Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in the Postal Service and Philately

On April 7, 1943, the fleet oiler USS Kanawha AO-1 sustained fire from enemy aircraft in a battle between Allied and Japanese forces over control of the Solomon Islands. The Kanawha was in the south Pacific performing fleet replenishment operations including refueling duties and mail services much as it had done in the Atlantic during the First World War. The slow moving oil tanker had gotten underway off Tulagi Island to join her escort when bombs struck the Kanawha, killing 19 crew members, destroying the engine room and setting the ship ablaze. Her skipper, Lieutenant Commander Brainerd N. Bock gave the order to abandon the inoperable ship. Over the years divers have recovered many items from the Kanawha. On the fiftieth anniversary of the sinking, members of the crew were presented with two unused money orders retrieved from a safe aboard the tanker. One of these money orders, serial number 9803, was donated to the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.