Nothing short of amazing

Send them back to Japan with a note "attack America and you will get your teeth knocked out"
I'm joking sort of. I am glad you are doing this I would want our soldiers treated with the same respect.

Just want to provide and update on this and make one more request for assistance before I return the this piece to the Japanese authorities responsible for repatriating war remains.
1. Imperial Japan destroyed almost all records regarding their troops at in 1945.
2. They were so thorough that 3 photos remain of Nagumo with one of them from his student days in the USA.
3. I was unable to discover if there are any blood relatives of Nagumo's living in Japan and was curtly warned that they would probably not be interested in discussing his war-time activities - especially his last days on Saipan. I did not provide any detail as to why I wanted to contact them.
4. The Japanese still scrupulously avoid identifying individual remains. They confirm they are Japanese, cremate them, and send the ashes to the Yasukuni Shrine for internment. What they do with the gold is their business. Although I could use what $ that gold is worth, I think it would be REALLY bad juju if I were to do such a thing.

Anyway.. this is my last appeal. Any ideas out there, folks? I want to identify who owned these... I am still thinking Nagumo is the odds on favorite.

So, it's time to send these back to the Japanese repatriation commission. Bottom line is these are Japanese war remains and they deserve to go back to the Japanese. I will send them anonymously with coordinates on where they were found with pics.

Have you contacted the US consulate? There may be official channels for returning war remains that may meet with more positive response.

Very cool what you are doing.

Yo that's my grill lol

Most Interesting Thread

I commend you also for trying to do the right thing. I too would love to hear how all this turns out. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavor.
Thanks for sharing, and I agree with whoever said this might turn into a book.
HH everyone

Thanks for the update Sam! Let us know what happens next!

SeabeeRon said:

Thanks for the update Sam! Let us know what happens next!

Click to expand...

Ditto that.... Very cool thread.

This is just my opinion , but , if the Japs don't really care about the remains of their people , to honor them in that way . Then you may be able to give them more respect yourself by keeping them and showing them to whoever and then passing them down to someone else interested in sharing the same respect for the fallen of that war . Also , do you know if Nagumo even had a partial set of teeth , or if there is a way to find out if a certain Officer did have a partial ? Also , this is a very cool post , I'll definetely be following this one . Maybe this needs to be moved to the Eye Popping section .

Might be worth asking someone from JPAC for advice ?
I know they deal mostly with US servicemen, but they might be able to
point you in the right direction.

WOW, what a saga. I commend your effort for doing the right thing trying to return them. Also that is an extremely eerie find, to know that was in a person's mouth during the Battle of Saipan send chills down my spine, it must be doubly so for you. Saipan must be a great place to go detecting? Keep us posted on any new developments. HH

More artifacts...

The attached is a photo of an aiguillette. Interestingly, it has a bronze anchor as part of the decoration. Clearly Japanese Imperial Navy. It was found at the same location within the cave complex as the other artifacts.











Now for the kicker. Look just to the right, upper chest of Nagumo's uniform...


I'd love to get this to his family... in a display box next to his portrait...