Linen Flag with Two Repeated Slogans - Translation Help Requested Please!

[William J]

I picked this up sometime ago but only recently realized that the two inked messages or slogans are repeated twice. The oil of the ink soaked through, and not speaking Japanese, I may actually have the flag reversed or upside down, as the writing can be seen from both sides! (If so my apologies!) I would greatly appreciate any assistance that might be offered. The white field material is a coarse linen, while the deep burgundy circle is a lighter weight material, although neither are as lightweight as silk. The construction is quite unusual to me, in that the white field has actually had the circle for the red sun cut out and removed, rather than simply sewing the red sun to the flag. It is instead sewed perfectly to the hole in the center of the flag, giving it a translucent appearance.

Thank you all in advance!

Great collecting,

William

[William J]

2

Another view in sunlight...

[MikeB]

Linen flag.............

Based on a quick look, the pattern of staining looks quite odd around the characters and the double repeated slogans look odd as well. The ideograms within the similar slogans appear to have been created using different strokes within the same slogan, although that may be due to their being mirror images. (If you look closely, some of the characters appears backward within that same slogan.) I have never seen a flag executed in this fashion. The cotton/linen type of flag with cut out sun is a little rare although silk flags with cut out center and silk red sun added to fill the space are truelly the rare ones. That's about all I can say. Perhaps Nick can add more. MikeB

[Edokko]

Unfortunately this is one of those "made up" flags, but perhaps done back then by enterprising GIs. The Kanji 大日本帝国 (Great Japanese Empire) is correctly done but the other Katakana バンザイニッホン (Banzai Japan) writing is incorrect in several ways, including one character uses the Kanji 本 (hon), instead of the correct Katakana ホ (ho).

[William J]

Thank you for the great information! I don't remember the particulars of how/when I acquired this flag but it was years ago, and I'm sure the cost was pretty minimal. If it was done by GIs (which I guess we'll never know), it would still be a neat bit of history.

Thank you for taking the time to respond!

Great collecting,

William

[MikeB]

Linen flag....

William-
Roger that. Sorry it wasn't better news, although you are right. Fake flags were made as a business by the G.I.'s, and particularly by the C.B.'s. Jerry Price wrote a very interesting article for Banzai magazine/newsletter on just this subject. I think if you Google search the author's name and the magazine, it will pop up for you. MikeB