they would often resort to hand-to-hand fighting with their swords and bayonets. To combat highly defended positions in the Pacific, the Landing Forces created new tactics and techniques in order to overcome them that would later be adopted by the Allied in their sea-borne invasions.

In a well known last stand in 1943, 2,619 men of the 7th Sasebo SNLF and 2,000 base personnel at the Battle of Tarawa accounted for over 3,000 U.S. Marine Corps casualties.