I think the note means that it was not the more modern, somewhat simplified Kanji.  When I ask exchange student to translate WWII things this is what they call it.  Looks wartime to me as well. Nice piece. 

I agree KM.

WW 2 German Kriegsmarine  NCO.

Maby someone can tell me about this guy by seeing his hat

It’s in the for sale section 

It looks to me like those Kanji characters were written during WWⅡ.   And it seems that characters were written by Japanese speakers.

Lee Grant pressed into German service.   

This has note attached saying it was from OLD JAPANESE written in '40s. Seems to be a contradiction. Can anyone validate that it's war time? 

Your helmet is the same Luftwaffe helmet as mine. Decal in great condition & color matches. Gotta start following you around. Great score 

Post #5 was mea culpa.  I must've looked at Post #4 instead of Post#1.     I agree.  I think "easterneagle87" is correct in Post#6.  It looks Austro-Hungarian to me as well.

I don't believe it's US. The image is close, but there are differences. On the US horn, the mouth piece is away from the body of the horn and there are two separate tassels.    It more closely matches a Jagerhorn. Or Postal. But mine is oversized.   I posted two smaller versions on this forum some time ago, but it's been too long and I can't find he thread. I believe someone commented that those resembled German/Austrian postal insignia. I ended up selling them. One of those horns had a black eagle (Hapsburg?) inside the coil of the horn.