Malaya Japanese Occupation - 4 Cents Rouletted Pair (1945)

The 2c. pale emerald and 4c. carmine-rose are known with poor quality impressions, as if the plate was worn and the ink was thin. These are known imperforate or with rouletting instead of perforations, and are called the ‘Singapore printings’. Little is known about them for certain, except they were listed in the first stamp catalogues in 1946 - so they were printed during the occupation.

Very few of them are known used, and those few have dates in late August 1945 during that strange time between the surrender of Japan in August 1945 and the return of British forces to Malaya on 5 September 1945.

It is possible that towards the end of the war, with transport between the East Indies and Malaya getting difficult, that the printing plates for the 2c. and 4c. were moved from Batavia to Singapore. A single transfer of plates, thereby avoiding the need to send bales of printed stamps. In this scenario, only the 2c. and 4c. were printed, as in multiples they would cover most postal requirements. Perhaps they were printed at the Singapore printing works, but as no perforating machines were available there, they were rouletted or left imperforate. If this scenario is true, it must have taken place about July or August 1945.

From article written by Susan McEwen, Japanese Occupation of Malaya, the Pictorial Issues. GSM April 2009.

Japanese Characters

At top:
大日本帝国郵便
Imperial Japanese Posts

At bottom middle
マライ
Malaya

At bottom left
4 セント
4 Cent

Japanese Stamps

Initially, the Japanese continued the use of British colonial postage stamps and captured stamps were over-printed by the new masters for use.

As the stocks of captured stamps were used up, and Japan had its own plans for Malaya & Singapore, it became necessary to issue new stamps designed for use in Malaya & Singapore.
 
On 29 April 1943, the first Japanese designed postage stamps. It was designed specifically for use in Malaya & Singapore and were issued:

• 4 cent (for postcards)
• 8 cent (for letters)

On 1 June 1943, the 2 cent (for printed papers) postage stamp was issued.

On 1 October 1943, seven denominations of postage stamps were issued:

• 1 cent
• 3 cent
• 10 cent
• 15 cent (Registration Fee)
• 30 cent (for parcels up to 3 pounds)
• 50 cent (for parcels up to 7 pounds)
• 70 cent (for parcels up to 11 pounds)

On 1 September 1943, Savings Campaign postage stamps were issued:

• 8 cent (for letters)
• 15 cent (Registration Fee)

On 15 February 1944, the second anniversary of the capture of Singapore, two denominations of postage stamps were issued to commemorate the rebirth of Malaya as part of Greater Japan:

• 8 cent (for letters)
• 15 cent (Registration Fee)

On 8 December 1942, the first anniversary of the attack on British Malaya, stamps designed for use in Japan were issued for use in Malaya and 4 denominations of these are known.

In February 1943, more stamps designed for use in Japan were issued for use in Malaya.