WWII Samurai Sword

My father was stationed in Japan for a brief time after WWII. During this assignment he was sent to a small village where there was a sick baby. He summoned the ships Doctor who treated the baby with medication. My Father was given a samurai sword by the childs father in exchange for his kindness. There is a serial number on the sword but my understanding is that there is no traceability between that and the individual the sword belonged two. My dad has always wondered if the baby survived and was hoping to located the family.

I'm not familiar with the swords but for what I understand, it usually has inscriptions in kanji and most swords were confiscated or people had to turn over all weapons.
So it surprises me that native person gave your father a sword as a appreciation which is a nice gesture.
I would love to own a original or authentic sword from that time.
Not sure you can find the family thru number inscripted on the sword but I'm pretty sure baby is OK thanks to your father's quick thinking.

Name of the village, region, the serial number or another?
Maybe I can help you.

Thank you for you offer. I do have the serial number I believe my Father can tell me at least what Island and perhaps even the village. I will talk to him this evening and post the information. Once again thank you for your help.

Still trying to locate island and approximate time frame. Once again I appreciate any help you can provide. However the serial number is 154535. There are several stamps on the handle of the sword which I believe further identifies the manufacture. I can send picutures.

The stamps maybe helpful. I need the photos. The name of village or region is much more helpful.

i have one problems also about samurai. cause my father have one. he got this samurai when he go to a cave on the cliff. it was somekind of samurai but not hard and have a grid.the samurai had picture of 3 diamonds, 9 sakura flowers, 9 mountain, 9 stars and theres a stamp 1112. please help me to sell it..

Well shortly after I posted this note my Father passed away. Unfortunately I wasnt able to obtain the village's name. However, I do know that it was an Island to the south east of yokohama bay. Of course I didn't right it down and I am sure there are hundreds of islands in that area. But I would reconize the name if I saw it. As far as a photo I do have several of them but I am not sure how to post it to this forum. Thank you again for all of your responses.

I don't normally post up on these forums, but I wanted to this time :)

Take a picture/s, put them on your pc, upload them on a website such as www.imageshack.us and that will give you a web link (http://..) to where you can look at the pictures on the internet.

Then just copy and paste the web link on this forum

Take a photo of the inscriptions. Go here http://www.sendspace.com/
upload it and then post the url to this site and everybody can take a look at it. The file would be available for download for about 7 days.

Here are the links to the pitures I posted on sendspace. Please let me know if I need to take additional pictures.

As always I appreciate everyones help.

http://www.sendspace.com/file/isk8ey

http://www.sendspace.com/file/oimi9s

http://www.sendspace.com/file/3ef01m

http://www.sendspace.com/file/dl14lz

http://www.sendspace.com/file/7wghtp

Firstly..to the guy that said:
" have one problems also about samurai. cause my father have one. he got this samurai when he go to a cave on the cliff. it was some kind of samurai but not hard and have a grid.the samurai had picture of 3 diamonds, 9 sakura flowers, 9 mountain, 9 stars and theres a stamp 1112. please help me to sell it.."
It is a fake. Chinese fake. 100% sure of it. No doubt. Japanese swords do NOT have any acid etched junk on the blades. Serial numbers are also ONLY found on the ww2 NCO Shin Gunto..and that has a cast aluminium handle and is machine made.

Ok..now to the original poster (MFS)
The sword is an NCo Shin Gunto from ww2. machine made, and not traditionally made. They are ILLEGAL in Japan, and would be destroyed by the Govt if it was ever to return to Japan. there is no way to trace any of the serial numbers anyways, there are no records. Only traditionally made swords are allowed in japan, and have to be registered. Non-traditional swords are illegal. Just hang on to it as a nice WW2 memento.

Nihonto

MFS, your best bet is probably to contact a major newspaper in Japan and see if they're interested in printing a photographed article on it. Sometimes people are united through articles like that. Here is a list of major Japanese newspapers.
http://www.asahi.com/shimbun/honsya/e/index.html

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/

About the island, the city of Yokohama is in Kanagawa Prefecture. The following are inhabitable islands in Kanagawa Pref. that existed in your father's days. They are Eno-shima, Joga-shima, No-jima and Wakae-jima. But Yokohama was the biggest port in Japan, so your father could have gone to any far away island embarking from Yokohama.

I know people who are collectors of WW2 Japanese swords in Australia, it is quite a deep field, this may or may not be relevant, so I dont wish to confuse the issue..

But not all genuine Japanese military swords were made in Japan.There are a category called "island swords" these were made for Japanese officers by local artisan makers in places that Japan occupied in Asia and the Pacific. You might have an Indonesian sword I think are particularly common , a Filipino sword, Chinese sword, Malayan Sword.
These are quite genuine and valuable military artifacts still, and not to be confused with fakes which might very well have been made later in similiar areas.
The collectors officially refer to them as "island swords".

yes, there there were "island swords" but this one isn't. It is, as stated, a plain NCO machine made shin gunto, and currently highly illegal in Japan. Militaria, not Nihon-to.
Worth around $500-600 on the market currently.

He probably gave you the sword thinkind it may give you good luck and i bet the baby survived thanks to a brave man, your dad.