In World War II, Japan occupied Brunei, and overprinted Bruneian postage stamps with Japanese. In 1942, the first such stamps were created, with a simple overprint. In 1944, the overprint was slightly changed, and a surcharge was added, to a 1 cent Brunei stamp.
The 1942 overprints were printed right to left: 府政国帝本日大, read “Dai-nippon Teikoku Seifu“, translates as Great Japan Empire Government. The 1944 overprints were in three sections, again read right to left: at the top, 本日大 (“Dai-nippon“, Great Japan); at the bottom, 便郵国帝 (“Teikoku Yuubin“, Imperial Postal Service); in the middle, in larger characters, was the surcharge — 参弗 (“san doru” or $3).
These Japanese occupation are of great interest to collectors both of Bruneian and Japanese stamps, and of the various occupation stamps of World War 2. Our current selection of these historically significant stamps can be found in this section.
