Daily printout: Feb. 28

A former postal facility in Japan that once processed mail now processes the grief, hope and longing of thousands of letter writers.

The Missing Post Office on Awashima Island receives 10-20 letters a day addressed to living and departed relatives, friends, pets, past selves, future selves, inanimate objects and more.

The idea began with artist Saya Kubota, who chose to use the decommissioned postal facility for a 2013 art project. Inspired by the island milieu, she thought of bottled messages washing ashore and invited people to mail messages of their own. She displayed the letters at the site during a monthlong arts festival.

The postal building, unused since 1991, was slated for demolition after the festival but its owner, retired postmaster Katsuhisa Nakata, negotiated with Kubota to continue with the project. It is now a tourist attraction on the tiny island, a 15-minute ferry ride from the mainland in the Seto Inland Sea.

Every other Saturday, the Missing Post Office opens to the public, where visitors can read the letters or write one of their own. Nakata, 90, serves as manager.

“This is a place where all kinds of emotions from people’s lives arrive — the saddest moments and happiest moments. We’re here to receive and acknowledge these emotions,” Nakata told The Washington Post this month.

Both letters and postcards are accepted, and a return address is unnecessary. Submitters are advised that letters will not be returned, and the copyright is assigned to the Missing Post Office. The address is:

[Name of intended recipient]
c/o The Missing Post Office
1317-2 Awashima Takuma-cho, Mitoyo-shi, Kagawa-ken
JAPAN 769-1108

The Postal Service will release its Appalachian Trail stamps on Friday, Feb. 28.

The century-old Appalachian National Scenic Trail traverses one of Earth’s oldest mountain ranges and runs through 14 states from Georgia to Maine.

Within easy reach of large East Coast metropolitan areas, the trail provides several million people each year with peace, beauty and a break from the stresses of modern life.

Some people hike the trail’s entire length within a single season while others access any of the trail’s many entry points for a trek of a few hours or days.

The Appalachian Trail was conceived in 1925 and fully connected from Maine to Georgia in 1937. It has been a national scenic trail managed by the National Park Service since 1968.

Regular maintenance of the trail is handled by a network of volunteer clubs, led by the nonprofit Appalachian Trail Conservancy.

The stamps feature 15 scenic views along the trail — one from each of the 14 states, with an additional stamp representing the “green tunnel,” a nickname for the many stretches that traverse dense forest. The stamps’ typography uses undulations that represent the zigs and zags of the trail.

Antonio Alcalá, an art director for USPS, designed the stamps using existing photographs.

The Appalachian Trail Forever stamps will be available in sheets of 15 at Post Offices and on usps.com.

The Postal Service is observing Black History Month, which began Feb. 1.

The annual commemoration traces its roots to 1926, when historian Carter G. Woodson helped establish a week to raise awareness of African Americans’ contributions. The observance was expanded to a full month in 1976.

Since 1978, USPS has commemorated the occasion by releasing an annual Black Heritage stamp. This year’s release honors Allen Toussaint, a virtuoso pianist, singer, songwriter, composer, arranger and producer.

Other Black Heritage stamp subjects have included political leader Shirley Chisholm, educator Mary McLeod Bethune, singer Lena Horne, journalist Gwen Ifill and civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King Jr.

African Americans have also made important contributions to the U.S. postal system throughout its history.

In the early 20th century, many African Americans found steady, valuable jobs in urban Post Offices.

In the 1960s, the number of African American employees promoted to supervisory positions grew exponentially, and African Americans were appointed as postmasters of the nation’s three largest Post Offices — New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles.

Today, approximately 30 percent of the Postal Service workforce is African American.

The usps.com postal history section has additional information, including articles about 19th-century and 20th-century African American postal employees.