Japanese Flag from WWII

At our last artist group meeting, I did a show and tell of a family artifact, which recently came into my possession.  It was something I was wondering about, having only seen it once after my mother died.  She had saved this memento from my father's days in the Japanese navy during World War 2.  My father had discovered this after she died, while going through her things.  He was touched that she had saved this.  After he died in 2015, I never saw it again and reconciled that it was probably lost forever.

It was returned to me recently.  His second wife had been going through the process of cleaning out his belongings and this was one of the items returned to me.  Out of all the things my father had, this was the most precious to me.

A heartwarming article in the Nichi Bei Weekly described a couple's devotion to returning these  Japanese flags back to their families which were taken from the bodies of Japanese soldiers during WWII.  These flags called hinomaru yosegaki were decorated with signatures and messages of good luck that were written by family and community members and given to soldiers before leaving for the war.  The couple, Rex and Keiko Ziak have repatriated more than 100 flags to Japan.

The flag was given to my father before he went off to war.  It was signed by his friends (I guess) and he supposedly carried the flag with him to war.  Sadly, I don't read Japanese so I don't know what the message says at the very top.

Also, included was a photograph of his fellow soldiers.  My father is the one in the middle, lying down.  Lots of smiles and laughter, I assume they were all having a light moment of clowning around.