Winston Churchill once said that the letter “V” stood for “victory.” Because of that, pins sporting the solo letter were made between the years 1942 and 1945. Women wore those pins in support of the troops. For one Waimea woman,
Winston Churchill once said that the letter “V” stood for “victory.”
Because of that, pins sporting the solo letter were made between the years 1942 and 1945. Women wore those pins in support of the troops.
For one Waimea woman, V and the pins became an obsession.
“My mom started collecting these V-pins when I was born and since then I continued collecting them,” Vee Miyake Yamafuji said of her mother, Yone Kagawa Miyake.
Yamafuji was born shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Her mother gave her the name Vee because of the saying and the pins.
Her V-pin collection is part of the “Produce for Victory: Posters on the American Home Front” war exhibit currently on display at the Kaua‘i Museum in Lihu‘e. The exhibit closes Dec. 13.
Yamafuji was in town to watch the Grand Slam of Golf at the Po‘ipu Bay Golf Course and made a pit-stop at the museum to see the display.
“I love the ones that have the dot, dot, dot, dash because that’s my name in Morse code,” she said. “You can see the dot, dot, dot, dash on the side here or right on top of the pin.”
Some of the pins are V-shaped as well.
It’s a collection that’s been in the works for more than 60 years. She currently has more than 100, but she’s always looking for more.
“You have to be really lucky to get them at garage sales, but I’ll find some in antique stores and now I look on the Internet,” she said. “Some of them are inexpensive, around $20. But they can be really expensive over the Internet when you deal with people who know all about the pins. All the experts know what they’re doing.”
She’s visited antique shops across the country and Canada and even in Europe.
“I got this nice cute one in England for about 5 pounds. It’s this little plastic one that’s red, white and blue,” she said.
Plastic, gilded or enameled metal, wood and rhinestones were commonly used for these pins. Occasionally, silver, pewter, bakelite or gold were used. She has at least one of each.
Her pins are encased in a display, near the war posters exhibition. She even brought a small box of some of the pins not displayed.
“There’s this one that’s made of real gold and real rubies and diamonds and back then, they weren’t using those materials,” she said. “There’s this pre-plastic bakelite one, this silver one with rhinestones on them and this a green one that I got in Canada.”
Some of them have photographs in them, like the one she has of Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
After spending many years in California, Yamafuji and her husband, Bob, recently moved back to Hawai‘i. The two live in Honolulu, where she continues to search for more pins.
“I’m always looking for these pins,” she said.
• Lanaly Cabalo, lifestyle writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 237) or lcabalo@kauaipubco.com.
