WW1 Japanese Uniforms

[Rabbitz]

Hi there,

Does anyone have any colour pictures of Japanese WW1 Uniforms or any links to any painting guides for them?

Thanks for any help

[Mancha]

I believe that the Japanese uniform of WW1 was basically the same uniform the Japanese left the Russo-Japanese War wearing.  They went into that war wearing blue jackets and pants, with white puttees and the ocasional white or red pants, but left with the knowledge that khaki was more advisable.  My Osprey book shows late-war Japanese wearing a variety of khaki colored garments, of every hue, and colored hat bands.  I suspect that by WW1 they were universally wearing khaki.  Can anyone confirm?

[Plynkes]

Photos from the siege of Tsingtao (1914) show troops in both khaki and dark blue uniforms, if memory serves.  All my pictures are on my old computer, and I haven't got round to transferring everything yet, unfortunately, but I'll see what I can find. I have nothing in colour, though.

[Calimero]

I find this picture on the Net but I don’t know if it will be of any help…



I don’t know if this kind of print are historically correct???

[Helen]

Here we go:

http://www.landships.freeservers.com/jap_uniforms1914.htm

I'll try and find a few more links today.

Helen

[Bullshott]

My Osprey book shows late-war Japanese wearing a variety of khaki colored garments, of every hue, and colored hat bands.  I suspect that by WW1 they were universally wearing khaki.  Can anyone confirm?

Regarding Tsingtao, in all the photos I've seen the infantry are always shown in khaki. The only troops still in the old in blue uniforms appear to be the artillery.

I also have an eyewitness account by a British officer of Japanese infantry fighting Bolsheviks in Siberia in the summer of 1918:

" ... Japanese soldiers were putting tufts of grass and leaves in front of their caps to hide the red band ..... Occasionally one would rub a handful of mud around the tell-tale band; experience soon taught the Japanese soldiers the dangers of a little colour."

So it seem certain that they still wore their wide red cap bands with khaki uniiforms by the end of WW1.

But I guess this is what you really wanted to see: