UBB.threads Forums General Militaria Names, Documents, Photos and Translation Forum Exciting dumpster find

Found a photo album with all kinds of WW2 pics, obviously from the south pacific theater and probably Guadalcanal. Many pics, US aircraft I have id'ed so far are F4U, B-25 P-38 and Helldiver, also pics of wrecked Japanese aircraft. Some pics of [what I presume to be] dead Japanese soldiers KIA, also found what I believe is a captured Japanese letter to home, if anyone can translate let me know.
oh sheesh, forget about the minuscule attachment size here, I'll update when and if I resize pics don't feel like it now

https://imgur.com/a/pfY5ZgN

Photos....

you can change the file size on your camera,,,or scan them at a small size....I try and take a big area shot,,then crop most away just to the image and that works for me. OR crop a little and when they show the size at 100% change it to 70 ans see if its the right size... Everyone has their own ways...

- would love to see some of them.. anyone that can translate the back of the PC?? wonder what that could be all about........

Here is a reply I got on another form ;[not even military related forum]


A little more on the postcard. I can't help with the personal message but the caption under the picture says:

?Painted by Ono Saseo.
The natives heartily welcomed the Imperial army.
A balloon saying ?[long] live great Asia? was floating in the sky. In the infinitely vast sky.?

At the bottom right of the picture is ?2602? for the 2,602nd year of the Imperial reigns (=1942) with Saseo?s signature below.

Then on the other side:


The orange printing at the bottom (in my edit of your original pic) says: ?Published by Osamu Shuudan (Osamu Army Group, which is a nickname for the 16th Army) Headquarters.?

At the top right it says "Yubin Hagaki" (Postcard)

At the top left it says: ?Gunji Yubin? (Military Mail) and underneath that: ?Censored?. The empty box would have to be stamped in red with a censor?s mark to confirm that any sensitive military information had been removed before the postcard could be sent.


So it appears certain that this was a captured IJA postcard which never made it home, and almost certainly from Guadalcanal.

Doug,

Not much in the way Japanese things, from postcards to humans beings, ever made it home from Guadalcanal.

I am re-reading "The Rising Sun" by John Toland. It is a history of the Pacific war and a lot of it is written from the Japanese view. Guadalcanal is covered in great detail.

Dave

I've always been fascinated by Guadalcanal, as a kid I seemed to be only interested in the ETO, once I branched out to the pacific, Guadalcanal was what I first started reading about.
Not only the viscous struggle on the ground of course, but air and sea, where we took out biggest naval hit after Pearl Harbor at Savo. I seem to recall a couple nights where the Japs came by at night with a battleship no less and shellacked the island, and there was nothing we could do about it at that point. Also remember the Gottege [?] patrol, a force of over a dozen US guys who went on a patrol and were never heard of again until this very day.

attempt

I believe the ruins of the beached Japanese maru top left are still visible today

WOW what a great find and album cheers, Ryan