Unique item of Postal & Banking History from the Japanese Occupation of South-East Asia
Item Number: 000001
Price: US$49,000.00 (unique item -- only one is known to exist!)
Savings Bank Promotion Week – 8 December 2603 (1943 in the Gregorian calendar)
$1 Japanese stamps post-marked:
Syonan Central Authority commemorates the Second Anniversary of the Greater East Asia War
Syonan (昭南: "Light of the South") was the name of Singapore under Japanese Occupation (February 1942 to September 1945)
The Second Anniversary of the Greater East Asia War was 8 December 2603 (1943 in the Gregorian calendar)
"Greater East Asia War" is the Japanese terminology for the Second World War
The war had started on 8 December 2601 (1941 in the Gregorian calendar) the day Japan attacked a wide range of targets in and around the Pacific, most notably Kota Bharu (in Malaya) and Pearl Harbor (in Hawaii). On this point there is a common misconception that the war started when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (US territory).
In fact, the war had started more than one hour before that – when Japan bombarded the area it intended its troops to land on, near Kota Bharu, Malaya (British territory). The dates of the nearly simultaneous attacks (7th December, Pearl Harbor; 8th December, Khota Bharu) creates the false impression that Pearl Harbor was attacked one day before Khota Bharu.
The difference in dates is the result of the 18 hours time difference between Malaya and Hawaii. In the actual sequence of events, Japanese forces attacked Kota Bahru first – and then attacked Pearl Harbor more than one hour later.
So, the Greater East Asia War started on 8 December 2601 (1941 in the Gregorian calendar) at Kota Bahru in British Malaya – making 8 December 2603 (1943 in the Gregorian calendar) its Second Anniversary.
The Kôki calendar Year 2603 coincides with the year 1943 in the Gregorian calendar.
Japan established the Kôki (皇紀) calendar in 1872 and used it, especially for military purposes during the 1930s and 1940s, to the end of World War II in August 1945. In the Kôki calendar, Year 1 was the first year of the reign of Emperor Jimmu, calculated from the account in the Nihon Shoki on the mythical founding of Japan by Emperor Jimmu in 660 BC.
The label:
Savings Bank Promotion Week
8 December 2603
indicates that the two postmarked stamps were probably used to make a bank deposit with the Post Office rather than to mail a letter. This item is the only one of its kind known to be still in existence – a unique document of that period of postal and banking history.
The "Greater East Asia War" and the "Second World War"
The Second World War, also known as World War II, or WWII, or WW2, was a worldwide war between two military alliances – the Axis Powers versus the Allied Powers.
The principal Axis powers were Germany, Italy and Japan. These formed an alliance by a Tripartite Pact on 27 September 1940.
The principal Allied powers were Britain, USA, USSR and China. These formed an alliance including 22 other nations by a Joint Declaration entitled "Declaration by United Nations" on 1 January 1942.
Germany and Italy signed a treaty of friendship on 25 October 1936. On 1 November 1936, Mussolini the dictator of Italy proclaimed that the treaty formed a Berlin-Rome line that was not a partition but "an AXIS around which all European states can collaborate". The treaty was made into an Alliance in May 1939. The Axis Alliance expanded to include Japan in a Tripartite Pact in September 1940.
The Tripartite Pact 1940 stated "... Japan, Germany, and Italy consider it the prerequisite of a lasting peace that every nation in the world shall receive the space to which it is entitled. They have, therefore, decided to stand by and cooperate with one another in their efforts in the regions of Europe and Greater East Asia..."
Article 2 of the Pact stated that Germany and Italy "recognize and respect the leadership of Japan in the establishment of a new order in Greater East Asia."
In the 1930s separate wars were being fought in both Europe and Asia.
In East Asia, Japan contrived the "Mukden Incident" in September 1931 to seize territory from China, and then launched a full-scale war on China with the "Lugou Bridge (Marco Polo Bridge) Incident" in July 1937. Japan was waging war on China.
In Europe, Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939 and the Polish-British Common Defence Pact brought Britain into the war. Germany was at war with Britain.
In June 1941 Germany invaded the USSR. Germany was waging war on the USSR.
