The Development of the Army Field Cap (1932-1938)

[Nick Komiya]

In order to be thorough, I suppose I should also explain the last ditch specs for the field cap and uniforms which were introduced as temporary specs in Edict 652 of 1st December 1944.

This Edict specified Ersatz specs, which were extras only for the remaining duration of the Greater East Asia War.

This edict described the simplified field cap specs as----
-Chin strap in black leather attached to cap body by sewing without using buttons
-No vent holes
-Adjustment lace-up holes along rear slit reduced to 2 only

The same regulation also introduced jackets similar to the German M44 jackets with chest pockets that had triangle flaps, no side slashes nor back seams with length reaching only about 10 cm below the top of the pelvis.

[Nick Komiya]

Further on the fate of field caps towards the end, army ordinance 55 of 26th August 1944 basically allowed wear of field caps in place of visor caps for all occasions (also use of ribbon bars instead of medal bars). This pretty much made visor caps obsolete.

So the above was followed up by another announcement on 5th September 1944, which said the visor caps stocked by units which now became unnecessary should be recycled into field caps. Instructions on how to do this modification was to be provided by the central clothing depot. Surprisingly, there is even a company in Japan that makes this converted field cap as a repro, which I show below. Wow!

Another decree dated 7th September 1945 said that those who chose to wear the field cap as part of their civilian outfit must ensure that the star insignia were removed.

[Alan M]

Thank you Nick , these are interesting details .

[Nick Komiya]

Thank you Nick , these are interesting details .

Surprise! Finally got the items illustrated for you.

[Alan M]

The instruction about re using the now defunct visor caps and turning them into field caps is something I had never heard of before so thank you again for the education . With your added illustrations we can now see how the styling of these later war caps came to be .

[Jareth]

Great info! Never seen one of these field caps!

[grimnar]

Brilliant info Nick. Many thanks for this additional write up.

[Nick Komiya]

Here's another good neck flap from my brother's collection

[arisakadogs]

What do y'all think about this set of flaps? It's made of quite thin cloth.

[Nick Komiya]

Sorry, no cigar. Embellished with stamps from the Accounting Dept. one saying "Accounts Receivable". Inspectors also did not use red stamps, but black.