Ever see one of these?

[Ron P]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-WW2...#ht_533wt_1219

[J7W22007]

Hi,

Looks like a very late war (1945 ?) or post war civilian cap to me.

With the star added later.

Regards,
Taka

[Papa Nambu]

I've seen them several times. Civilian cap with a metal star added. Japanese military field caps will never have metal insignia because they were designed to be worn under the helmet (which would cause a metal insignia to be digging into your skull).

[cbuehler]

And a very late war civilian cap at that. Looks never used as much of the late material is found in this condition. So shoddy that most of it was never even issued.

CB

[RussellM]

I have a similar cap but with a cloth star. It is a bright putrid green colour, but most likely civilian, or very late un-issued.

Here it is.

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=384742

Regards

Russ

[Papa Nambu]

I wish I could find it again, but I have seen one (and only one so far) period photo of someone wearing a field cap with a metal star, but that person was a civilian employee of the Japanese army. So it is possible for one of these to be 100% original, but I'm sure most of them are post-war attempts to make a civilian cap look military so it will be worth more. In either case, it's not a military cap.

[Walter Schmidt]

I wish I could find it again, but I have seen one (and only one so far) period photo of someone wearing a field cap with a metal star, but that person was a civilian employee of the Japanese army. So it is possible for one of these to be 100% original, but I'm sure most of them are post-war attempts to make a civilian cap look military so it will be worth more. In either case, it's not a military cap.

Wasn't it something they did really early on, like the brass stars on the helmets? If that is the case then the material isn't right.

[Papa Nambu]

Wasn't it something they did really early on, like the brass stars on the helmets? If that is the case then the material isn't right.

No. If you'll find Nick's excellent article here about the development of the field cap the reason they wanted to replace the visor caps was that helmets were being used. If you take your visor cap off to put on your helmet, what do you do with the cap? One of the primary specifications was that the field cap could be worn under the helmet.