Imperial Japanese Naval Landing Forces cotton hat with yellow embroidered anchor insignia to the front. Features the classic string closure to the back. Interior has original label with Kanji ink stamps. Overall condition is good to very good. Before the late 1920s the IJN did not have a separate marine force, instead it used naval landing forces or 'rikusentai' formed from individual ships' crews, who received infantry training as part of their basic training. In the late 1920s the navy began to form Special Naval Landing Forces as standing regiments (albeit of battalion size). These forces were raised at — and took their names from — the four main naval districts/bases in Japan: Kure, Maizuru, Sasebo, and Yokosuka. These SNLF units saw action in China from 1932 in the January 28 Incident and at the Battle of Shanghai in naval operations along the China coast and up the Yangtze River and its tributaries during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Soon, they became involved in successful Japanese seaborne assaults throughout the Japanese Empire. This piece originates from the untouched footlocker of PT-44 boat officer and Navy aviator Lt. Charles M. Melhorn. He and a fellow PT-44 crewman were plucked from the water by PT-109, future president John F. Kenendy's future command, following his ship's destruction by Japanese destroyers on Dec. 12, 1942. In fact, two of the men lost in the destruction of PT-44 had transferred to that vessel from PT-109 only a few weeks earlier. Melhorn would later become a Navy aviator, leading the torpedo bomber attack that sunk the battleship HARUNA and earning Melhorn the Navy Cross.