text: We never found grandpa's gun. The family lore on that one was either that the neighbor lady or his nurse took it. We never found that money he said he hid either. We sold the house and some guys gutted it out and flipped it. I hope they found grandpas money cause we sure didn't. He wasn't a rich man anyway, we're most of what he left. Only a few things of his are still here, almost all army stuff. Grandma has the trifolded flag with her, my uncle has his purple hearts. There was some other war paraphernalia my dad and uncle found, photos, a Japanese flag, and something they told me they wouldn't tell me about, all of it got lost. And apparently there was at a time a Japanese rifle, but Grandpa stored it in the garage and it too disappeared. I don't have anything of his, but I got handed down something he took. A Japanese bayonet, all that is left of grandpa's war. It now has no handle or scabbard, it's dull and rusted but you can still see the markings on it. It has a mount to be put on a gun, to stab enemies, like my grandpa, when they are close. It was made for a very personal kill, seemingly ancient and barbaric to me, but from near in history. The bayonet even has a large hook, I guess to catch cavalry swords. It's Japanese etching make it clear, this gun mounted sword does not really originate from my family, at least it's not American or even Polish for that matter. But I hold it, and I truly don't know the specifics of how Grandpa got it. I know he lied that he was older to get into the army, shipped off to the Pacific to fight as a teenager and kill strangers. Although I was too young to hear anything dark from him about the war, my dad has since related some of it. As a kid I was told he had bad dreams, I didn't understand what that meant, my understanding as an adult is pretty lacking. Sure, you can say Grandpa shouldn't have stolen from the battle field, maybe it was things like the bayonet that haunted him, but I'm pretty sure the damage was done. The man who lost the bayonet surely didn't need it anymore. If he could get anything back to his family I imagine he'd have a letter sent to them, his wedding ring maybe, certainly his bayonet was low on the list. And was it really his? It was issued to him to stab at enemies away from home on the remote islands of the Pacific. Come to think of it, we don't have Grandpa's gun, or bayonet. I presume they just belong to the Army anyway. Or maybe Grandpa lost it, whether it was in his garage in Chicago or on a beach on Iwo Jima I'll never know. I hope I keep a close eye on my family heirloom and keep it, although I don't really know it's story, and for all those war stories too dark for grandpa to tell, I wish I could tell him thank you.