Japan: model 30-32 (type 90) Combat Helmet (part one)

 Talk about a land of contrasts...

For a quick analysis regarding Japanese atrocities before and during WWII, click here

They were truly the "Evil Empire".

Ladies and gentlemen the Japanese model 30-32 steel combat helmet:

With its distinctive acorn shape here is a distinctive symbol, and reminder, of the scourge of the 

so-called Greater East-Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

With long web chinstrap tapes and leather liner this non-ballistic and fairly lightweight helmet conqured much of the eastern hemisphere.

Front of helmet with insignia of the Japanese Landing Force

Close up of insignia. I believe that this helmet originally had the Army insignia on the front of it as I can just make out the indentations in the olive/brown paint of the five-pointed army star.

Leather liner and cotton chin tapes. The Liner is a three-finger system sewn to a leather band, riveted 

to the shell.

This rivet appears to have lost its head (don't we all from time to time).

Liner mounting rivets are peened.

Right side with two tiny ventilation holes visible

Detail of script handwritten on liner.

(This, from reader Ted: I wandered around [your blog] a bit, and stumbled over your Japanese helmet, that evidently belonged to someone named Imai, perhaps with a given name of Shokichi).

Some however, were reconditioned and sold for export, as we'll see in next week's entry.

 

Be advised that searching for Japanese war photos on "Google images" can present some very jarring images about their savage romp in China.

With some heavy scratches and moderate wear, I'm very happy to have this hard-to-come-by example in the collection. It is a particularly light helmet and the Greenish-brown paint has been brushed on and is rather thick in places.

Provenance:

This helmet was purchased on Okinawa Japan in the mid-1980s by my brother who was stationed there for two years with the U.S. Navy.  He noted the difficulty of securing not just a helmet in this good condition, but of getting any Japanese helmet at all. Japan was so diligent in shedding its militarist past that most of these helmets were destroyed immediately 

after the war.

United States Civil Defense "OCD" WWII

second in a series of five civil defense posts

"Don't Scream", is always good advice

The World War Two homefront in the United States had already learned a lot from our friends in Britain regarding air raids and civil defense.

These spotlights and tracers converge on a false alarm high in the sky over Los Angeles.

Early on in that war there was already an organized structure of roles and responsibilities in place for trained, enthusiastic civilians.

Every specialized job had its own identifying insignia, quite a dazzling array!

I think the pinetree insignia had something to do with automobile deoderizers.

Pictured here from the homefront of Grand Rapids, Michigan is the typical "Office of Civil Defense" steel helmet of WWII.

The generic CD insignia is a slide-on water transfer.



Although many US M1917 helmets were recycled for the Civil Defense role, these "OCD" helmets were unique and had, as evident here, a much deeper bowl than the "tin lid" of WWI.

This symmetrical helmet, stamped out of steel may have come from the same Detroit machinery that was stamping out automotive hubcaps prior to US entry into the war.

Don't mess with the "Arsenal of Democracy".

The interior shows a suspension system very similar to the US M1 helmet liner.

The property stamp on the underside of the brim.

Simple size adjustment provided a snug, custom-fit for the owner, in this case a woman from...

Grand Rapids Michigan.

The chinstrap (and suspension) is a cotton twill, secured to a spot-welded bail.

Close-up of the generic Civil Defense insignia.

Our aunts and uncles, moms and dads who donned these helmets in WWII did their bit to keep America safe from the Japanese...



and return to those Auto plants to once again produce gas-guzzling cars . Until we got rescued, that is, by fuel-efficient Japanese technology.

provenance:
accession number:
United States Civil Defense OCD helmet, WWII
Acquired 2002, a gift

Condition: good

Peruvian model 1934 Steel Helmet

Front view

side view. This helmet has the original chinstrap and...
French-style six pad liner.

Unlike the steel shell of the helmet, the comb is made of aluminum. I sometimes read that the comb of a helmet was to deflect sabre blows. Really? sabre blows? In the age of machine guns and high-explosive shells? I never really bought this idea of 20th century soldiers being under much a threat from cavalrymen weilding swords. Lets take a closer look at that comb thingy...

Look, you can see light through it, air can flow through it. Lets look inside the bowl of the helmet and see what this comb is covering.

Aha! ventilation holes! Almost all European manufactured helmets of the era had some sort of passive ventilation system, and this is basically a French helmet in Peruvian livery.

Imagine being out under the sun with a close-fitting steel dome on your cropped head. It could get pretty warm. Without ventilation your head could roast. The comb is simply a decorative and rain-proof "roof" over those vent holes. As we go along we'll see lots of other types of helmet ventilators. For the French, the comb was like a little cupola on the roof of a barn, providing a positive air flow while keeping the rain out, all while deflecting sabre blows from the ...farmer?

You also see manufacturer's marks stenciled inside the dome as well as the word "Sota" crudely scrawled in black paint . I'm wondering if this was the name of the wearer (who obviously didn't have access to a sharpie).


Also written in pencil.

Inside the liner the manufacturer's stamp is clearly visible,

as are other stamps which I assume indicate inspections as well as size.

Here then, is the most obscure helmet in my collection; the Peruvian (as in llamas) model 1934, Which is essentially a French Mod. 1926 with the Peruvian sunburst insignia. The sunburst is, coincidentally, the insignia of the bane of the current Peruvian government, the Marxist Leninist Sendero Luminoso ("the Shining Path)...the local Commies who promise to set the peasants free while cutting their fingers off (go figure).
Me, I prefer the Leninist MaCartneyist movement, but nonetheless, here is the helmet of the Peruvian army of the WWII era.

Peru, that bastion state which protects the free world from Ecuador.

Pictured here, is the Victory monument commerating the Peruvian triumph over Ecuador in 1941, the seven week war which established the border between those two world powers. Nice monument. The helmets are clearly visible, and apparently this piece was cast on a particularly chilly day as the nipples on the allegorical figure are in high relief.(that's chilly, not Chile).

Provenance:
This helmet was purchased at a Military relic show in Lansing Michigan in 1978. Purchase price was $15.00. It is original in all respects.


Starting Next week I'll begin a chronological posting of helmets beginning with the leather pickelhaube of WWI both infantry and artillery

Stay tuned.

Mannie