Japanese Photo/Postcards?? Help Please!!

[Chris Lee]

Folks,
I just recently aquired a stack of these postcards. I`ve never seen postcards like this with attached photos( there`s slots to insert the photos). Are these common? Are they indeed Japanese and does anyone have any idea when these are from? Also, what kind of value might they have? Thanks for any info!!

[Chris Lee]

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[Chris Lee]

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The group photo is not a postcard but did come with the lot.

[Chris Lee]

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[Papa Nambu]

I've seen small photo albums with pages like that. These could be an album that fell apart or some just using the pages as a way to the store the photos flat.

[GHP]

Fyi

... Are they indeed Japanese ....

Yes, they are Japanese. The page tops have a horizontal line stating "Postal card"

郵便はがき

But It's written from right to left:
きがは便郵

The word for postcard is "hagaki" 葉書 [はがき] and means leaf [葉] writting [書], as if the postcard is like a leaf upon which you write. Yubin 郵便 = postal

I have no idea as to value or what is written upon the cards.

--Guy

[GHP]

The printed red seal reads "Military-Use Post"
Actually, it is "military affairs post" [Gun-ji Yubin], but I think "military-use post" -- or even "military post" and "military mail" -- is the way we'd describe it.

The seal is read from top>bottom; right>left:
郵軍
便事


軍事郵便
Gun ji Yubin

......okay, back to work! ....

--Guy

[Chris Lee]

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Thanks for the info. Any idea of the time frame ie. 1930`s?

[GHP]

Thanks for the info. Any idea of the time frame ie. 1930`s?

I'm not conversant with regard to uniform styles/dates ... but I'd guess these were 1930s - 40s.

--Guy

[maverick87]

The photos are indeed of Japanese soldiers and seem to all be from the China campaign, and I'd say they all were taken in China. Not sure about the girl and baby. Either a Chinese girl or a soldier's family picture. Uniforms suggest a date of late 1930s, early 1940s? The portrait photo of the soldier I think is wearing the transitional style of uniform, where it's not quite a Type 98 uniform and not quite a Type 5? So yeh maybe the photos are late 1930s. These photos are nice, but also quite common. I buy and sell a lot of photos on ebay from albums I buy here in Japan. These photos are what I usually find, and they usually fetch between $5 to $15, but pretty common photos (China, 1930s, soldier standing with uniform).