that was my thoughts but nick said no. i know in the states or at least my part a 2nd class item goes to the outlet mall. in several of nicks articles he dose talk about the American mind to japanese mind so we need to forget what second class means to us. this being said would the minor imperfections on this helmet be bad the mfg stamp is not deep in the 6th photo you see the shape to the left that is the only stamp i see on the helmet. this is my only and first helmet so maybe it is in a different place? then the liner has 2 different color pads. it is also mentioned the paint strip to do the rivets don't look to well done. now i have observed these imperfections would this pass in war time japan? i guess all the imperfections are cosmetic so it would not affect its function.
Now I found documentation stating that army units hitherto not issued steel helmets were issued 16,680 pcs of steel helmets in May 1942 for the sake of air raid protection. The bulk of these helmets were those graded as class 2.
These were noncombatant units located in Hokkaido, Karafuto, Korea, Taiwan, and inland prefectures and cities of Tokyo, Kanagawa, Aichi, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Hiroshima, Yamaguchi and Fukuoka. They included Regimental District HQ staff, Depots and arsenals, prisons and hospitals as well as MPs.
All MP personnel got issued helmets at this time, while in hospitals, only one third of the staff received them. Other army organizations like district HQs and depots got supplied enough helmets for half of the manpower, putting them in charge of air raid defense.
Along with class 2 Type 90 helmets, recycled Type 90s as well as obsolete previous models were issued to the 16,680 persons assigned to air raid duty at this time.
Last edited by Nick Komiya; 02-15-2021 at 11:23 AM.
Besides helmets and bayonets, here are other weapons that were occasionally supplied as category 2 weapons, marked with a ㊁.
What caused them to be classified as category 2 still remains a mystery to me, though. They do not seem to be defective products, but appear to be produced intentionally judging from the huge quantities ordered in these documents.
According to what some Japanese collectors tell me this number "2" indicates helmets and weapons that have been produced long before and that having been too long in stock may have deteriorated in part and for this reason they were mostly used for training and ( as it turns out) for second-line assignments, the fact that everyone I have seen and mine are from Japan (which implies a service in the motherland) could be proof of this.
.
Bookmarks