Interesting Japanese Flags

[Papa Nambu]

Hello everyone. I'm new here, seems kind of strange I joined "Wehrmacht-Awards" for the Japanese forum, but after searching around, this seems like a great forum with some very knowledgeable and friendly collectors.

My grandfather was in WW2 and brought back a Japanese flag, nothing special, but it did get me started collecting back when I was a teenager in the 1980s. While I was in the Marines, I was stationed in Okinawa for a year and became even more interested after visiting some battlefields and finding a few artifacts myself (including a live Type 97 grenade, which I still have minus the explosives).

I've bought and sold a lot of flags over the years, and I'd like to share some of the better ones I have currently. These aren't the usual collection of signatures.

Flag #1



Flag #2




Flag #3




This flag has an interesting list of places that even I can read with my "survival level" Japanese. ""Java, Solomon, New Guinea, Sumatra, Guadal Canal, Morotai, Singapore, Borneo, Palau, Yap"

Flag #4



This one says something like "Destroy America and England" at the top. I think it's signed by someone important, but I can only read very basic kanji.

[Stu W]

Hello and Welcome,

You will indeed find some very nice folks here in the Japanese sub-forum.

Great looking yosegaki hinomaru. I'm a flag newbie myself and always enjoy viewing those of other members. Thank you for showing them.

Kind regards,
Stu

PS: Have you met Mike Bortner yet? He, and others such as Nick Komiya, are a great help here with translation and authentication. If you have not done so already have a look at his site.

http://www.gethistorytoday.com/

[Staldion]

I agree with Stu, sorry that I can't help with the kanjis, but your flags are very nice.
Welcome on board!

Best regards,
Mathieu.

[Nick Komiya]

Flag 4 is in the hand of Lt General Shigeharu Suematsu, who as commander of the 114th Inft Division took part in the notorious taking of Nanking in 1937. He retired in 1939 and died in Aug. 1960.

[thor202]

Beautiful flags,congrats.And welcome to the forum.

[Papa Nambu]

Thanks everyone, I'll have more things to share with you soon.

Mr. Komiya, thanks for the information about LtGen. Suematsu.

[Papa Nambu]

Anyone interested in doing a full translation of these for me? I know it's a lot, so I'd be willing to pay someone for their time. PM me if interested.

[Papa Nambu]

I'm going to continue working on translating these myself then. I'll update my progress here for those of you who may be interested. (I could still really use some help with that signature on Flag #2 if anyone fluent in Japanese wants to help)

[Papa Nambu]

贈神谷一男 Presented to Kamiya Kazuo

日本晴れの A clear day
日の丸の下 Under the hinomaru (flag of Japan)

[Stu W]

Anyone interested in doing a full translation of these for me? I know it's a lot, so I'd be willing to pay someone for their time. PM me if interested.

Have you tried Mike from Post #2 above?

[Papa Nambu]

Have you tried Mike from Post #2 above?

I had planned to, and I did end up buying his book. But since that post I have been doing a lot of translating myself and learning a lot in the process, so I think I'll continue. If I hit a dead end, then I know where to go now. Or if I get another flag to translate. All of these I currently own I have already at least partially translated myself.

I also had hesitated because I have no idea what kind of prices he's asking. Maybe he should post some samples to give people an idea of what the price ranges are and what kind of service you get. I'm always hesitant to even inquire about a service or item when the price is a total unknown.

Anyway, I may still end up trying him, but for now I'm enjoying this.




I have noticed I can't go back and edit old posts here (in this case to add translations) so I'll wait until I finish a flag to post updates to keep from cluttering things up.