Posted on 08/16/2017 11:15:29 AM PDT by re_tail20
WWII veteran and Marine Marvin Strombo has returned a Japanese soldier's battle flag to the man's family after Strombo found the flag on the soldier 73 years earlier during the 1944 Battle of Saipan.
Strombo, who was 20 years old when he found the flag on Sadao Yasue, had promised the dead soldier he would return the flag to his family, but for years displayed it in a glass case inside his home, The Washington Post reported. The flag had about 180 signatures of family members and others in Yasue’s community, and was meant to deliver good luck in battle.
Strombo traveled to a remote farming village in Japan Tuesday to return the soldier's flag. The trip was made with help from the Obon Society, an Oregon-based nonprofit that works to bring about reconciliation between wartime enemies.
Yasue’s younger brother, now 89, and sister, 95, accepted the flag gratefully...
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
Applying the Left’s criteria, he’s a Tojo Sympathizer.
Guess it didn’t provide the dead man with so much good luck in battle....
I have my FIL’s Nippon flag from Iwo Jima including small blood spot. I don’t think I will return it.
Gracious act of kindness. Odds are that Japanese soldier was conscripted and serving just in hopes of making it back home to the farm. Same as a lot of American soldiers.
What the Japanese Military did was horrific especially to our POWs. The US Marines,Army,Sailors and Airmen gave all to protect freedom and have no obligation to do anything for a defeated enemy nor their families. That being said,I would return the flag also. Hypothetically, I would not overturn society desecrating and shaming everything Japanese, basically spitting on them at every turn with the ultimate goal to erase them from history. This is very similar to what we are doing to the South and the Confederacy.
When I visited Normandy a few years ago, I went to the American Cemetery, and I wasn’t even aware there was a cemetery for the German soldiers who fell there, and it was very impressive, I must say.
My grandfather had a Japanese battleship’s battle flag [huge]. Nobody knew that he had it until after he died
It came from the battleship Nagato, the last Japanese battleship afloat at the end of the war. It had been Yamatoto’s flagship at the attack of Pearl Harbor.
After the surrender, my grandfather was given command of the ship to make it seaworthy enough to be sailed to Bikini Atoll. Once there, it was sunk in the atomic tests.
We contacted the Japanese Embassy and repatriated the flag. They were very grateful.
....I have my FIL’s Nippon flag from Iwo Jima including small blood spot. I don’t think I will return it...
I found one of those things while my Dad’s belongings brought back from the South Pacific. That, along with some unopened OD colored Lucky Strike cigarettes letters from my Mother to him, one from him to her telling her he quit gambling, and a Nambu Pistol. I originally saw them when I was a kid.
They will remain with us.
What! You didn't list it on Ebay? I'm shocked! [/sarcasm]
No doubt it would have brought you a small fortune.
I guess we should all hang our heads in shame that we unjustly defeated the poor Japanese..........
Clarification: Nagato (and Admiral Yamamoto) were not part of the attack force that went to Pearl Harbor, they remained in the Japanese home waters. But you can certainly say Nagato was Yamamoto’s flagship “at the time of” the Pearl Harbor attack, and he issued the order for the attacks from Nagato (while at anchor in Japanese waters).
p.s. What a very cool story about your grandfather and the Nagato !!
Forgetting and forgiving are two different things, I agree that we should never forget it.
Ed
ping
My Uncle was assigned to a PT boat squadron somewhere around the Solomon Island,just after Pearl Harbor was attacked. He was 17 years old.I found that out after having to do a classroom report regarding WW2. He didn’t have much regard for the Japanese, even in his later years.
Real class ya got, there...
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