My uncle John and I went on a road trip to Canberra today. I had made
an appointment the week prior to meet a man named Daniel McGlinchey. Mr McGlinchey is
a Duty Curator from the Military Heraldry & Technology division at the
Australian War Memorial and specialises in War artifacts. I was explaining my
grandfather’s story over the phone and he suggested to bring the sword down.
Our appointment was at twelve o’clock and we got there with exactly
five minutes to spare, it took us precisely three hours to drive. My uncle was
extremely pleased with his timing, grinning and saying “right on time”. He knew
I was a little worried we wouldn’t get there on time as we left a little later
than anticipated.
We walked to the administration building where our appointment was
scheduled. The building was to the left of the Australian War Memorial and
highly secured. We had to register our names and obtain security passes before
proceeding. Once, we registered our details, Mr McGlinchey collected us from the
reception area. He was a tall slender Englishman with short light brown hair
and hazel eyes. I think he was around his mid thirties and very softly spoken.
We were guided into a large open area that looked like a small
library. Hundreds of books lined the shelves and there were small study desks
spread out in sections. We sat at a long table that was actually four smaller
tables pushed together. My uncle carefully removed the sword from its wrap and
placed it on the table. Mr McGlinchey, put on a pair of blue gloves and started
examining the sword. He was able to immediately identify the sword as a Shin
Guntō. Which is an Army Issued sword used by the Imperial Japanese
Army between the years of 1935 and 1945. Mr McGlinchey said, it was a general
purpose sword, with a traditionally constructed hilt with ray skin wrapped
with traditional silk wrapping. A cherry blossom theme was incorporated into
the guard and pommel (hand grip). It had a copper handle and was missing spaces
from the top of the blade. Mr McGlinchey believed that the blade was narrower than
usual blades he has came across. He compared the sword to an image out of a
Japanese history book, and believed it matched the Type 94 Shin Guntō
that was made of metal with a wood lining to protect the blade. He said that
the blades found in Type 94 Shin Guntō’s ranged from modern machine made
blades through to contemporary traditionally manufactured blades to ancestral
blades dating back hundreds of years.
Mr McGlinchey asked if we would mind if he made an attempt to open the
handle. He said that all swords have the manufacturing markings on the blade,
sometimes they will also have the name of the soldier or family details. These
details are on the blade and protected by the handgrip. We were most happy for
him to try, as any details found would help us get closer to tracking down the
family. Unfortunately, after a few minutes of trying, the handle wouldn’t
release and it was too fragile for him to proceed. He didn’t want to risk
damaging the sword. He said it will need a bit more force to open and
recommended we take it to a museum in Sydney or trying ourselves.
My uncle showed Mr McGlinchey the two photographs my grandfather found on the
soldier. He was taken back and thought it was remarkable that we had the
photographs of the soldier with the sword. He wasn’t able to identify the
ranking of the soldier off hand, but referred us to some sites where we could
locate the details. Mr McGlinchey said we were up against a few hurdles due to the
sensitivity of the Japanese culture and also that the Japanese did not have
good records of their soldiers locations. I asked him if he has come across
anybody who has been successful on returning a sword. He replied he hasn’t come
across anyone, but with the photographs, it will help tremendously with the
search. He advised us to speak with the Japanese Embassy whom will be able to
provide guidance to the Japanese Army records. He concluded the meeting wishing
us all the best and “Good luck”.
After walking out of there, I had mixed feelings. It was great to have
the sword identified and receive some guidance on the next steps. However, I
couldn’t help feeling overwhelmed by the size of the task, trying to track down
the family of the soldier.
Australian War Memorial
My uncle had to meet some clients for work, so I was able to look in
the Australian War Memorial and take a few photographs. The War memorial was
much larger than I imagined. The exhibitions on WWI and WWII were huge. I
didn’t expect all the detailed timelines, along with copious amounts of
artifacts they had. I only had a bit over an hour to look in there. To properly
view it, you would at least require half a day. I quickly briefed WWI and went
onto WWII. I only got through a quarter of the exhibition before my uncle
called to pick me up.
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| The memorial wall of all the soldiers who lost their lives in the war. |
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| 'Man in the mud' life sized diorama by Peter Corlette |
