Has anyone seen a flag like this before?

[brasher1]

Hi. What a neat forum. Hoping you won't mind a one time question--

My uncle collects military items and I believe he purchased or bartered for a Japanese flag that he asked me to take a look at.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the picture to load, but it's a pretty simple flag.

Standard red and white flag but instead of the typical Japanese unit member names it appears to be a souvenir flag.

The bottom says Fukuoka Japan in English and Kanji. There are names on each side of the flag--both in Katakana and seem to translate to Jack on one side and Barry on the other. There are last names in Katakana too but they are always the devil to figure out what they are really trying to phonetically represent.

Although my uncle was told that this was a flag "taken during WWII" I am sure it was a souvenir and the Jack on the flag may even be the Jack that my uncle got this flag from--it's not clear to me how that all worked.

My question is, does anyone know if this was a common practice to have flags made with servicemen's names on them, and if so, what time period do you think this was done? It seems to suggest post-war to me.

Thanks in advance for letting me pick your brains--this is not my area of competence in Japanese history.

Meredith

[MikeB]

Souvenir Flag

Hi Meredith-
You might be right in a couple of areas. These flags were often battlefield recovered hinomaru ("meatball"/plain, without writing) flags. If the G.I. was stationed in Japan for part of the Occupation (many were also sent there for recuperation of War wounds,) then they might have that part of their service recorded on the flag they had in their possession. Usually this was done in the form of kanji characters and took the form of the soldier's name (as you mentioned, sounded out.) It might also include the date of service (most I have seen have the 1946 date,) and the town where the G.I. was stationed is common. Typical names were Tokyo, Kobe, etc. Japanese flags with kanji on them were highly prized as War trophy's- more so than the plain white version, so it was not unusual for a fellow to have his flag "fixed up" a bit by the locals.
On the other hand, many of these flags were purchased from Japanese citizens in Japan immediately following the War. The soldier would have his information recorded as a souvenir of his stay there. One last point, many of these hinomaru flags are seen with the information recorded in English as well. I have versions of all and they are quite common. Demand seems to be on those flags in English that have a desirable unit number or insignia artwork present.
I hope this gives you some kind of idea of what you have. You pretty much had the story right on, however! Mike