Photo taken by Billy West [7:10 to Tokyo]
The original post has some interesting comments. Looks like it is Wehrmacht rather than SS uniform. Regardless, the fact that a person wears such a uniform is disturbing. Moreover, such an exhibition does not seem to bother people around him…
Kitsune's Thoughts 
What does the Japanese military uniform look like? Is it possible people aren’t reacting because they just think he’s in a regular military uniform?
While it might not be apparent to what organization the uniform belongs to, German uniforms from WWII are quite well-known and readily recognizable. Here is how Japanese uniform used to look like.
What’s disturbing about wearing a German Army uniform? Where I live it’s fashionable to wear American Army gear..
Although I disagree with many US policies, I wouldn’t go that far to compare it with German army of WWII… This person has deliberately chosen to associate himself with one of the darkest parts of human history. He needs a session with Chiri-chan…
You must admit though, he looks quite dapper in it.
Perhaps, but he messed up the uniform.
It’s a WWII German uniform, so it’s associated with the Nazi party and fascism in general.
I’m guessing that no one is bothered by it is because of Japan not being directly involved with the events in Europe durring the thirties and fourties. There’s not the built up repulsion to it in their culture like there is in ours (look at how many decades of Hollywood movies used guys in those uniforms as generic villains).
Another thing to consider is that not all Nazis were terrible people. Look at all the assassination attempts on Hitler, as dramatized in the recent movie, Valkyrie.
That may even be the inspiration behind this bizarre bit of cosplay. Perhaps he fancies himself as one of the ethically and morally upright Nationalist-Socialists.
Yes, some were good.
It is possible, but unlikely.
I want it!!!
Errr, excuse me sir.. am I back to 1940??.
Not quite, but close.
Usually when I see someone wearing/doing something strange or of the normal, I try and not stare and pretend I don’t notice, but ya the people in the image do seem a little too comfortable sitting beside the guy.
If I knew the language well, I would talk to him.
I would if I could, you know.
After spending some time in Japan myself, I do believe that Japanese people will sometimes wear just about anything to make themselves stand out.
For example, once while riding the JR Line from Yokosuka to Kamakura, I saw a high school girl. She was wearing a uniform, of course, but what really got my attention was her socks. Apparently you can wear whatever you like as long as they match the uniform. These socks had the Playboy Bunny logo on them. To this day I wonder if she knew that she was wearing what is essentially an American sex icon and what she thought of it.
There’s other examples as well. Just look at Danny Choo fer cryin’ out loud.
Oh, that’s an interesting story about a bunny 🙂
Haha, that reminds me of the movie Valkyrie. It wasn’t a bad movie, really. (: But it looks quite cool to dress up like that at sit in a park among the em, ‘commoners’.
It is interesting that such a uniform would be associated with a recent movie, but it does makes sense.
Yes, such an exhibitionism can appeal to some people.
so? samurai chopped 27487284782772387273 heads off and plenty of people cosplay samurai.
also Tom Cruise wears the same suits in the movie Valkyire too, let’s burn him and Suri, shall we? :rolled:
*grabs pitch pork*
Valkyrie (that’s the correct spelling btw) film seems to be quite popular.
Samurai and Wehrmacht – what a wonderful comparison. Perhaps, reading this might help you see the difference.
I think it’s clear that the Nazi regime and associated institutions like the WWII Wehrmacht were cruel in a way samurais never were. Neither were the Teutonic Knights as bad. However, the Imperial Japanese Army were just as ruthless as the Nazis, so there’s a chronological element to this too.
Yes, Imperial Japanese Army committed terrible war crimes.
Its a Wehrmacht uniform, but saying every Wehrmacht uniform is asscociated with masscres is not true. Especially many high ranking officers were only fighting for their country, they were even over 20 documented attempts to assassinate hitler. Would there be a problem if you sad you cosplay someone who tried to kill hitler?
It would have been interesting to talk to this person to learn about his reasons for such a cosplay.
Well i see the guy sitting in his chair wearing the uniform and i must say, he is wearing it like me or the rest of the Netherlands is wearing thear normal week clothing.
The fact that this guy is not being targeted by Antifa Japansese or something like that is because in the past the Japanese and Germans were allies and it was for them far and far away the have never seen the rise and fall of Germany but did verry much the same things as the germans but then in the pacific.
YOU HAVE TO ALSO REMEMBER AND READ THIS:
The traditional german uniform prussian was fieldgreen/grey and the 4 pocket system was used also by the Americans and the UK.
But most importantly the typical nazi uniform as most of you say isnt that nazi afterall, yes the matching medals and stuff this guy is wearing makes it a nazi uniform, but the uniform shape and collor is much older.
Before the war it was used by the weimar republic en before that in the first war, after the seccond war when the nazi’s were defeated the DDR/East Germany used the same uniform but with thear own signs.
The DDR were communists shaped after the image of the Sovjet union.
To close my comment yes Nazi’s are wrong and Japan has to learn from its past and still has to accept that they also did some bad stuff.
I for myself cosplay sometimes in DDR uniforms, same kind of uniform with other medals and signs.
Think that nog everybody who wears an german uniform is nazi, the sorry thing is that german uniforms happen to very nice and i think that a lot of people would like to cosplay in a german uniform if the war did not happen and the uniform did not have such an bad status.
All in all you can never be sure what the guy has on his mind but i think he is nog an nazi but a lover of german uniforms,he might not even be thinking about the facism behind it.
Or he might do, you just dont know.
Yes, it would be best to talk to him 🙂