Souvenir brass square : Japanese Midget Submarine

Piece of copper 25mm square with a Japanese character impressed on either side. The meaning of the Japanese characters is impossible to clarify out of context. One side is slightly distorted, indicating that it has been cut from a larger piece A hole has been drilled through one corner to facilitate attaching the label. Label states "A guaranteed souvenir from the Japanese Midget Submarine sunk in Sydney Harbour- Sunday 31st May 1942. Proceeds to RAN Relief Fund and King George's Fund for Sailors". The label bears the price of one shilling (1/-), written in pencil.

In 1943 a composite midget submarine made from parts of the two submarines recovered from Sydney Harbour were taken on a 4,000 kilometer tour to raise money for the war effort, under the command of Lieutenant-Commander John Sydney Bovrill, Royal Australian Navy. The tour visited Wagga, Benalla, Ballarat, across to Adelaide and along the Victorian coast to Melbourne then back to Sydney. Souvenirs and postcards of the submarines were sold along the way, and "Periscope certificates" issued to those who had taken a submariner's view of the world. The tour was a huge success, the exhibit drawing vast crowds. In Wagga for example, a city with a wartime population of between 11 and 12,000, over 6,000 visited the submarine. At the close of the tour, the remainder of the souvenirs were passed on consignment in late April 1943 to the Australian War Memorial, which received "40,989 glass wool envelopes, 99,010 postcards (sold in sets of 9) and 565 dozen miniature lead sub models." The glass wool had been used as insulation in the submarines. In a letter of 5 August 1943, Captain Gerard Muirhead-Gould noted "313 dozen lead subs and 25,000 postcards disposed of through Department of Information to USA for sale." Proceeds of the sale of the souvenirs went to the RAN Relief Fund and King George's Fund for Sailors.