Fall 2026 Militaria and Aviation Auction
Lot 473:
Description
WWII Japanese Type 90 Tetsub Helmet, Kanji-Marked. WWII Imperial Japanese Army Type 90 (Tetsub) Steel Combat Helmet Shell, Showa-era manufacture, star insignia removed, interior painted with kanji and numeral identification marks, fitted with a later three-pad leather liner Offered here is an original steel shell from the Imperial Japanese Army’s Type 90 combat helmet, the ubiquitous "Tetsub" that armed Japanese soldiers from the Second Sino-Japanese War through the closing days of the Pacific War. Adopted in Imperial Year 2590 – 1930 by the Western calendar, hence the Type 90 designation – this pattern became the definitive steel helmet of Japan’s ground forces during the invasions of Manchuria and China proper, and later across the island and jungle campaigns of the Central and South Pacific, Burma, and the Philippines. Stamped from thin chrome-molybdenum alloy for light weight and produced in vast quantities by numerous arsenals and subcontractors through 1945, the shell was designed to accept a five-pointed brass or steel star for Army troops, fixed through a small rectangular slot in the front plate – the same mounting slot, now empty, visible on this example. The olive-brown painted steel dome shows the characteristic paired ventilation eyelets at the crown and the flared, rolled brim of the Type 90 pattern. Moderate surface scratching, scuffing, and scattered oxidation and pitting are concentrated on the front face and crown, with a patch of active rust bloom evident on the reverse of the shell. The frontal star insignia is no longer fitted, leaving the vertical rectangular mounting slot open and surrounded by an oxidized shadow-imprint where the badge once sat. White-painted kanji and numeral markings survive along the interior rim, reading approximately ‘(7) 2 400’.
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