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Japanese Military Postcards Japan provided a free postal service for soldiers stationed in Manchukuo from 13th November 1931. Many variations of cards were printed for this service, some of which appear below. The cards are distinguished by four large characters 軍事郵便 reading Military Post, either in a square shape, or aligned vertically. They will also usually have a box for a censors stamps with the characters 検閲 censored. Plain card could be hand stamped and used in the same way if stocks of pre-printed cards ran low. The cards were sent through branches of the South Manchurian Railway Zone Post Offices operating under the Kwantung Communications Bureau based in Dairen, although the service was tightly controlled by the military due to a need for censorship.
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| Dove and Helmet design on cream card. | Dove and Helmet design on buff card. | ||||
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| Hand-stamped Card sent from Harbin | Army Star Design. This example was sent from 1 Air Signal Regiment, 3 Air Army at Chientao to Gumna. | ||||
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| Army Star Design. Dateable due to the Mukden Station cachet to 25th November 1933. | Army Star Design. | ||||
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| Army Star Design on thick paper. Perhaps locally produced and smaller than the standard size. | Army Star Design with censor chops sent to Tokyo. | ||||
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| Plain box design with a censor box hand-stamp. | Plain box design with a 76 Manchu Troop hand-stamp showing that they were based in Harbin. | ||||
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| Japanese Military Envelopes | |||||
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| Military Envelope with an Imperial Japanese flag and a Japanese Army flag design. The date of this is unknown the army flag design was in use from 1870 to 1945 and used in overseas campaigns. | |||||
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| Military Envelope with a helmet design and a box for a censor chop. This probably dates to the late 1930's to early 40's. | |||||
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Japanese Imprinted Postcards and Stamps used in Manchukuo Japanese Imprinted Postcards and ordinary Japanese blank postcards using Japanese stamps were in use from towns such as Darien, in Kwantung Leased Territory (KLT) and Japanese Post Offices in other large towns such as Hsinking and Mukden. The practice of using Japanese Imprinted Postcards and Japanese Stamps ceased in 1937. This was due to Japan’s relinquishment of Japanese civilian extraterritorial rights over Manchukuo, which meant all Japanese Post Offices in Manchukuo (excluding the KLT) were abolished. |
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| 1936 Japanese 1½ sen, Imprinted postcard sent from Hsinking to Japan. The square design in this cancel indicates a New Years Greeting. | 1937 Japanese 1½ sen, stamp on a Japanese blank postcard sent from Dairen to Japan. The reason for the stamp being inverted is unclear. | ||||
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22nd August 1943 A standard blank Japanese Postcard sent from Hsinking to Japan using a 3f, fourth Regular Issue stamp from Manchukuo. |
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Japanese Postcards Featuring Manchukuo |
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Above is the front and back of a range of pictorial postcards showing a selection of pastoral scenes. Date unknown. To see further cards from the set click here. |
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