unknown Japanese deocument

[shortbuss55]

Hello everyone I hope I am putting this in the right section. I found a smallish cache of personal documents and military documents dating back from about 1942-1960. Most of the documents talk about us and Philippines army. What I need help with is this letter, which I think is written in Japanese, I am thinking this due to the person being deployed in Japan and other places.I do apologize if this is not written in Japanese. Other that the letter I also found a map of "Itsukushima". Along with lots of photos (which i'll post latter), and what I believe is a Japanese writing box. So am just hoping someone knows what this letter says, if anyone need more or clearer pictures don't hesitate to ask.






From
Shortbuss55

[big ned]

I wonder who the addressee on the envelope, a chap apparently named "MacArthur" could have possibly been......????

[TrondK]

Would be interesting to see the map. Is it a military map, or a civilian map. There was many japanese soldiers in mindanao in ww2, but most of the military bunkers and tunnels are overgrown so finding them today after 70 years is a close to impossible task.

[SteveR]

The paper is for a freebe at mama san's house of beauty and hardware in Tokyo.

[BOB COLEMAN]

moved to the Japanese Forum

[ghp95134]

It is a letter addressed to:
マッカーサー元帥閣下
Makkāsā gensui kakka
His Excellency Marshal MacArthur

The letter writer refers to himself as
一学生
ichi gakusei
One Student

Japanese letters generaly end with naming the addressee, then the letter writer (image #2).
He opens with saying something like "[To] the great general-marshal [gensui], his Excellency MacArthur, One Studet sends this letter ...." And although he is "One Student", his handwriting is mature and kanji are well formed.

I'm not good enough to read the content of the letter. Maybe Nick Komiya will opine.


--Guy

P.S. The letter is not dated, so I looked at the postmark; unfortunately I could not read the date. The letter was sent from
広島県 県内
Hiroshima-ken Ken'nai
Hiroshima Prefecture [Within the Prefecture]

Via the
外事部、經由
Gaiji-bu Keiyu
Via Foreign Affairs Section

To:

D. Mac Arthur



P.P.S. If that is a 30-sen stamp, it is 1946-47

[Nick Komiya]

It's a very polite and humbly written letter, pleading General Douglas MacArthur to help free his friends held captive in Russia. It is written on official Hiroshima Prefectural government paper, so he must have been recommended at city hall to write to the occupation forces as a last resort. He must have been referring to his fellow university students, who had to cut short their studies to go to war and were POWs in Siberia. As was the case of Germans, many died there and survivors got returned in 1955/56. This was in violation of the Potsdam Declaration, which assured the return of surrendering Japanese soldiers to their families. About 473 thousand soldiers were held there for forced labor, some as long as 11 years and 60 thousand died there.