Japanese Flag-Vet Purchase

[Striking 9th]

That is a beautiful flag hbt. Imo the Hokkaido story is not out of line. Nice pick up. Congrats and thanks for posting it.
Scott

[MikeB]

Japanese Flag-Veteran Purchase

Hi Hbt and Kim-
I find both of your veteran stories credible. Why not? You have the first hand accounts of these former soldiers telling you where the flags were recovered. In addition, you have multiple accounts from different veterans saying the same thing. The history tells us that the 306th spent part of their time on the Island Hokkaido at War's end.
I have flags in my collection that were given as gifts to American soldiers from Japanese POW's gettting ready to head home. I also have flags that were taken by American and Chinese soldiers from Japanese POW's who did not wish to give them up. One really interesting flag I have in my collection has a triangulare shaped Intel. stamp placed upon it. It looks like the one found on the bottom of page 117 in my book. These triangular shaped stamps were supposed to be used on bring backs made from "material" only. In reality, any shaped Intel stamp may be found at times on Good Luck Flags. Most flags that have been cleared by military intelligence and are stamped, seem to be of the round variety. This particular flag referenced above must have been kept by its former Japanese owner as I purchased it in Japan. There is a triangular Intel stamp on it showing it has been cleared. The former owner, however, took bloodied fingerprints (ala blood oath flag style,) and attempted to blot out the dishonor of having it examined and stamped. You can still make out the stamp beneath the bloodied imprints.
Once the War was over, I am sure some former Japanese soldiers gave up their flags, traded them or had them taken by Occupying forces. I would like to see more images if you have them. mikeb

[Panzer_peter]

very nice flag

[101combatvet]

The story is very typical.... the best stuff came from the mainland during the occupation.

[Paul G]

PG-