Japanese Army 1st Raiding Group Dog Tags (Paratrooper and Ancillary)
9 dog tags identified. At present only 3 rd Air Raiding Regiment tags are available, no indication on how the other three air raiding and two glider regiment tags were stamped ラ ン ‘Ran’ (katakana ラ ra ノ no) appears to crown code numbers for non-air units. Eric Queen suggested, and it makes sense, code kanji 鸞 ‘Ran’ (Phoenix) was perhaps avoided as being illegible when stamped onto the metal tags. Note : 'Air Raiding Regiment' was the Japanese military's term for paratrooper regiment. 3 rd Air Raiding Regiment 空 9948 : 空 tags stamped “Sora” above unit’s code number. Company Designations (hiragana arranged alphabetically, their actual order is unknown to me at present): ろひ Rohi – 1 tag, paratrooper #134 ろふ Rofu – 2 tags, paratroopers #40 and #45 ろほ Roho - 2 tags, paratroopers #19 and #57 ろ み Romi – 1 tag, paratroopers, # 38 ろよ Royo – 1 tag, paratrooper #20 The other known Air Raiding Group tags : ラ ン tags stamped “Ran” (Phoenix) in kataka