The Chrysanthemum and the Helmet

[Gewehr98]

They used generic names not possible to relate to any color system. They called the helmet color "dead grass color"　(枯草色).

Interesting!

For what it's worth, I cross referenced a pdf by Harvey Low I found that deals with IJA tank colors and found a good match to Gunze H71 for the dead grass color:

[ghp95134]

Just googling karekusairo 枯草色 I found a site charting this color using lots of geek-talk here.

HEX sRGB : #E3BE88
AdobeRGB : #D8BC89
RGB (sRGB) Red : 227 Green : 190 Blue : 136
RGB (AdobeRGB) Red : 216 Green : 188 Blue : 137
HSV Hue : 35 Saturation : 40 Brightness : 89

Dunno if he's got the color right ..... keredomo .... [however] ...


--Guy

[Nick Komiya]

People who believe that Japanese soldiers painted their helmets in all sorts of camouflage colors and modified equipment and uniforms to suit their tastes should see this sobering video. This shows the military expenditure of Japan every 5 years starting from 1870 up to 2000. The pie chart shows military expenditure as a ratio of the national budget, the actual % is shown at the bottom of each year's list. You will be staggered by the pie charts for the wars. You should be able to see how civilian life had to suffer in order to pay for military equipment. No one can afford to abuse equipment when one's own family went hungry to pay for that helmet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKK3UwYkFNY

[RazorBack]

Good information.

[Nick Komiya]

Here's a Japanese movie classic that should help you understand the IJA's soldiering culture by taking you inside army life.

It is the first of the popular "The Hoodlum Soldier" series. This 1965 movie was made for an audience, who themselves were ex-soldiers in WW2.

In that sense, this is the Japanese counterpart to Hans Hellmut Kirst's humorous novel series "08/15"(Nullachtfünfzehn) about WW2 German soldiering life.

As such, there are no combat sequences and it is strictly about army life and strife. After you see the movie, you should be able to picture how you would have only gained pain for tinkering with your equipment in this environment of tyranny.

It is with English subtitle, but in order to activate the subtitle, you may need to click on the leftmost icon at the bottom right of the page. Here it is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DrT2S6FBsk

[lithgow]

To be honest, most armies of the period were strictly run affairs with harsh punishments for infractions-a sentry who lost his rifle overboard would be toast in any man's outfit!

[Jareth]

I hope to pick up this helmet. I believe it's extremely rare helmet made for Chinese forces fighting under Japanese. You can see Osaka Arsenal mark of crossed cannons on interior rear rim. The painted kanji I was told is a capture presentation. Liner is missing. I'd love to hear Nick's thoughts on this helmet

[Jareth]

Forgot one more

[ghp95134]

I'll leave it to Nick to fix the errors I'm probably introducing:

上海事變七九路軍使用鉄兜 昭和七年
Showa 7th Year [1932] Steel helmet used by the 97th Route Army during the Shanghai Emergency


--Guy

I originally wrote:

Dunno ... the grammar seems reversed. Shanghai Emergency is usually 上海事変 [modern 變 kanji]; Steel helmet would be 鉄兜

Then realized *I* had written everything backwards!

[Jareth]

Huge thanks Guy!