Japanese Navy Kai-gunto Broken Sword: Major D.G. Kennedy, Coastwatcher

Japanese Kai-gunto sword broken in three pieces. The hilt has the standard Japanese Navy guilded brass fittings of a fushi, kabuto-gane and cherry blossom menuki under the brown handle binding over black rayskin. A gilt family mon is attached to the kabuto-gane of a square with a diagonal line within a circle. The guard is a plain blackened brass tsuba with two large seppa of a sun ray pattern (one on each side) and four smaller seppa (two on each side) with serrated edges. On the rear of the broken blade parts are solder marks where the sword has been mounted on a board for display. The tang has three peg holes with the remains of a signature that translates as Hida no-kami and possibly the top section of the character for Fuji.

This Japanese sword was captured in action at Marova, New Georgia, by Major D.G. Kennedy, D.S.O. Major Kennedy was formerly a member of the British Solomon Islands administration and an outstanding leader of the coast watchers in that area in 1942- 1943. His exploits are described in Commander E. A. Feldt's book "The Coastwatchers" and in "Among Those Present", an official U.K. publication.

Outstanding among his many clashes with the Japanese was an action between his ten ton schooner "Dadavata" and a patrol of Japanese in a whaleboat during which the whaleboat was rammed and all the Japanese accounted for. It was during this action that the sword was captured. Major Kennedy's account as to how the sword became broken is as follows: "It was broken by a bullet fired by me from a Browning "50" at the same time as the Japanese N.C.O. who wore it fired a burst from a Bren gun from which I collected a bullet in the leg. This was at Marovo lagoon in New Georgia in May 1943 in an encounter between my native scouts and a Japanese patrol which was hunting for us." The incident is described in "Among Those Present" page 52. The sword is broken in two places. One break approximately 4 inches from the hilt bears the mark of a bullet but the other break 5 inches from the point is unaccounted for.