Japan had been waging war intermittently in North-Eastern China since the "Mukden Incident" in September 1931, and waging a full-scale war in China since the "Lugou Bridge (Marco Polo Bridge) Incident" in July 1937. Japan realized that to win its war in China it needed the oil, rubber and other war material available from European-controlled territories to the south of China. That meant attacking British Malaya and the Netherlands East Indies. Japan had to attack also the Philippines which was controlled by the USA, and the US navy fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, to prevent it from interfering in Japan's attack on British Malaya and the Netherlands East Indies.
Japan had planned simultaneous attacks on both Kota Bharu (Malaya, British territory) and Pearl Harbor ( Hawaii, US territory).
As Kota Bharu is 18 hours ahead of Pearl Harbor the attacks were scheduled to occur on 8 December 1941 at Kota Bharu and on 7 December 1941 at Pearl Harbor.
In the actual attacks the Japanese were forced to begin the bombardment of the troop landing area near Kota Bharu more than one hour before their planes dropped the first bomb on Pearl Harbor. Japan was waging war on both Britain and the USA.
The Japanese attacks on Kota Bharu and Pearl Harbor brought Britain and the USA into the war in Asia. The Axis were fighting the Allies in both Europe and Asia now – it had become a world war.
The result was Japan waging a war outside China to support its war inside China. The Japanese referred to the area of this wider war both inside and outside China as "Greater East Asia". The "Greater East Asia War" meant the war that Japan was waging both inside and outside China.
The Axis suffered total defeat and the Allies won victory. The war ended in 1945.
Postage stamps of Malaya & Singapore under Japanese Occupation
Japan had contrived the Mukden Incident in China's northeast on 18 September 1931 for a pretext to invade China. After taking over China's 3 northeastern provinces, Japan provoked the Lugou Bridge ( Marco Polo Bridge) Incident to create a pretext for launching a full-scale war to invade the whole of China.
By the middle of 1938 the invasion had become a stalemate. Japan could win battles and occupy territory in China but could not pacify the territory it occupied.
To fight the war (the Second Sino-Japanese War, 1931/1937 – 1945) it was waging to conquer China, Japan realized it needed war material available from territories to the south of China. These territories were French Indo-China; British Burma, Malaya and Borneo; the Philippines (controlled by the US); and the Dutch ( Netherlands) East Indies. Japan felt compelled to attack the colonial masters in these territories to wrest control of these territories and take possession of the war material and resources which Japan wanted. Japan concluded that the US navy fleet in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (US Territory), had to be destroyed or crippled to prevent it from interfering in Japan's attack on territories to the south of China.
Consequently, Japan attacked British Malaya starting near Kota Bharu at 00:25 (local time) on 8 December 1941, with the objective of capturing Singapore. Pearl Harbor was attacked 85 minutes later at 07:50 (local time) on 7 December 1941 to prevent the US from interfering in Japan's attack upon British Malaya. These attacks, which extended the war in China into British, US, and Dutch territories to the south of China and in the Pacific ocean, expanded the Sino-Japanese War into the Greater East Asia War and merged it with the war in Europe to make the Second World War. Singapore was captured 69 days later, on 15 February 1942.
Thus, Malaya & Singapore were under Japanese Occupation from February 1942 to September 1945.
Initially, the Japanese continued the use of British colonial postage stamps and captured stamps were over-printed by the new masters for use.
On 8 December 1942 – the first anniversary of the attack on British Malaya – stamps designed for use in Japan were issued for use in Malaya and 4 denominations of these are known.
In February 1943, more stamps designed for use in Japan were issued for use in Malaya.
An example of stamps designed for use in Japan being used in Malaya/Singapore is Numistamp Item 000001 (unique item – the only one of its kind known to be still in existence!)
As the stocks of captured stamps were used up, and Japan had its own plans for Malaya & Singapore, it became necessary to issue new stamps designed for use in Malaya & Singapore.
On 29 April 1943, the first Japanese designed postage stamps – designed specifically for use in Malaya & Singapore – were issued:
On 1 June 1943, the 2 cent (for printed papers, Numistamp Item 000192) postage stamp was issued.
On 1 October 1943, seven denominations of postage stamps were issued:
On 1 September 1943, Savings Campaign postage stamps were issued:
On 15 February 1944, the second anniversary of the capture of Singapore, two denominations of postage stamps were issued to commemorate the rebirth of Malaya as part of Greater Japan:
Japan surrendered to the Allied Powers at noon on 15 August 1945. Malaya and Singapore returned to British colonial rule on 12 September 1945 with the formal surrender by the commander of Japanese forces in South East Asia at Singapore City Hall. | 
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