WWII Japanese 20 x 120 Binoculars

These WWII Japanese 20 x 120 Binoculars were originally used to defend a battleship from incoming enemies.

With radar in its infant stages during WWII, the Japanese, like the Germans, invested a large sum of their defense budget into developing their optical technologies. The Japanese purchased almost 200,000 pounds of glass from Schott Glassworks between 1939 and 1944. Many of the greatest optical companies that are still in business today produced WWII binoculars, such as Nikon, Canon, and Fuji.

Often times, the Japanese binoculars were without markings. This was intentional, in case a ship or even an individual binocular was captured by the enemy. Bombing optics factories was a popular military tactic in order to take the eyes out of the enemy; if the maker’s names were on the binoculars, the location of the factory could easily be found.

These binoculars have been expertly hand polished to illuminate the original brass and steel metals that were wonderfully protected by military paint. The binoculars possess their original optics, all of which have been inspected by our optics technician and are therefore fully guaranteed. The binoculars now rest on a period wooden tripod.