Lt. Gen. Baron Tokugawa signed flag

[Nick Komiya]

At the moment we don't know anything about what happened to the owner of the flag. The one ending up in Manchuria was the colonel who made the parachute drop, not Saito.
However, ironically, I now know what happened to the owner of the flag's kid sister. She married and changed her name to Michiko Ishii. Born in 1933, she would have still been in elementary school when her brother went to war. She graduated from a pharmaceutical college in 1956 and married a pharmacist. Her husband entered politics and became a member of the Saitama Prefectural Parliament, for which Michiko's father served as chairman as we all know. But her husband died during his tenure, and Michiko entered politics in 1975 to carry on the family tradition. She rose to become a congress woman in the upper house of the national diet, served in the cabinet as the Chief of the Environmental Agency in 1996. And here she is at the time of being awarded the Rising Sun First Class in 2008.
It looks like all the clout the father had went to support his daughter, which probably means the son did not survive the war.
The best way to find out about the owner of the flag is to research the father or his sister. They would have mentioned his fate somewhere.　Of course, you could also always ask her directly, she lives in Inaricho Hannou-shi, Saitama Prefecture.

[Papa Nambu]

There's one more Saito who signed the flag, looks like Denjiro Saito (to the lower left of the sun circle).

I'm sure Yoshikou (or Houkou?) would be proud of his little sister.

[Nick Komiya]

I bet he would not believe his kid sister won the Rising Sun 1st class. Yes, Denjiro is correct, but I have nothing of interest on him. The size of the signature and the position indicates a junior member of the Saito family. The other man with the Kao looks to be a promising figure. I know he was a chief of something, but unfortunately neither his title nor the second character of the name is legible to me at this time. The other small names on the bottom left are all juniors, one of them is a scholar that wrote about the post war cultural scene of that area, but no big fish. Anyway congratulations for a great find that links Japan's aviation history with a family saga that allowed a woman to achieve a family's ambition of generations.

[petopoint]

Right you are

These days not all Japanese militaria in the USA is a "bring back". I buy a lot of things directly from Japanese dealers and collectors (I especially like antique dealers who don't specialize in militaria, get some great deals from them now and then) and do quite a bit of searching the antique and flea markets of the Tokyo area myself once or twice a year.

However I did put in a few years in the USMC many years ago, so I guess you can say it ended up in a US serviceman's hands.

So true, that's great that you can get these items from the original owners.
You can't get a better background on items like that.
Peto at point

[Nick Komiya]

Papa, next time you visit Tokyo, visit Tokorozawa and see the Saito family home, which is a historical monument. The Saito clan were powerful war lords since the 16th century, and even Emperor Meiji stayed at the Saito home for a night in Tokorozawa on his way to see maneuvers of the Imperial Guards in April 1883. The head of the Saito family then was Yosouji Saito, who worked with Tokujiro to promote democracy in the 1880s. The current owner of the house is Takeji Saito斉藤武司、the 16th generation of the head of Saitos. He is a CPA and runs an accounting firm.
Here is the house and the room where the emperor stayed

[Nick Komiya]

And of course how to get there. You can use Seibu Ikebukuro Line or Seibu Shinjuku Line and get off at Tokorozawa. There used to be weekend flea markets out there somewhere, so you might be able to combine business and pleasure. Of course if you go to the Araiyakushi flea market, it is the same train too.

[Papa Nambu]

I was considering taking a look at the Aviation Museum out there on my next visit, now I'll definitely go and see the Saito house.

[Nick Komiya]

So now the rest of the research on the flag is in your hands. Go there and ask Takeji.