"Belt of a Thousand Stitches"

These belts were worn by Japanese soldiers in the belief that they could not be killed as long as they wore them. The belts were sent to soldiers by their wives, sweethearts or mothers. Those women would ask many other women to make the stitches in the desired design, with married women allowed to make two stitches and single women one.
The belt was sent to donor Maynard Antilla by Don Carlton of St Paul, who had served with Antilla before the donor was wounded during fighting in the Pacific, as Carlton notes in his June 28, 1945 letter to Antilla from Okinawa.

Gift of Maynard Antilla

Accession Number 2000.88.1

From the World War II collection