Questions On US Postal Stationery With Japanese Stamps

Hi all,

I found this in my collection.

1. Am I correct to say that it is a philatelic concoction, with the Japanese stamps not serving any postal function?

2. I would have expected an APO cancellation rather than a local Japanese cancellation. Is anybody able to shed some light on this?

Thanks!

My thoughts:

1: it often happened that philatelistic covers were send back home with a variety of stamps. Often by the request of a Stamp collector in the family back home. Late forties examples of the Dutch Indies are a good example. You can spot those 10 feet away.

2) The sender simply used a cover which was normally used for Airmail post(6 cents was for the airmail and had to be payed extra)as a standard cover.

Maybe he had nothing else available or he did not care. As it was a cover send by regular Japanese post. I presume an APO number was not needed.

As stated my thoughts.

I concur. Simply a GI using a US prestamped envelope in the Japanese mails.

Some early Swiss airmail covers had US stamps attached by the sender in Switzerland.

Another possibility is that some traveled to Japan with the envelope and them mailed it from there.

I have looked at over 1500 airmail covers abd see some that were made in one country used all over the world, my guess is travelers took envelopes with them.

The return address is a U.S. Army Staff Sergeant at APO 471 located in Tokyo.