World War II Japanese Binoculars?

[EKman]

Greetings all,

I found these at a flea market recently along with an EKI, a cut off Heer breast eagle, and a compass.

Though I have searched the internet and the WAF, I cannot find any information on this maker of glasses. I am hoping to confirm that these are a set of wartime Japanese binoculars.

The lid of the case has a piece of masking tape on it that declares: "WWII Japanese-Luzon-1944"

The person selling them didn't know anything about the info on the tape and said that it was on there when he bought them so he left it.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thank you,

Chris

[EKman]

Picture 2

[EKman]

Last photo. Please let me know if any more are required.

Thanks,

Chris

[Stew]

Hi Ekman,
I do not have a definite answer for you ,but my initial view is that they have been made post WW2 for civilian use .
A few observations:

(i) the binos appear to have many features of the standard WW2 Japanese WW2 spec 7x50.
Do they have a reticle in the right side eyepiece? This should be present in binoculars made for the military contracts.
(ii) Most WW2 Jap binos have a paint finish that is mixed with grit to give a sand paper texture.Your binos appear to have a smooth paint finish.
(iii) The markings on the top prism covers are not the common WW2 Japanese military markings .

[EKman]

Hi Ekman,
I do not have a definite answer for you ,but my initial view is that they have been made post WW2 for civilian use .
A few observations:

(i) the binos appear to have many features of the standard WW2 Japanese WW2 spec 7x50.
Do they have a reticle in the right side eyepiece? This should be present in binoculars made for the military contracts.
(ii) Most WW2 Jap binos have a paint finish that is mixed with grit to give a sand paper texture.Your binos appear to have a smooth paint finish.
(iii) The markings on the top prism covers are not the common WW2 Japanese military markings .

It does not have a reticle in either side. They are smooth finish and I haven't been able to turn up anything on the internet related to the markings. I have learned that anything made in post-war Japan was supposed to be identified as being made in Occupied Japan. As these don't seem to be newer modern glasses, would that indicate that they were made pre-war in Japan for civilian sale?

Thanks,

Chris

[checkit]

The post war models I have seen are all clearly marked "Japan" or "Occupied Japan", usually on the round hinge when you have the binocs pointed towards you (in reverse). Of course, maybe I have been naive all of these years in thinking that the ones that didn't have these markings were all WW2 era, but I have seen many very early post WW2 binocs and they were permanently marked in this way. WW2 era binocs and other instruments were commonly marked "Tokyo". "Victory" seems like an interesting brand name for peacetime binocs.

Just my opinion which is worth what you paid for it (zip!)

[Stew]

Hi EKman and checkit,

MIOJ (Made in occupied Japan) had to be marked on binoculars from Feb1947 until the end of 1949 possibly a bit longer.After this "Japan" or "made in Japan" appeared on binocular production for a number of years.

(source Peter Abraham "Outline of Japanese Binocular production"

The "Victory" brand does not appear in the post war Japanese factory/ logos schedules that are available for searching. The Japanese factories used dozens of trade names on their binoculars during the period of the 50's and 60's.

for my 2cents - I think this pair of binos may have been made for civilian use during the period August 1945 to December 1947 when the" MIOJ "was introduced .