My dad came across this plate in his father's stuff and was wondering if he could get it translated. My grandfather was in the US construction battalion in WWII, including during the Battle of Iwo Jima, from which this probably comes. Thanks for any help.
http://i.imgur.com/m1L2uUD.jpg
[Edit: enhanced image]
Posted Jun 9, 2016, 8:01 PM UTC · edited
Top: 榮二〇型外部要具
Bottom left: 京機第T13號
Bottom right: 昭和18年10月製造
It seems like a plate of the tool box used for 栄二〇型= Nakajima Sakae Ha105 engine.
Bottom left is most likely the serial number(T13), bur I have no idea what 京機 stands for.
Bottom right is already mentioned.
If you want to know what that tool box looks like, check the first picture on this website.
Hope this helps.
Thanks so much, my dad is ecstatic.
By the way, do you have any idea why it's written from left to right? Because it should be from right to left, considering when it was made.
Apparently, when there was any logical reasons to use the left to right writing, it was accepted. e.g. textbooks for math, music, english, etc.
So I guess the same exception was applied to the engineering stuff.
Reference (Japanese website)
I googled and found the fact that Imperial Army had been taking an internal initiative of "left to right" writing in the period. And in the congress once considered a law that would make "left to right" a national standard, not been proposed eventually.
So the method had been slowly accepted from Meiji era in Japan and especially in the Army it was accepted at the time.
Not quite sure but the top looks like it could be #2 Zero model external (exterior?) tools, or either "#20 model", sorry I don't know anything about planes.
Bottom right says Manufactured October 1943.
Can't read the bottom left.
Enhanced the image a bit.
I've found a geek site dedicated to Oscar (Hayabusa) http://home.f04.itscom.net/nyankiti/ki43-sub3-engine1.htm
it seems like it needed an engine starter with service men before gas.
sah kah ee20gah tah gah ii buh yoh uu in. sah kah ee khi T 30 go.
hum...
栄二○型外部要具 Sakae type 20 external unit
京扱第 T13 號 Tokyo-handled (means manufactured in Tokyo plant) No. T13 (serial number maybe)
昭和18年10月製造 manufactured in Showa 18 (1943), October
The bottom looks some marks I don't know what they means.
...
Sakae was an airplane engine and type 20 is also called Ha105.
I can't tell what "external unit" means whether it's an external unit of the engine or the engine is an external unit for an airplane that the engine was supposed to be attached. Means whether the plate had been put on the engine itself or on a some peripheral. IMO it means the engine itself.
Thanks so much!