Item number: M495

Year: AD 1936-1937

Material: Copper

Size: 74.4 x 61.7 x 23.0 mm

Weight: 213.05 g

Manufactured by:

Provenance: Private Collector, Japan, 2026

This commemorative paperweight, featuring a military sword guard (tsuba) and ammunition components, commemorates the rotational border garrison duty of the 6th Infantry Regiment along the Soviet–Manchurian border.

The silhouette of the paperweight imitates the tsuba of the Type 94 or Type 98 officer’s military sword, though it is heavier and differs slightly in size. On the obverse, a horizontally oriented brass bullet pointing left and a vertically oriented brass cartridge case pointing upwards are secured by two separate screws. Based on the length of the casing, it is inferred to be a 6.5×50mmSR Arisaka cartridge used by the standard-issue Type 38 rifle of the period. The casing is incised with the Chinese characters for “In Commemoration of the Manchurian Expedition” (Manshū shutsudō kinen). The tsuba itself features an incised lobed groove running along its inner contour, with the base of the groove decorated with stippling and its four corners carved in relief with cherry blossoms. On the raised central base, flanked by the brass cartridge case, are the inscriptions “Shōwa 9 to 11” (AD 1934–1936) and “6th Infantry Regiment” (Hohei Dai-roku Rentai). The reverse of the tsuba base displays a simplified military map of the region where the 6th Regiment was stationed, with Muling near the center marking its garrison location and the Soviet–Manchurian border depicted on the right.

Late on the night of 18 September AD 1931, the Japanese Kwantung Army engineered the Liutiaoke Incident by detonating explosives on the South Manchuria Railway, falsely accusing the Chinese Northeastern Army and subsequently shelling the Beidaying barracks in Shenyang. The Kwantung Army rapidly expanded its military operations to occupy the three northeastern provinces of China, and in March AD 1932, it established the puppet regime of “Manchukuo”, installing the deposed Qing emperor Puyi as its figurehead. Initially, Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai refused to recognize the state, attempting secret negotiations with the Chinese government to establish Japanese influence through less direct means; however, following his assassination in the May 15 Incident, no force remained to restrain radical military nationalism, and Northeastern China was swiftly transformed into a colonial base for Japanese military expansion and strategic resource supply. Facing fierce resistance from local anti-Japanese volunteer armies and guerrilla forces during the early stages of the incident, combined with the military threat posed by the Soviet Union in the Far East, the Japanese Ministry of War and the General Staff Headquarters adjusted their garrison policy in Northeastern China. Around AD 1933, they established a two-year rotational garrison system for home-based standing divisions in Manchuria. Ostensibly aimed at distributing the defensive burden and providing cold-weather combat training, this rotational system also served the political function of preventing the Kwantung Army or deployed units from becoming localized, warlordized, or acting independently (dokusō). Because the base and recruitment pool of the divisions deployed to Manchuria remained rooted in mainland Japan, periodic rotation severed the local interest networks of officers, maintaining the garrison’s mindset as a national army under imperial central control and reducing the risk of a small group of radical Kwantung Army staff officers asserting long-term control over a private force, though the effectiveness of this measure proved limited.

Under this garrison framework, the 6th Infantry Regiment—established in Nagoya in the early Meiji period (AD 1874) and subordinate to the 3rd Division of the Imperial Japanese Army—was ordered to Manchuria at the end of AD 1934 to relieve the 8th Division upon the completion of its two-year deployment. The regiment was stationed in Eastern Manchuria and the Jidong region, with its headquarters in Muling and its main forces deployed to critical front-line positions near the Soviet–Manchurian border, including Dongning, Suifenhe, Laoheishan, and Hegu. During its deployment from AD 1934 to 1936, the 6th Infantry Regiment undertook several core missions, including field fortification efforts around Dongning and Suifenhe—constructing pillboxes (tochka), barbed wire entanglements, and underground shelters that laid the groundwork for the expansive Dongning Fortress complex. Concurrently, the regiment dispatched detachments such as the “Nakamura Suppression Unit” and the “Okajima Suppression Unit” to conduct large-scale spring and autumn “suppression” operations in the harsh winter forests, brutally attempting to annihilate local anti-Japanese volunteer armies and the Northeast People’s Revolutionary Army (the predecessor of the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army) led by Zhou Baozhong and Li Yanlu. Furthermore, in April AD 1935, the regiment was involved in the “Dongning Incident”, an armed border clash triggered by Soviet position construction in Dongning. By May AD 1936, the 6th Infantry Regiment concluded its two-year garrison and suppression duties. Relieved by the 11th Division, it returned to its home garrison in Nagoya alongside the main body of the 3rd Division via the Korean Peninsula and the Kanpu ferry.

Following the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the 6th Regiment fought alongside the 3rd Division across multiple theaters in Central, Southern, and Southwestern China. Following the Gyokuon-hōsō (Jewel Voice Broadcast), the unit ultimately surrendered to the Chinese Nationalist Government in Anhui, burned its regimental colors, and demobilized. Due to numerous atrocities committed across various regions, including involvement in the Nanjing Massacre, several of its members were subsequently designated as war criminals.

From the perspectives of material culture and conflict archaeology, the anthropologist Nicholas J. Saunders conceptualizes “Trench Art” as a cultural practice that transforms battlefield debris—such as cartridge cases and armor fragments—into artefacts embodying emotional, commemorative, and functional utility. Its evolution between AD 1914 and 1939 can be divided into three distinct phases: first, the “Wartime Production Period (AD 1914–1918)”, during which front-line soldiers engaged in spontaneous handcrafting to alleviate extreme trauma and anxiety, while wounded soldiers and prisoners of war utilized it as a form of occupational therapy or a means to procure survival supplies; second, the “Post-War Reconstruction and Battlefield Tourism Period (AD 1919–early 1930s)”, during which the primary producers shifted to battlefield civilians and local workshops who processed battlefield debris into souvenirs for sale to bereaved families and tourists, thereby facilitating local economic recovery; and third, the “Interwar Institutionalization and Pre-WWII Period (mid-1930s–AD 1939)”, wherein production was standardized by veterans’ associations and military organizations, often commissioned from high-end commercial workshops for triumphal commemorations, memorial fundraising, and the construction of collective honor, functioning as material vehicles for state memory and military mobilization.

