Allied-Made "Banzai" Flags

[phild]

I would be a verified field made by GIs/Marines "fake" Japanese flag would be worth more than an original. They are certainly much rarer and every collection of Japanese flags would have to have at least one example if not several.


I was reading an account of Walt Disney and a buddy camo painting WWI German helmets and shooting a few holes in them to sell to doughboy replacements near or at the end of WWI. If one had one of those and it could be 100% verified (impossible I know) it would be worth several times over what a German painted WWI camo would be worth IMO.

[RonR]

Here is a fake flag that was brought back by US Navy Chief W.E. Gonterman, and is pictured as he "captured" it in one of several photo albums from his time in the Pacific.

............

[RonR]

ooo

[RonR]

oooo

[BruceP]

Incredable! over 8,000 troops incapacitated by malaria!!! Completely understandable, but you don't normally hear about that aspect of the Pacific war.

And to learn that the faking was being done that early in the war! Quite a surprise to me, although, in hindsight, knowing what we know about michevious youth - maybe not so surprising!.

[phild]

The worm has sort of turned with the flag posted by RonR. Given the photos of what seems to be the exact same flag, identified as a period faked souvenir example, how can we prove this is fake? We see always put under the gun to prove our items as original, but this could be difficult to prove as fake.

[GeorgeP]

If I am reading your post correctly, phild, I would think that in this case, the flag is without a doubt, a specimen fabricated for souvenir hunters. This is the classic "Tojo" flag, with many similar examples out there. Some with one ink stamp in the corner, others with two, some with none. All have the same overall style, with Hideki Tojo's "signature" at the bottom. Not to say that these are not collectable -- I personally think that every serious flag collector should have one of these examples in their collection. The above example with the pictures is in a league all its own. A very nice example.

Tom

[FrenchVolunteer]

Hi,

The worm has sort of turned with the flag posted by RonR. Given the photos of what seems to be the exact same flag, identified as a period faked souvenir example, how can we prove this is fake? We see always put under the gun to prove our items as original, but this could be difficult to prove as fake.

The use of mercurochrome is obvious here... It was the prelude to the pink smock, the pink flag !

Many thanks RonR for posting it and the pictures of it's "liberation".
It perfectly meets the infos collected in Richard B. Franck about the sailors being the "easy targets" for the local US soldiers fakers...

See You

Vince

[dragnet]

Ron, thanks for posting your flag and pictures Just a super piece of social/military history.

[Rob W.]

I sent those cartoons to a friend of mine who was a Marine in WWII and fought on Peleliu and Okinawa. Here is the email response he sent back to me.

"I went into a cave after tossing in a Fosfer grenade, and wide open with my Tommy, and when the smoke cleared I found a barrel full of new Japanese flags, so I took about a dozen and poked holes as I had shot the Nip and used Capuche for blood, and traded to a pilot for a 38 Smith and Western pistol, and took a row boat out to some ships and traded for food enough to feed our company. Fresh eggs, Frozen pork chops, and dehydrated potatoes, 3 cans fruit cocktail, and my buddies took one and made what they called raisenjack, (Booze) I was pretty popular, and I made the cooks fix the eggs the way my Marine buddies wanted them . I brought one of the real ones home, and one of my sons took it to school, and that was the last I saw of it. I still have 2 Samaria Swords, and 2 Rifles. and a hari-kari knife that I removed from a Japanese officer that had done himself in, and his, underlings beheaded him, but I got lots of gold teeth. I had my China pop make me a bracelet with the teeth . You may have seen it I hope you are well."
Semper Fi
Tom