Japanese helmet..odd, any ideas

[harley guy]

what do think ? japanese helmet front cut off it , but why, edge has a patina to it so not recent , but? ..liner is good, unmarked front pillow pocket, flat liner pins, naval? dark green in color, liner has kangi on front pad, i was wondering if someone could translate for me? looks like first line is 1 2 3 ? but thats all i know all opinions welcome or comments thnx

[harley guy]

pics

[harley guy]

pics...

[harley guy]

pics....

[Jareth]

My gut feeling is it's a post war modification

[Striking 9th]

Naval liner made from rough out material.

[mcmike]

I was noting the careful, purposeful way in which the helmet was cut and rounded at the edges; it was not just quickly sawed off. It's as if the wearer may have had to wear the helmet while using some sort of sighting device that would have pressed close to his facial area and forehead.

Scott noted the apparent naval liner. If it was a wartime piece (not cut post-war) it may have been used in gunnery. Of course, with the breadth of experience available in this forum it would be very surprising if one of the members had not seen an example of this before now. Maybe a welder cut it down and had a flip-up face shield on it. Just some thoughts.

[Der Texaner]

Factoring in the paint, I'd guess it was modified to be used post war as some type of a hard hat for work. Just a guess.

[NLF]

I think it is a Darth Vader proto type that didn't have the zing Spielberg was looking for lol

[paulj]

Very cool piece. I'm inclined to believe it's an official modification as mentioned. The question is when it was modified. Perhaps translating the kanji would help if that references a crew of some sort...gunnery, observation, fire fighting, etc. I presume the bottom two kanji are the owner's name. The top line with 123 or 321could indicate a unit, site, ship or vehicle (etc etc) number.

Obviously, there was effort put into this. It's not a shop hack job as an expediant or a biker turning the piece into something that mimics a German helmet. It appears to be very well done for a purpose.

The absence of an insignia might be significant as it could imply post war, or non-military use.

However, I would tend to think it was a Japanese alteration and not foreign, like Thai or Chinese.

Could the provenance be explored? Where was it obtained? Can it be traced back to a GI?