A Postal History of the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines 1942-1945

The surprise air strikes on the Philippines of December 8, 1941 and the following days which destroyed the United States Army Air Force were followed by the landings at several key locations of the Imperial Japanese Forces which converged swiftly upon the capital City of Manila, which fell to the invaders in less than thirty days. The beleagued Fil-American Forces held out in a hopeless cause on the Bataan Peninsula and on Corregidor Island until the final surrender on May 7, 1942. By then the Japanese Military Administration of the Philippines had efficiently taken control of all aspects of the Philippine government and economy. Postal service had been reopened in Manila on March 4, 1942.

As the war dragged on, the Philippines became an enemy-occupied backwater in the Pacific Theater, under the heel of a repressive and sometimes brutal enemy. With few diversions permitted or possible, the Filipinos embraced stamp collecting to a degree not seen before nor since. By the latter part of 1942, they flocked to the post office to prepare First Day Covers of every new postal emission in relatively enormous quantity.

Many students of the philately of the Greater East Asia War were blind-sided by that proliferation of purely philatelic material, and overlooked the fact that a civil postal system operated with considerable efficiency during the occupation, and that the study of the postal history of the period is as fascinating and rewarding as that of any country.

It is the intent of the present study to correct the many misconceptions about the postal history of the period. The author's great affection for the Filipino people sometimes show through, in spite of his best attempts at strict objectivity.