Posted on 09/06/2017 6:38:36 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Marvin Strombo, who had taken the calligraphy-covered Japanese flag from a dead soldier at World War II island battlefield 73 years ago, returned it Tuesday to the family of Sadao Yasue. They had never gotten his body or — until that moment — anything else of his.
Yasue and Tatsuya’s sister Sayoko Furuta, 93...covered her face with both hands and wept silently as Tatsuya placed the flag on her lap.
...
The flag’s white background is filled with signatures of 180 friends and neighbors in this tea-growing mountain village of Higashishirakawa, wishing Yasue’s safe return. The signatures helped Strombo find its rightful owners.
“Good luck forever at the battlefield,” a message on it reads. Looking at the names and their handwriting, Tatsuya Yasue clearly recalls their faces and friendship with his brother.
...
The return of the flag brings closure, the 89-year-old farmer and younger brother of Sadao Yasue told The Associated Press at his 400-year-old house on Monday. “It’s like the war has finally ended and my brother can come out of limbo.”
...
He had the flag hung in a glass-fronted gun cabinet in his home in Montana for years, a topic of conversation for visitors. He was in the battles of Saipan, Tarawa and Tinian, which chipped away at Japan’s control of islands in the Pacific and paved the way for U.S. victory.
In 2012, he was connected to the Obon Society, an Oregon-based nonprofit that helps U.S. veterans and their descendants return Japanese flags to the families of fallen soldiers. The group’s research traced it to the village of 2,300 people in central Japan by analyzing family names.
Tuesday’s handover meant a closure for Strombo too. “It means so much to me and the family to get the flag back and move on,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at marinecorpstimes.com ...
US soldiers took those flags after great personal danger, prying them from the hands of Japanese soldiers they had just killed.
To give a flag back, even 70 years later, speaks to the character of those who do it.
As to your situation, yes that flag would have been a great piece of family history for you. I would have kept it too.
Opposites? No more so than Exxon-Mobil and BP are opposites. They're virtually indistinguishable. They're rivals simply because bloody-handed leftist tyrants will tolerate no competition.
“The Japanese of WWII were very racist.”
—
So were we.
.
And “yes”, both are very much opposite to FREEDOM.
And we were out killing “Japs” and “Krauts”.
That’s the way it is when you’re trying to dehumanize your enemy in order to make killing them easier.
“I’ve not come across that with any of the veterans I know, was wondering if this was a little revisionism on the part of the author.”
There could be some revisionism, or it could be old men doing whatever possible to deal with the facts of their youth.
They did and witnessed terrible things that they never would have imagined outside of hell itself. I can not begin to imagine what they think of in their private moments.
A neighbor of mine, gone 20 years now, brought back many souvenirs from his time in George’s 3rd army.
The first rifle I ever fired was a Mauser he took from a Wermacht soldier he killed.
He brought back several firearms and some posters and banners.
He viewed his souvenirs as spoils of war taken in combat.
He never hated the men of the Wermacht but despised the SS.
Thank you.
Don't expect logic from liberals. It is all about f e e e e l i n g s
I have a sword that my dad got from a dead Japanese Officer during the Battle for Manila. Give it back not on your life!
Beautiful piece of family history.
I just know you treasure it
The battle of Manila was brutal as the US did not use artillery early on because they wanted to save the unique architecture of the “Pearl of the Orient”.
Many American soldiers died because of that decision.
>>Do you notice that showing compassion for those who fought on the losing side, giving their lives to defend their country, is seen as a good thing, except when we’re talking about Confederates?
Mexico still won’t return the Texas flag from the Alamo
http://www.expressnews.com/sa300/article/Texans-have-long-sought-Alamo-flag-11732935.php
Texans have tried for decades to secure the return from Mexico of a silk banner long associated with the 1836 siege and Battle of the Alamo.
...The latest effort to bring home the 4-by-3-foot New Orleans Greys banner comes from U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, who announced in July that he included language in a foreign relations bill that urges the U.S. State Department to renew talks with Mexico for the Alamo flag’s return...
