The Evolution of IJA Canteens (1894-1945)

[Nick Komiya]

I did not plan on writing about the navy, so I did not pick out any navy documents, but as I once wrote about the color change of navy gear, some documents on that topic did get my attention. In August and September 1937, there was the discussion within the navy about their canteen covers in white being too conspicuous. As a special exception, the Shanghai Special Landing Forces had been granted permission already back in November 1933 to dye their covers to match their uniforms. The decision was that all navy canteens should now get switched in this manner.

[RussellM]

Fantastic Nick, another superb tutorial that needs to be pinned!

Regards

Russ

[Nick Komiya]

Very interesting to hear about almost japanese bankrupt during russo japanese war and the economy shortage effect on military design. I tought it was something Japan endured only in ww2 after the war contagion to all the Pacific.

Japan did not have money to afford war at all. The Russo-Japanese War was fought on borrowed foreign money, so the idea from the start was not to beat the Russians, but only not to lose and if possible have some dramatic wins at the onset, so they could call on the USA to mediate for peace with favorable conditions for Japan.
Because it was such a walk on a financial tightrope, the non-military characters behind the scenes were very colorful people. Firstly, you have Korekiyo Takahashi, the only future Prime Minister of Japan (who had once been sold as a slave in the US, more accurately, defrauded by his homestay family to become an indentured laborer), who had to sell government bonds overseas in Europe to fund the war. Of course, no European believed that Japan would win, so that was an impossible mission until he met Jacob Schiff, a Jewish American banker, who bought half of the issued bonds. He supported Japan, because of the Russian pogroms perpetrated against his people. And finally, there was Teddy Roosevelt, the very first American Judo Brown Belt that won the Nobel Peace Prize for bringing Japan and Russia to the table to wage peace. If it all sounds interesting, read Clouds Above the Hill written by a former IJA tank officer http://www.amazon.de/Clouds-Above-Hi.../dp/0415508762

[Nick Komiya]

I should also keep a picture of the canteen field repair kit here. The two items are for mess kit use, but others are canteen related or dual use tools.

[Staldion]

That's exactly the kind of canteen I had in mind. I remember the fashion ceramic one, a true masterpiece IMO but doubtfuly military. I am glad you state about the manufacturer codes because I was almost fooled by the seller statement wich was pretty convincing to the rookie I was back then. May we assume theese numbers are like RZM or Rnb numbers (in a way), the 8 hundred range meaning ceramic manufacturer with the last two numbers being producer id? Are you aware of other codes in 5-6-700 range for exemple? Maybe this is a little off the topic. The civilian flask is a good proof thanks for sharing. Love the wooden "patriotic" canteen, I remember our conversation about it you even shared a picture of the local japanese museum where they are on display.

The Russo-Japanese war context sounds very interesting. I love to read about political ties and how ones can't win a war focusing only on the battlefield. I didn't know Roosevelt was a judoka. What a small world. I will order Clouds above the hill thank for the advice.

[Nick Komiya]

These ceramic items have little to do with militaria, so I won't go into detail and just give you a Japanese site specializing in war economy ceramics. At the site you will see numbers from the 100 range to the 900 range. They are all ceramics and the number allocation is more by location rather than product, so not as segmented as RB numbers or RZM numbers. http://touseizufu.exblog.jp/

[Jareth]

Thanks for navy info ! Very interesting! I've yet to see an early white canteen in the flesh

[Nick Komiya]

Request for 19 century Prussian canteen specs is now being sought by me in the Imperial forum
http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...29#post7084329

[Nick Komiya]

Prequel to the Canteen Story

In doing research for the requested bread bag story, I stumbled upon some older documents written in Samurai language that took me back even further on the story of the IJA canteen. So here is a prequel, the development story of the glass canteen that started the above canteen story.

1889 Prussian Origins

In the year after Major Meckel returned to Prussia, there was a memo, dated 7th December 1889, which stated that the canteen development work should make use of the German army canteen and bread bag samples recently brought back by an Army Major Tamura on visit to Germany. It further suggested that perhaps prototypes of canteens and bread bags in quantities to equip one infantry company, could be prepared based on these German “Jäger Infantry” Models for field tests.

Turning to Prussian design as an example to follow was a natural thing for the Japanese Army to do, particularly at this point in history. Since Meckel switched everything to Prussian style, what suited Prussia was highly likely to serve its sister army in Japan as well.

Here is a German 1881 model canteen that Major Tamura must have brought back from his visit to Germany. Now we know how the leather-clad glass canteen had come to be created. Unfortunately no one at the Imperial Forum seemed to have any idea how the early canteens looked like, so I went out and found this myself.

[Nick Komiya]

1892 Birth of Glass Canteen

Another memo dated 18th February 1890 follows up on the above plans by saying that the prototypes were ready for deliver to the 1st Infantry Division for field tests, with a report due on 30th June 1891. At this time, 120 each of canteens and bread bags were delivered for testing.

By 14th September 1892, the army had finished developing its new bread bag design, and soon after launched the glass canteen as well. However, the canteen did not yet have the shoulder strap to be slung from the shoulder. Instead, the 1892 model bread bag had a hanging hook on the inside right edge on which the canteen was to be hung. So at that time, the canteen hung inside the bread bag.



1893 Problems with Canteen/Bread bag Combo

By the end of 1893, however, the troops that received the new bread bag and glass canteen combo became aware of some serious shortcomings of this combination. The canteen hanging inside the right edge of the bag would flop against the right thigh when walking and wear down the uniform and also got in the way when getting down in the prone position for firing.



1895 Glass Canteen Gets Shoulder Sling

As a result of this problem, the glass canteen was taken out of the bread bag and had a shoulder strap added around early 1895. However, the bread bag continued to be made with a canteen hook inside. That is why when on 20th February the 6th Reserve Division prepared steel canteen prototypes for shipment to the 6th Infantry Division in China the majority of them came without any carrying harness and only a hanging ring



So that now takes us back to the very first mention of the word canteen within documents in the Japanese National Archives. It was an ordeal to decipher all the early documents that were written in brush and ink in grass style writing, even worse than Sütterlin to read

[Nick Komiya]

Here are more German Gear that the IJA studied at the time. The IJA Model 1892 Leather-clad glass canteen that hangs without a shoulder sling and with a drinking cup attached to the bottom would have looked exactly like the German 1867 Model below. I suppose this was actually the sample Major Tamura brought home to Japan. Also, the type of canteen John Brandes of Berlin would have supplied to Japan as a sample in 1895 is shown here for your reference.

[imperialjapan]

Thanks very much for this invaluable information. Very interesting and so well-documented.

Best,
Rich

[Nick Komiya]

Thank you for the encouraging compliment. Reading all the old documents and reliving the development process of these items always makes me think that the way our minds work hasn't changed at all despite the technology. Most of the reports I read are done exactly the way present day businessmen would write them, so that I almost feel I could just pick up the phone and ask them a question. But when I realize that they are people long dead, it is the same feeling as when being told that the sparkle of a star in the sky may be from a star that died millions of years ago. If I can let the energy of those long ago moments sparkle again in the present, that would be a great thing.

[Jareth]

Nick I would love to know what was intended to be carried in haversacks/breadbag so if you run across this info I would appreciate the info

[Nick Komiya]

Yes, that info is already in the article