A piece of WW2 history - Japanese Destroyer Clock

I came upon this Japanese ship's clock some time ago at an auction in Connecticut. It came with a piece of paper that appeared to be written about the soldier that carried it back from Japan. The soldier (George) claimed that he stole it off of a Japanese destroyer that was in Tokyo Bay on VJ night or more specifically Yokohama Naval Base. I think that the base name might not be correct but it soon became clear that there was an LST 1083 in Tokyo Bay bout the time the letter was talking about. So when I picked up the clock and read the note I knew that I needed this clock to come home with me. 

The letter said (as best as I could read): "History of clock. George stole it from the Japanese on VJ night at Yokohama Naval Base. It was on a Jap. Naval Destroyer. (also the barometer and telescope) on Destroyer Ecott. It was brought back to the country on L.S.T. 1083. From there to Chelsea, Mass., East Kingston, N.H., South Lancester, Mass., East Lime, Conn.". Spelling not corrected.


I won the bid and took the clock and the note home. I wound up putting the clock on a shelf promising myself to do the research and find out if the clock and "story" was legitimate. I did some looking on the internet and found that there was one Japanese destroyer remaining in Tokyo Bay during the surrender (the Hatsuzakura). I also found that the ship that George was on (in the note) was also real. The link to Wikipedia indicates that LST 1083 was in Japan during the signing ceremonies. This particular LST also held the honor of being the first to anchor in Japanese waters after the atomic bomb was dropped. George was definitely in some serious stuff! I can't even imagine what it was like to be there.

I found some images of George's ship and some of the last remaining destroyer. Holding the clock was like time travel - the clock was there - the clock was in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese surrendered. George was gone, most if not all of the people that had seen the clock were gone, the destroyer was gone and LST 1083 was gone but the clock is here, still in my hands. The clock had traveled in time some sixty some years later - almost seventy years now - and it even still worked.  LST 1083 history

So this is why I really like some of the stuff I get my hands on. The same bell noise that the clock made in the mid 1940s it makes today. The same ticking noises heard by the sailors on the destroyer or the soldiers that took it for a souvenir on to LST 1083 is still happening. Kind of cool but a little scary too.

According to my research there was a destroyer named the Hatsuzakura in Tokyo Bay during the surrender proceedings. I found this photo with a few Google searches. It appears that the ship actually was boarded by US troops and brought into harbor while the USS Missouri was

being used as a stage for the signing of US/Japan surrender documents. So the LST and this destroyer were actually in the same place which seems to strongly coincide with George's visit at the end of WW2. 

Fast backup to this past summer during a visit to the Smithsonian Museum. I was walking around looking at some of the captured military stuff (from German V1 bombs to soviet atomic missiles) that the US had on display and I wondered if I should donate the clock to them. It kind of felt like the right thing to do while surrounded by all of the impressive war technology. I thought that it might be nice to to have the clock find its way to a place that other people would get to look at it and perhaps appreciate it. I thought that the price that I might receive in selling it to a private collector would be small in comparison to the value it might have in a museum where tons of people might see it.

That was until I tried to get in touch with someone that might facilitate the donation at the Smithsonian. Has anyone out there tried to do this? Well if you have, you will understand why I have since decided to keep the clock. I might check back some time in the future to see if there might be a streamlined donation experience but for now I will just hold on to the clock.

It does seem a shame that it continues to sit on a shelf in Connecticut where I only lay eyes on it when I go into that particular room. I thought that I should look for a Japanese war museum to see if there is some interest, even though I suspected that they might be more interested in forgetting about WW2 than remembering it. It was not surprising that when my internet searches looking for Japanese "War" museums only yielded Japanese "Peace" museums.

So once again an item from the past has taken me on another little time travel adventure (even if only inside my own head). I also learned a few things along the way. I have someone translating the Japanese characters with the hope I can verify the actual manufacturer and date of production. But best of all, peace museums instead of war museums - what a concept. 

If anyone knows a little more about the Clock, the ships or who George might have been I would be really interested in finding out more.