物件編號: M495

年代: 公元 1936-1937 年

材質: 銅

尺寸: 74.4 x 61.7 x 23.0 mm

重量: 213.05 g

來源: 日本私人收藏 2026

這是一個紀念文鎮，以軍刀鐔和子彈為主題，紀念步兵第六聯隊在蘇滿邊境的輪調值守。

文鎮輪廓仿軍官使用的九四式或九八式軍刀的刀鐔，但重量較重，大小也稍微有所區別。正面以兩個螺絲分別鎖上橫置向左的黃銅彈頭和縱置朝上的黃銅彈殼。依彈殼長度推測，應為當時制式三八式步槍所使用的6.5×50mm有坂彈。彈殼上刻有漢字「満州出動記念」。刀鐔則沿輪廓在內側陰刻花形凹槽，凹槽底章有細點為飾，凹槽的四角分別浮雕一朵櫻花，中央突起的底座，在黃銅彈殼的兩側分別刻有「昭和九年乃至十一年 / 歩兵第六聯隊」。

刀鐔座的背面則為當時第六聯隊所駐防地區的軍事簡圖，近中央處為駐地穆稜，右側為滿蘇邊境。

公元1931年9月18日深夜，日本關東軍策劃柳条湖事件炸毀南滿鐵路，誣指中國東北軍所為並砲轟瀋陽北大營。關東軍隨後迅速擴大軍事行動占領東北三省，並於公元1932年3月扶植清朝遜帝溥儀成立傀儡政權「偽滿洲國」，起初內閣首相犬養毅拒絕承認，嘗試與中國政府祕密交涉，意圖以較間接的方式在中國東北建立影響力，但隨其人在五一五事件中被暗殺，此後再無人遏止軍方的激進民族主義，中國東北迅速轉化為日本進行軍事擴張與戰略資源供給的殖民基地。事變初期日軍面臨東北抗日義勇軍與游擊隊的頑強抵抗，加上蘇聯在遠東的軍事威脅，日軍陸軍省與參謀本部隨即調整對東北的駐守政策，自公元1933年前後確立國內常設師團兩年一換的滿洲輪調駐防制度。這項輪換制表面上旨在平攤防務負擔並提供寒帶實戰演練，實質上也包含防止關東軍或駐外部隊地方化與私兵化、避免軍事「獨走」的政治考量。由於渡滿師團的根基與兵源始終在日本本土，定期輪換能強行切斷軍官在當地的利益鏈條，使駐軍心態維持為受帝國中央掌控的國家軍隊，降低關東軍少數激進參謀長時間徹底掌控私兵的風險，但成效有限。

在這一駐守體制下，明治初年（公元1874年）於名古屋建軍、隸屬於日本陸軍第三師團的步兵第六聯隊，於公元1934年底奉命渡滿接替兩年期滿的第八師團防務。該聯隊駐紮於東滿與吉東地區，聯隊本部設於穆稜，主力部署於東寧、綏芬河、老黑山及河谷等靠近滿蘇邊境的最前線要衝。在公元1934年至1936年的駐守期間，步兵第六聯隊承擔了多項核心任務，包括在東寧與綏芬河一帶展開野戰築城，建造地堡、鐵條網與地下掩蔽部，為日後龐大的東寧要塞群奠定基礎；同時派出「中村討伐隊」與「岡島討伐隊」等分隊進行嚴寒山林中的春季與秋季大討伐，殘酷剿滅周保中、李延祿等人領導的東北人民革命軍（東北抗日聯軍前身）與地方反日義勇軍；並於公元1935年4月在東寧因蘇軍構築陣地而爆發邊境武裝衝突的「東寧事件」。至公元1936年5月，步兵第六聯隊完結為期兩年的駐防與鎮壓任務，由第十一師團接防後隨第三師團主力經由朝鮮半島與關釜連絡船回到名古屋衛戍地。

全面抗戰爆發後，第六聯隊隨第三師團在中國大陸華中、華南、西南等地區多處作戰，最終在「玉音放送」後，於安徽向國民政府投降，焚燒軍旗並解散。由於在多地造成包括南京大屠殺在內的諸多暴行，多人被列為戰犯。

從物質文化與衝突考古學的視野來看，人類學家 Nicholas J. Saunders 將「戰壕藝術」（Trench Art）定義為將彈殼、裝甲碎片等戰場廢棄物轉化為兼具情感、記憶與實用功能之人工製品的文化實踐。公元1914至1939年間其演變可分為三階段：一為「戰時創作期（公元1914–1918）」，前線士兵藉由即興手創紓解極端創傷與焦慮，傷兵與戰俘亦將其作為職能復健或換取生存物資的手段；二為「戰後重建與戰場觀光期（公元1919–1930年代初）」，生產主體轉為戰地平民與地方工坊，將戰場殘骸加工為紀念品販售給遺族與觀光客，促進地方經濟重建；三為「戰間期制度化與二戰前夕（公元1930年代中–1939）」，創作轉由退伍軍人協會與軍方團體規範化，多向高級工坊特別訂製，用於退役凱旋紀念、紀念碑籌款與集體榮譽建構，成為承載國家紀念與軍事動員脈絡的物質載體。