IJA Field cap...very small size

[FightenIrish35]

Greetings all,
I pulled this hat out during some digging around yesterday and I forgot how interesting and confusing this one was.
It seems to be THE SMALLEST cap ever made. I say this because it is extra smaller then some of my other caps that have the small size marked inside them. Also it seems that the round buttons that hold the chinstrap on to both sides of the cap are made out the same material the chinstrap is and is a shape and style ive never really seen before.As you can see they did make this with havlocks holders.
Ive also wondered what red stamped kanji says under the flap...I think this might have a been a private purchase cap or just one of those late war caps that pop up here and there. What do you all think about this one? Dont hesitate if you have something bad to say..all help on this one will be benifical for me. Thanks in advance guys,and enjoy your weekend!!!

[Jareth]

Mike, the chinstrap fastners, lack of liner & bevo variation insignia all point to a very late war field cap or perhaps a paramiltaria youth cap. Let's see if the ink stamping gets translated. I can read first character yama (?) & last looks like size medium. A very neat field cap!

[FightenIrish35]

Thank you Jareth once again on the info as well as the compliment!
I as well am curious as to see what the stamping will translates to.

[Edokko]

The blue stamp mark is the purveyor and size info and reads "Yama-tatsu no chu (山達納中)" meaning, Provided by Yamatatsu (could be some kind of acronym too), Mid size.

[FightenIrish35]

thank you very much edokko for translating that stamp. Thats very interesting how it is probally a purveyor instead of a mft.

Are you sure that is sayS size medium. I say this because i have a few small army issued hats and this is atleast half the size of those.
It is such a tiny size would this mean its a medium for a youth,such as a military school?

[Edokko]

The named purveyor may also be the maker too but unsure for these cases. The last Kanji 中 (Chu) means, middle or mid, and really is out of context with the purveyor name and pretty sure it's the size. Why so small is a bit beyond me, since I'm not that competent in uniform stuff, but Jareth may have the answer.

[FightenIrish35]

Thank you so much Edokko I cant thank you enough for all the help youved helped me with. Many thanks to you!!!

[RodneyO]

Nice looking Japanese field cap. I notice no air-vent holes on the side of the cap as well, might this be another indication of a late-war production field cap?

There’s a book, “The Battle of Okinawa, The Typhoon of Steel and Bombs” by Masahida Ota, which on page 197 has a captured Japanese student corps member giving first aid. On pages 204-05, surrendering student soldiers wearing field caps. The two boys on page 205 can’t be more than 10-12 years old.

Here’s a paragraph from the book. “The Prefectural First Middle School, which had over one thousand students, had in the same way formed a “Blood and Iron Corps” with 371 students and teachers, under Lt. Yasushi Shinohara, and were assigned to the 36th Communication Regiment, the Fifth Artillery Headquarters, and several other combat forces. About 210 of them, or 57 percent, were killed including Lt. Shinohara and 20 teachers.” This is one of the better books I found on the Battle of Okinawa.

Maybe your field cap is one of those intended for the “Blood and Iron Corps” made up of middle and high school students for the island of Okinawa or even Japan’s homeland defense forces. Could you put your small field cap next to an average size soldier’s field cap just to compare the difference in size? Not knowing the size could this also be from a child's uniform set? I've seen only dress uniform both in IJN and IJA but not in a field type uniform, but again by the pictures this might be little to big for a child's uniform so I'll stick to the mid/high school student soldier's field cap.