25th Anniversary of Russo-Japanese War Commemorative Watch Fob/昭和五年日露戦役二十五周年記念章

Photo courtesy of the owner.

Height 27.5 mm.
Width 24.1 mm.
Weight 7.6 g.

Obverse

肉弾 /Nikudan/ Human Bullet

After the Russo–Japanese war (1904–05), Tadayoshi Sakurai (1879–1965), an army lieutenant, wrote a war literature Nikudan (Human Bullets): the record of the battle of Port Arther (1906) on the basis of his experience. This book became a bestseller, and the word “Human Bullets” immediately spread and was understood as a pronoun for the heroic and brave soldier and his body. In the background of this empathy, there existed the battle’s reality of massive casualties and real-time images of the great and tragic deaths, with crushed bodies. For example, we can see the first official Gun-Shin (the war god) Takeo Hirose, a Lieutenant Colonel, as a first​

sample of “Human Bullets.” His honorable death report gradually converged on one story: he performed a brave act, took a direct hit from a bomb, and vanished leaving behind his flesh pieces.

See also https://asiamedals.info/threads/human-bullets-general-nogi-and-the-myth-of-port-arthur.24709/

Reverse​

日露戦役二十五周年 - 25th Anniversary of Russo-Japanese War

記念 - Commemorative

昭和五年 - 1930

 

Original case.

記念 - Commemorative

贈答品 - Gifts

記念品 - Commemoative Souvenirs

諸雑貨 - Miscellaneous Goods

旅順市乃木町三丁目 - Sanchome, Nogimachi, Lushun /Port Arthur/

大洋商會 - Taiyo [Ocean] Shokai

電話五六五番 - Telephone 565

振替大連一九四〇番 - Transfer Dalian No.1940