My great grandfather was a US Marine in World War II, fighting the Japanese in the pacific. The one thing I have from him, passed down through the family, is a Gunto blade off an NCO stationed on Iwo Jima. I don't know much about it, and I really wish I could find out more. There is a serial number on the blade with a symbol beside it, and three symbols on the handle. Sorry if the picture quality is horrible, the sword was torched by one of the flamethrower troops my grandfather worked with. Any info is greatly appreciated.
Symbol and numbers on blade: http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f37/roy_garcia1/8820A354-11F4-4BFC-B055-A8B4C921E6A3_zpsdpuuh83d.jpg
Symbols on handle: http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f37/roy_garcia1/D6263736-0352-4142-B548-2E000373BFC5_zpscghsak2e.jpg
Looks like a Type 95 Shin Gunto. Manufactured by Seki Tōken Co,Ltd, Tokyo Arsenal - but that's based on what I can barely make out on the blade. I'd almost suggest using some naval jelly very sparingly to clean the markings up, or get better pictures with better lighting.
Nice sword, even if it's mass-produced. The temper is probably gone if it got torched by a flamethrower, but it's a good conversation piece and if you got it cleaned up it would look very nice.
I used this site to decipher the markings: http://ohmura-study.net/957.html
I'll see what I can do sometime soon about the naval gelly and try to clean things up, not sure how soon it'll get done, sadly. Thank you so much for the info though!
