WW2 Japanese 24 Shrines Blessed Named Tropical Haori Coat Undershirt

This is a unique World War II Japanese undershirt, called a haori coat, provided by family members to a soldier or sailor who is going off to war.

As you can see, it has been blessed by 24 Shinto or Buddhist shrines.

Each of the red marks indicates that a family member visited the shrine and had the priest bless this garment.

As you can also see, it has slits purposefully made under each arm which correspond to the purpose-made slits in the tropical combat shirt or tropical combat tunic.

The fact that this shirt has been made from very loosely woven, lightweight, cotton tells us that this is a uniform shirt made for wear in a very hot climate such as the South Pacific.

The shrine stamps Reflect the hope That the wearer will be spared from death or grave battle injury, very much like the Senninbari – thousand stitch, belt, Senninbari scarf or sennibari cap.

The many Kanji characters likely name the individual service member. We will offer a translation soon.