A video today from the NHK collection, dated December 1940, featuring IJA troops celebrating the coming of the new year in French Indochina.
The stills below show the troops preparing the traditional Japanese decorations for new year's celebrations.
In the two stills below the troops decorate their Mitsubishi Ki-30 "Ann" light bombers with shimenawa.
And also place two and three tier mochi called kagami mochi.
The tail marking seen in the stills indicates that the unit is the 82 Dokuritsu Chutai. The marking comprised a red "river" with a white kanji in the middle. In this case, it's the kanji "内" ("uchi/nai" meaning inside/interior), and was probably the first kanji of the shotai leader's name. For example "Naito" or "Uchida").
On November 25, 1940, as part of the "Japanese Invasion of French Indochina", the 21 Dokuritsu Hikotai, with the 82 Dokuritsu Chutai equipped with "Ann" and the 84 Dokuritsu Chutai equipped with Mitsubishi Ki-27 "Nate" fighters, was assigned to present-day Vietnam and was based at the Gia Lam airfield, Hanoi.
The 82 Dokuritsu Hikotai used this tail marking until October 15, 1942, when it was reorganized as the 34 Sentai.
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Fantastic video ...now how will I fabricate some Shide, Kadimatsuand Shimenawa in 1/72 to add to my new AZ Ki-30
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