Return address leads to a World War II veteran’s story

U.S. Stamp Notes by John M. Hotchner

Whenever I see “American Embassy” as part of the return address on a cover, I’m interested, because that is an area of philatelic interest for me. So, the cover, shown nearby, with the faint handwritten “American Embassy Tokyo, Japan” address was an acquisition waiting to happen, especially because it was sent by a naval officer and postmarked on Aug. 23 with a Japan 1937 20-sen Mount Fuji stamp (Scott 175a).

With this information, and after doing a bit of research, I was able to identify the officer sending the letter as United States Navy Lt. j.g. Thomas R. Mackie, whose World War II story is an interesting one.

Mackie was born Thomas Maki in 1912, the oldest child of Finnish immigrants. At the Naval Academy, class of 1935, he changed his surname to Mackie.

After graduation, he served on the battleship USS Tennessee (BB-43), and the cruiser USS Vincennes (CA-44), before being assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo in mid-1938. There he became a Japanese language specialist. It was during this posting that the cover shown nearby was sent.

In mid-1941, he was assigned to the Fleet Radio Unit in the Philippines, again as a Japanese language expert. With the outbreak of the war, he was among the Americans in the Philippines moved to Corregidor Island. As one of the few Navy officers with Japanese language skills, he was among those men lucky enough to be evacuated to Australia aboard the submarine USS Permit (SS-178), before the Japanese overran Corregidor Island in May 1942. Following that intense battle, the remaining 11,000 survivors of the US. and Philippine military that defended the island were taken as prisoners by the Japanese.

Mackie remained in Melbourne, Australia, with the 7th Fleet Radio Unit until being transferred to the Armed Forces Security Agency in Washington, D.C., in 1944. After the war, he spent a year as officer-in-charge of the Navy’s Special Radio Facility in Japan, later returning to Washington.

His next international post was in 1954, when he was assigned as officer-in-charge of the Naval Security Group Detachment on the staff of the Northern Europe commander in chief in London. In 1957, he retired because of physical disability with the rank of captain.

He passed away in 1979, survived by his wife Isabelle, a native of Australia whom he met while serving there, and two daughters.

Connect with Linn’s Stamp News: 

    Sign up for our newsletter