Heard about these about a year ago while in pandemic shutdown. Originally Dutch navy cutlasses, when Japan took over the Dutch territories, they captured quite a few of these and converted them to machetes. Issued to Indonesian volunteer troops that fought under Japaneseofficers, they were also popular when in turn captured by US troops. First one I ever spotted on eBay but I wasn't really looking hard either.
Don't have it yet but from photos appears to be one of the nicer examples. Has brass unit markings on both the hand guard and the scabbard. This is a Dutch made Hembrug. The US also made a lot of these cutlasses that were converted, these have black plastic handles and are otherwise unmarked.
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