These are WWII vintage with a large number of uses. This particular type has come up before in thread
http://www.mapleleafup.org/forums/sh...=Jap+Generator at that time there was an extremely good link to a site concerning the history and restoration of these units, unfortunately the link is not working at the moment. I think I saved the whole site so may be I can find another link to it.
There was one of these Generators with my HUP when I got 30 years ago.
Cheers Phil