Bamboo Army Sun Helmets, really?
Article about: I was surprised to read on a sun helmet site about controversies on whether the bamboo helmets shown below were army sun helmets or just farmer helmets. Why the controversy over something so
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double post see below for a short video featuring the helmet
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Funny. Just yesterday got into with a poster on another board who would like to think his bamboo helmet was military! Great work Nick!
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Another thing people still constantly get wrong about such items is that they actually appeared in the 1930s, and were NOT last ditch products that appeared in 1944/45. The NHK video got this right, which shows they did their homework.
All the lower spec alternatives for the Army, like the swords erroneously called Type 3, rubberized canvas replacing leather, field caps in felt rather than wool, flight uniforms lined in cat and dog fur, use of recycled bronze coins to make the China Incident War Medal, etc were all countermeasures against material shortages of the pre-WW2 1930s. If the army had to lower their standards, civilian goods like civil defense helmets naturally had to suffer even more and much earlier.
Thus Japan was already in an economic crisis when the USA cut off further supply in the form of an embargo. One ends up missing the whole point by simply attributing substandard items to last ditch efforts of WW2.
Last edited by Nick Komiya; 04-20-2017 at 11:28 AM.
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Very interesting and very good information, Nick. Sadly, I think it might be an uphill battle with this kind of thing, but a worthy battle nonetheless. It will be very interesting to see what information the collecting community will be sharing in decades to come concerning this type of material.
Tom
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Have you prepared?
Magnesium Made
Steel Helmet
(Cherry Blossom Mark)
First line of protection after the rifle
Sold by Okamoto Shōkai
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Regarding early onset shortages I found this interesting. A US propaganda item, printed as a ten yen note one side, and text on the other....
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