Interesting New Helmet Photo

[Jareth]

This period photo should be enjoyed by all and especially Nick Nice star insignia!

[Kiipu]

I am guessing the 陸軍大尉 [captain] belongs to the 77th Infantry Regiment of the 20th Division. Later on in 1941, the 77th Infantry Regiment was transferred to the 30th Division.
昭和七年四月 = April 1932.

[Sporter90]

於お通綫八道溝

お = 大

大通綫 Da Tong Line

大 = 大虎山 Dahushan is a town in Liaoning Province. "Dahushan railway station is a railway station in the town of Dahushan, Heishan County, Jinzhou, Liaoning, China. It is on the Beijing–Harbin railway and Dahushan–Zhengjiatun railway."

通 = 通辽 Tongliao is a twon in eastern Inner Mongolia

He was at 八道溝 Ba Dao Gou. Which is a town in Jilin Province Manchuria. Given the time, April 1932, it was only 7 months after the Mukden Incident.

[Sporter90]

This helmet is in the style of modified Jingasa 陣笠. I wonder if it's really a steel helmet. Could it be leather and cardboard?

[Jareth]

I used to own one of these helmets. Mine was missing the liner and insignia. It’s a steel helmet made by Osaka arsenal. Likely a contract helmet for Chinese forces fighting for Japan. I have seen period photos of it being worn by Chinese soldiers

[Nick Komiya]

This was the Chinese Nationalist's "made in Japan" helmet worn during their civil war against Mao's communists, preceding the import of the M35 German helmets worn during the China Incident. 1000 pcs of these helmets were ordered by Chen Yi in April 1930 to Japan along with other weapons, a transaction done through the Taihei Association, exporters of IJA surplus, and the military attaché at the Japanese Embassy in China serving as the go-between .

As the Type 90 was barely introduced the month before, exporting those brand new models was out of the question, and official instructions further demanded that soft, low carbon steel be used instead of the Type 90 alloy. The helmet's design is not in the records, but as Kobe Steel badly needed their pressing dies to commence production of the Type 90, it is likely that the Osaka arsenal repurposed one of their prototype dies used in the development of the Type 90.

Another hint that this was the helmet ordered by Chen Yi, Chief of Munitions of the Kuomingtang, is the fact that he was the commander of the 19th Route Army immediately before being reassigned to oversee munitions by Chiang.

As the sudden outbreak of the Manchurian Incident in 1931 caught the army badly short of Type 90 supply, some parts of the IJA must have had to make do with this export model, while desperate efforts were being made to ramp up Type 90 production.

When in an earlier thread, I wrote 4 prototypes were supplied to China in 1930, I now see that I had misread the hand-written 千, Japanese for a thousand as the Arabic numeral 4. So at least a 1000 pcs were supplied to Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists, before they switched to the German M35 helmet.

[Jareth]

Good write up. That’s my old helmet

[Type4]

That helmet was develope in Taisho era, in 1919 Tokyo Arsenal submit 2 Prototype and Osaka Arsenal 3 Prototype

[Nick Komiya]

Those drawings are in no way identical to the helmet that started this thread. You need much better back-up for your statement and prove that one of the 5 1919 prototypes became a Chinese helmet in 1930. Your claim is only slightly more plausible as me saying that the Chinese helmet was actually based on a 1905 helmet design shown below.