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Once in a blue moon a cover comes along that is so historic that it takes our breath away....this is such a cover. On noon August 15, 1945, Japan standard time, Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration. Today, in the US, we celebrate V-J Day on August 14, since that is the day in 1945 that news of the surrender broke in US time zones. President Truman had originally declared September 2, V-J Day since that is the day that the surrender was signed aboard the USS Missouri. It is this September 2, 1945 date that is forever frozen on this tiny 3x5 inch postcard. Bruce Fraser of the Royal Navy, Commander of the British Pacific Fleet, Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, and General of the Army, Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Allied Commander witnessed Japan's Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu sign the surrender which ended a war which encompassed the globe for five long years.
The two US stamps chosen to furnish current postage on this postcard (for without it, the post office would not supply a cancellation) are quite historic in themselves. The purple stamp (issued 9/27/44) commemorates the tiny island of Corregidor, which lies in the entrance to Manilla Bay. Having acted as the headquarters for MacArthur, Corregidor fell to the Japanese, and was then reclaimed by the Allies. The green stamp (issued 7/11/45) honors the United States Marine Corps, the first service branch to receive a US stamp. The Army would follow 9/28/45, the Navy 10/27/45, and the Coast Guard 11/10/45. Depicting the Raising of the Flag on Iwo Jima, this historic stamp plus the Corregidor stamp represent two historic places and events of the Pacific Theater.
What you are seeing, then, is a Commemorative Cover....a piece of postal history which freezes a time (9/02/45), and event (the formal ending of WWII), and a place (Washington DC) our nation's capital. In a way too, it indirectly honors the last battleship built in America and second-to-last battleship built in the world. The "Mightly Mo" hosted one of the most significant events in modern history and had the distinction of being the last ship of her kind in the US...a testament to the end of a naval era. The color cachet (artwork on the postcard) shows the Japanese flag bent over from the air assault. It also has the dates of the United States' participation in the war - from Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941 to Sptember 2, 1945. We have sealed this cover in clear plastic; it's mounted in mint condition, meaning it is not adhered to anything.
Matted in blue it is sized to fit a standard 11x14 frame. A copy of quotation by General Douglas MacArthur aboard the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945, is included.
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