Japanese helmet...

[RodneyO]

Hi All,
Like to share a few of my Japanese items. The helmet’s liner is dated Showa 16 and one chinstrap is cut. I heard they cut the straps to remove the helmets from dead soldiers. The sand is from Miyako Island where 27,000 soldiers mostly IJA (which 1,714 IJN was under Col. Juji Murao) were assigned to defend the islands. I have two large brass shells and only this one had the stamp near the bottom. Does anyone know what it’s for?
Thanks for looking,
Rodney
Jpns-Helmet.jpg
Jpns shell.jpg

[Ardire]

Nice! I especially like that salty helmet.

[Papa Nambu]

The stamp is a date 17.8= August 1942, and the Japanese letter "na" in a circle, maybe for Nagoya

[GeorgeP]

Nice grouping! I have a hand booklet of an IJA engineer who ultimately ended up on Miyako Jima. I wonder if there are any books, mag. articles, etc. out there that focus on the troop build-up on Miyako jima and their surrender.


Tom

[RodneyO]

Thanks Russ, one of my better ones..........only the chinstrap was cut and the front cushion pad missing.

Papa, thanks for helping with the ink stamps ! It doesn't match the date on the bottom of the shell (or the primer) but there's a Nagoya stamp.

Hi Tom, sorry this is not a (real) grouping (hope I didn't make that impression), just put together some of my stuff to share but the sand is from Miyako Island. My brother-n-law is from Miyako Island and he gave me a picture of his grandfather that was in the IJA. There's a book by Masahide Ota, "The Battle of Okinawa" with a short chapter "Mopping-Up in the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands". If you can it, it's one of the better books on the war in Okinawa.

[blinky]

The date stamp as Papa says of August 1942 is when the propellant was made.

[Ryukyutunnelrat]

Hi Rodney,

Glad to see another member here with family ties to Miyako. My grandfather (mothers side) was in the Japanese Army on Miyako and Killed in Action there. My mother and her family hid in one of the caves there during the war and my grandfather would leave and bring food and water to them when he could...on his way there, he was hit and killed by an american aircraft. I have visited the cave they hid in and it was hard to imagine living in something like that with the war going on outside. Thanks for sharing photos of your items and Miyako sand.

Regards, David.

[RodneyO]

Hi blinky, the bottom of the shell is stamped Showa 14 and the primer is stamped Showa 16. The shell must have been reused in 1942. Thanks for the added information!!

Hi David, Miyako is a small island who knows? When they went back to visit Okinawa and Miyako Island (where he's from), I asked my nieces to bring back some sand, just hope it's not like our Hawaiian Lava Rocks or Black Sand...... cursed !! When I see my brother-n-law, I'll ask him about his grandfather.
Here's a picture of him (center) in a group, I enlarged the original picture to but framed.
IJA Soldier*.jpg

[Box_Rebellion]

Thank you Rodney! I love it!