Article about: Good day all, I acquired a pair of the rubber-soled boots a little while ago, as adopted in Showa 16 or 18 (1941 or 1943, depending upon which source you believe). This pair, beautifully wel
Good day all,
I acquired a pair of the rubber-soled boots a little while ago, as adopted in Showa 16 or 18 (1941 or 1943, depending upon which source you believe).
This pair, beautifully well-worn and salty(!), are dated Showa 19 on the inner sole, though this can barely be seen, let alone photographed.
Aside from their economic advantages (using 50% of the leather used in the M-5 boot and almost no metal), theoretically, the rubber sole was better suited to jungle use, where a leather sole would quickly rot.
Since purchasing them, I have scoured every later war image I can find, but have seen no evidence of frontline use. What little photographic evidence I have, thus far, managed to find suggests these boots to have been reserved for second line and support troops and, in particular, Prisoners of War.
It appears frontline personnel continued to wear the more expensive and far sturdier M-5 boot throughout the war.
Granted, a lack of evidence is not evidence, but this makes sense to me. The small number of lacing eyelets (only three pairs), on the workmanlike ‘Type-16/18’ boot would not provide a sure and comfortable fit - something of little concern to the Japanese Army of the time, especially where POWs were concerned.
As for the ‘jungle-resistance’ issue, almost nothing would last long in such extreme conditions, between baking heat and monsoon. A stout, layered leather sole might well have the edge over thin, glued rubber.
I am interested to know if anyone has any further information regarding their development and intended use (I’m thinking Mr. Komiya, in particular)!
There are tons of documents on boots in the archives, but that is a subject I never plan to research for lack of personal interest, as already explained here
So I'll just share what I already happen to know without doing any digging.
Just like the canteen stopper variations, they developed 5 or so different contingency specs, and among them were rubber-soled boots.
I also know that the spec sheets for manufacture of rubber-soled boots were only issued on 30th January 1943 and not before. The official drawings below also show the marking example dated 1943 for that reason.
As to the issuing policy on unit priority specific for rubber-soled boots I cannot say anything without research, but the 1939 issuing policy spreadsheet, I used to show what purpose felt field caps had, did also show their general policy on Ersatz spec ankle boots vs official spec boots. So I'll show you that list again below with comments on the boots columns.
My mint pair shown below is also from 1943.
Sorry, but I'll leave writing about boots to someone else.
Here's another all rubber ankle boots, whose prototype status specs were issued on 20th October 1942. It combined extensive use of rubber combined with rubberized knit fabric. Issuing policy on these prototypes was issued on 13th April 1943, which limited issue for 1943 to inland units in Northern Japan as well as units along the coast of the Sea of Japan (those are generally regions with much snow). Issue to other units was to gradually begin in 1944.
Many thanks Nick!
I appreciate trawling through dry archive documents, searching for stuff that bores you rigid, is not a thrilling prospect... but thank you for the information and time you have given it!
I think the spreadsheet very neatly answers my question anyway (50/50 for China, 100% home and ‘lesser’ locations), it would appear that POWs should fall well within the issue criteria, especially since many were shipped to the mainland islands. That suits me just fine, as I have a penchant for POW related items.
My thanks again to you and Type-4 for the photos and very best wishes to you both,
Bob
Hi Type-4,
I don’t read Japanese either (apart from dates - the easy bit), but Nick has very helpfully added English translations in red.
Reading down the chart (1939 issue scales):
The Type-5 boots were issued 100% to units stationed in Manchuria, Karafuto Province and to Officer Cadets, but only 50% to units in China.
The economy models (like the Type-18 boots) were issued to 50% of units in China, but 100% to those at homeland, Korean and Taiwanese Garrisons.
Rubber-soled Boots... Issue question
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