Living in Japan with the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII coming up, this is tempting - but is it genuine?

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I am by no means an expert, so do not take this as gospel, but I did see a Paul Tibbets a friend got in person. The only thing I really remember is the "i" in Tibbets instead of dot was like an "o."   I am not sure if he always did that or sometimes people simplify over time.  

Here is a Tibbets check I bought recently.  It has three signatures to compare.  (In regard to the "i", I believe that he did use both a "dot" and a "circle".)

Thank you JK that looks like what I remember seeing.  It may be in rushed situations, or even later years he just made a dot.

Thank you both very much!

I went ahead and bought it as I found other authenticated examples with a simple dot over the 'i'.

Also JK, your check gave me an additional cross reference regarding the number '29'!

Well done! 

Often times other writing in addition to the signature can help authenticate an item.

Here is the other side of the coin. The signed post card came from his shop and the photo is from 1949 -  a candid in the Red Cross Hospital:

More. I have never seen anything like this with this provenance directly back to 1945 in another collection:

Here are the recollected words of Robert E. Hall, the man who collected the glass in August/September 1945, from his son (my source):
"My father was in the occupation force in Japan after they surrendered.  He was in Hiroshima, walking the perimeter of the atomic blast.  He went into a building, and hanging from the inside window sills were "icicles" of melted glass, but the building itself was far enough away to remain standing.  He broke off several pieces and kept them until the day he died"
The photograph of the Genbaku Dome is an original print by Yuichiro Sasaki from 1949.

As this thread has gone beyond my initial question regarding Tibbet's signature, I thought I would add something more.

I not only occasionally acquire interesting autographs but have also collected Japanese swords for many years. Authenticating the signatures chiselled on these is even more important due to the potential value of these antiques. One I own has the following inscriptions (shown in the photos below):

対米英宣戦之吉辰作

"Made on the Auspicious Occasion [of the] Declaration of War Against America & Britain"

皇敵無骨

“The Emperor’s Enemies are boneless”

源盛高

"Minamoto Moritaka" + personal smith's-mark.


All very patriotic but falsely optimistic considering the terrible outcome of the war for Japan.

(Apologies - I can't seem to post the photos of the sword's inscriptions. I keep getting a message stating THERE HAS BEEN AN ERROR.)

Is the photo a JPG, GIF or PNG? Those are the only image files you can upload here.

+1

https://ibb.co/G4t6Qw16

https://ibb.co/kg6LJw8Ho


After many failed attempts, the above are links to the two photographs - I hope that you can access them.

Here they are:

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