...Claude D’Unger, an oil industry consultant who helped try to have the flag returned in 1986 for the Texas sesquicentennial, told the Express-News in 2011 that members of Congress sought to have it displayed at the Institute of Texan Cultures after Mexican officials raised concern that an Alamo exhibition would spawn demonstrations or rioting in Mexico...
...Under President Harry S. Truman, with the approval of Congress, the United States returned more than 70 flags to Mexico in 1947 and 1950 that had been seized about 100 years earlier during the U.S.-Mexican War. Despite recent tensions between the two nations and President Donald Trump’s proposal to build a wall along the Rio Grande, to be funded by Mexico, Gray said she believes exchanging the 1830s flags on both sides of the border, through a mutual act of repatriation, would foster reconciliation and goodwill, and promote national pride in both countries.
“I think enough time has gone by that we should give the flags back,” ...
I wish that I had talked less and listened more the single time he was discussing it, but at 16 (or so) for me there were always going to be more conversations, always would be plenty of chances and plenty of time. An opportunity lost, but a good lesson learned, and perhaps that's what he was aiming for, in retrospect.
I think that the best term - mine, not his - for his feelings towards the German people would be "respect".
The few things that he brought home were quietly treasured. When asked about them, he just said, "Meh, everyone got one.", or something noncommittal.
That’s the way it is when you’re trying to dehumanize your enemy in order to make killing them easier.Based on some of the things I've read, I'd say the Japanese did a pretty good job of dehumanizing themselves.
Forced slave-labor, prisoner attrocities, etc. They were the ones wildly mistreating their enemies, both soldier and civilian.
Oh, some of them were absolute MONSTERS, particularly Japanese Unit 731 and the rape of Nanking.
Prior to my late father in law’s passing, his wished for the return of a Japanese Officer’s sword he collected from battle to the officer’s family.
My own father who had served in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam never had any of these souvenirs. He also would not allow any of the men under his command to take them either. He had seen too many of them booby trapped and was more concerned with his safety and the lives of his men.
Ditto.
We did that for a century.
What's going on now may just be a blip.
If it is, I hope we don't go back to maligning abolitionists and supporters of Reconstruction, the way we used to.
You make a good point. Consider John Brown. He’s a complex character. Yet, to cut to the bottom line, he was a terrorist.
He makes a good history lesson.
But, what’s fair is fair. Shouldn’t this statue be taken down or at least covered in burlap.
https://kansascitylens.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/dsc_0415.jpg
That generation was still the old breed.
We were attacked, the higher ups decided where to fight and they went, without question.
My great uncle once introduced me to a slightly built man who worked for him. Fellow looked like the accountant he was instead of a war veteran.
The young fellow worked part time at my great uncle’s hardware company. He walked into work two days after the US declared war and turned in his notice, he had joined the army. He was 15 and had lied about his age.
The old breed.
One man in our area brought back the ultimate prize.
A beautiful blonde German wife!
She took to life on the farm like she was born for it.
She immersed herself in American culture and history. She ended up knowing more about our history and government than most teachers.
Along the way she produced 9 patriotic American children.
I was quiet in my youth. I listened more than I talked.
My neighbor had been wounded in Sicily and sent to England to recover. He was sent to France shortly after D Day and ended up in Pattons 3rd army.
He fought across France, to Belgium and into Czechoslovakia before ending up in Germany with the occupation forces.
He said of the countries he went through the Germans were more like Americans than any other European.
While the French were standing around waiting for someone to fix their country the Germans started cleaning up on their own. Without orders or direction they organized their own local work parties and saved what was usable and carted off what was destroyed.
He said they had a pride that was equal to Americans.
They may have lost the war but they had not lost their pride.
Yes, he respected them.
-—The Japanese of WWII were very racist.-—
Not much has changed...
Japanese are very xenophobic...
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