incoming: postcard pickups

Every year, I go to a military antiques show called Show of Shows. It's a show focused on military collectibles ranging anywhere from antique weapons to US Army patches or Tiger Stripe pants from Vietnam. I used to go looking for old food, MREs (meals ready-to-eat), or just general personal items like forks or prayer books. 

The first year I was there, I happened upon a booth that had binders full of old money, old photographs, and paper goods that were mostly from World War 2. Since them I've made a point to stop and see what the guy has. I've bought coins from the beginning and the end of Nazi Germany (the metals are lighter as the years progressed), and stamps with Saddam Hussein's face on them which I will try to dig up and post at a later date.

This year, I was looking through what he had and I found these postcards. They were in a small photo album with about 20 or 30 pictures that looked like they had been made on an island in the Pacific during World War 2. From the look of them they were made either during or right after a battle. There were photos of Japanese that had been captured and taken as prisoners as well as dead Japanese. There were also photos of what I would have to assume were natives on the island.

I couldn't bring myself to buy the photos. I equally enjoyed and disliked being able to look through them. A few were too gruesome to mention here; I didn't even really feel comfortable holding a few of them. It felt odd and in some way disrespectful. But I did see these postcards. I flipped them over and looked at them; I noticed that they looked like serene places in contrast to the other photos that were in the album. I haven't been able to translate the text on them yet, but if and when I do I will make sure to update this post with it.

The postcards are dirty. They have been handled. Not just bought and put in a box. They look like they were carried, maybe overseas by a soldier to remind him of home, or a place that he wanted to visit after the war was over. They also seem to have some sort of residue on them, like mud or possibly blood. I hope it is only mud. I also hope that whoever wanted to see these places got to see them, but it is quite unlikely. In that case, I hope he is just at peace if nothing else.