Museum Grade WWII Artifact! WWII Pacific Theater Bloody Japanese Field Cap. Captured during the Battle of Okinawa by Arthur Henderson of the 6th Marine Division.

*Please note the documents are scanned copies provided by the family as they wanted to keep the originals.

This World War II Pacific Theater Japanese tan combat field cap was a bring back of Arthur A. Henderson who served with the 6th Marine Division during WWII. During the Invasion of Okinawa Pvt. Henderson and the 6th Marine Division saw combat in some of the most deadly and bloody locations on the island including at Yae-Take and Sugar Loaf Hill. Pvt. Henderson fought valiantly alongside other U.S. Marines during the operation where he was awarded two Purple Heart medals (June 1st, 1945 and June 5th, 1945) for wounds sustained during his combat participation on Okinawa. 

The initial invasion of Okinawa began on April 1st, 1945 and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II. The battle has been referred to as the "typhoon of steel" in English, and tetsu no ame ("rain of steel") or tetsu no bōfū ("violent wind of steel") in Japanese. The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of Japanese kamikaze attacks and the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle was one of the bloodiest in the Pacific, with approximately 160,000 casualties combined: at least 50,000 Allied and 84,166–117,000 Japanese, including drafted Okinawans wearing Japanese uniforms. 149,425 Okinawans were killed, died by suicide or went missing, roughly half of the estimated pre-war 300,000 local population.

This Japanese soldier’s field cap was directly captured and bought back by Pvt. Henderson from the battlefield of Okinawa where it has remained in his direct family for many years. This Japanese wool field cap shows extreme wear as the inside leather sweatband is almost blackened due to sweat and the heat of the jungle environment. 

The Japanese ‘Sen-bou’ is a cloth field cap with a short front cloth peak. Originally produced in khaki it was later produced in various shades of green ranging from grey-green to a dark green. The cap was more of a peaked sidecap and could be worn with a neck flap (Bou-tare). Japanese soldiers have been documented as wearing these caps into battle either by themselves on their heads or under their helmets to add extra padding and soak up more sweat. 

What makes this Japanese WWII field cap so unique is the hand-stitched yellow Imperial Army star hand sewn to the front of the cap. Although the cap is in very heavily used condition it still maintains all of the delicate ties located on the back of the field cap. These were tied and adjusted to securely fit the soldier’s head. The inside of the cap has an Imperial stamp and the name of the Japanese soldier also written on the inside underneath it.

*Please note this is an extremely humbling artifact. The hat does show extensive blood markings on both the outside of the hat located on the green section, as well as on the inside white textured lining. It is unclear if Pvt. Henderson took this hat off of a KIA Japanese soldier he or another Marine killed or if it was taken from a wounded or captured soldier. It is clear that at one point they were wounded in battle.