UNIFORMS

JAPANESE ARMY

The Japanese soldier began the war in his dark blue winter uniform. [9] The coat was a five button, close fitting tunic with a high collar. The collar and piping were in the branch color. Shoulder straps were in branch colors with the regimental number in blue. A peaked cap, the same color as the coat, was worn. A narrow band, in the branch color, was worn around the base of the cap. A five pointed star was placed above the band, with the Japanese guards having crossed cherry sprigs below. The trousers were dark blue, with a stripe of the branch color down the outer seam. White gaiters were worn over black shoes. All his equipment was black leather.

The branch color for infantry was yellow, for cavalry-green, for artillery-white, for guard infantry-red, for engineers-dark red, and for transportation troops-light blue. Enlisted rank was indicated by black cords worn around the sleeve above the cuff. Privates wore one cord, private second class wore two and privates first class wore three. Corporals wore a broad stripe in the branch color below one black cord. Sergeants wore two cords, senior sergeants three. Sergeant majors added a narrow gold stripe between the branch stripe and the three cords.

During the summer, the soldier's uniform was changed to white linen. The winter tunic was replaced by a short coatee, and the trousers lacked the branch stripe on the seam. The gaiters remained white. The branch color are clearly visible on the white caps in the black and white photographs, but I am unsure if they are present on the coatee. Mr. Bodin's book on the Boxer Rebellion [10] states that the summer service uniform lacked the rank and branch distinctions.

Officers wore a dark blue uniform similar to the enlisted soldiers. Officers normally would wear an Attila jacket rather than the tunic. The Attila jacket was of the same length as the tunic, but was cut in a cavalry style. It had five rows of black silk loopings across the wearer chest. Officers wore boots instead of gaiters and shoes. Rank was indicated by black trefoils worn above the cuff, the number indicating the rank. A second lieutenant would have one trefoil, a colonel would have six. Or, campaign, the Japanese officers normally adopted enlisted dress to be less conspicuous, the only identifier being their swords.

The artillery uniform was identical to the infantry uniform, differentiated only by the branch colors. The cavalry uniform was similar to the infantry officer's uniform. All ranks in the cavalry wore the Attila jacket and boots. The silk loopings were white for the ranks and black for the officers. Guard cavalry, however, wore red loopings. The collar, cuffs and piping was green, the branch color of cavalry.

Knotel states that the trousers were red with green piping, and Count Wrangel states that they did initially wear red trousers during the war, [11] then changed to dark blue to match the jacket. I have tried to confirm this through black and white photographs, but it is impossible to distinguish between dark blue and red in the photos. The cavalry wore a white summer uniform like that of the infantry, but without branch color or rank.

After the Battle of the Yalu, the Japanese began to dye their white summer uniforms khaki. This was to be worn over the blue uniform in winter, and by itself in summer. This policy was not uniformly carried out, shown by photographs taken during the Battle of Mukden with the Japanese still in the blue uniform. The painter of a Japanese army can be historically correct and have regiments in blue, white, and khaki side by side on his wargame table.

STANDARDS