Civilian Helmets

[christek]

Greetings,

For reference/interest - Some Japanese WWII era civilian style helmets I have collected. I call them civilian as to my knowledge these style helmets were never issued to the military - New people to the hobby should be wary of sellers who insert military stars into them and call them last ditch military helmets. These style helmets were usually stacked inside factories and air raid shelters for civilians. They were used by some domestic defence groups - These style helmets were issued to the civil defence and security/Police groups.
Note they are all a little different from each other. The fire and 'tommy' style helmets are made from a fibreglass material - The 4 helmets marked with same Kanji are made from a light weight metal, probably aluminium. The others are made of steel. To me these truly represent the 'total war' element of World War II...

[Rod]

Great collection Chris!

Thanks for sharing your civy helmets. Very cool that you have several from the same source. It's helpful to document these as they rarely appear in the literature other than under a very broad umbrella.

Regards, Rod

[ghp95134]

.... Very cool that you have several from the same source.....

And just in case Chris does not know, the kanji on those helmets is for 美 beautiful.
{美}

It looks like a factory/store/shop logo, and probably comprises part of the store name (likely "Mi" [same sound as in "do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do"], or "Bi").


--Guy