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.

Last edited by Skynyrd; 07/27/2020 08:48 PM.
Doug