Late war IJN helmet with painted anchor

[NARVIK1940]

I see that Hirano is a surname. Interesting to see a named Navy helmet.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirano

[GHP]

Does 機 mean aircraft, or more broadly, "machine"?

More broadly, "machine" (Kikanju = machine gun; Hikoki = aircraft). When I searched "Ki - ichi" the response was "aircraft 1". I suppose it could also be for "machine gun 1", "aircraft 1"; or "machine 1".

--Guy

[NARVIK1940]

Thanks! I did an image search on the symbol and got a variety of machines.

[Jareth]

Never seen an outlined anchor & I have no idea what it could mean. I also have a few very late army helmets with white/ gray liners. " aircraft" could be from an airfield, factory, munitions etc. Named navy helmets aren't unusual

[Rod G]

To me it appears the white paint around the anchor was done later and the yellow is just the standard application. Perhaps some numpty with too much time on his hand?

[NARVIK1940]

Hard to say. Looks to be period applied IMO.

[Jareth]

if paint were applied in 1946 it would be aged in a similar way. Very hard to tell

[NARVIK1940]

Late war IJN helmet with painted anchor

I seriously doubt that anyone would be painting the anchor in 1946. One could apply the same logic to rare IJN camos (ie very rare so must have been done by the vet for no believable reason). From what I understand, variants with white anchors also exist.

[Rod G]

I know this is speculation but it's kind of fun to try to figure out.

First, a typical navy helmet has its liner irreparably damaged and switched out for a late war one. There's your split pin without yellow from the anchor device, that would be a wartime repair. The white paint on the split pin obviously later as would be the white outline. As Jareth says it could be early but post war, of course we can't know but we can figure a sequence. If you can see yellow through the white paint that would be another hint (as I think I can in the pics).

Best, Rod

[NARVIK1940]

Anyone know when these yellow anchor variants came into use?

[NARVIK1940]

Late war IJN helmet with painted anchor

Here is a close up of the paint around the liner button.

No yellow paint on the button makes me think that something like what Rod described might have happened.

[Michael Downey]

If this helmet was an original IJN issued helmet would one expect to see the large size "dai" Japanese character stamped into the helmet rim? My understanding has always been that no dai stamp was stamped into IJN helmets rims by reason that no small sized IJN helmets were ever issued. I do apologise if this issue has been previously covered in this post.

[Jareth]

Not saying anchor was painted post war just that the outline might of been. I love the helmet & bid on it up to a certain point. There are two variations with stencil anchors. One where anchor is stenciled on top of rivet already in place then other variant where rivet was added after anchor was painted on. Yes a few white stencil anchors are reported. Two that I'm aware of. But they are significantly larger than normal size yellow stencil anchors.

[Striking 9th]

The size large stamp is found on many navy helmets. Painted size mark is IJA.

[NARVIK1940]

Late war IJN helmet with painted anchor

Thanks, guys. I must say I am very happy with the helmet and given the style of the white out line, I believe it was done by the Japanese and not by some postwar vet or family member. There is no other outward sign of fiddling or tampering, with the possible exception of the slightly pried liner strap key ring holders which might have been done when the silk chinstraps were originally put on.