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OBON SOCIETY Newsletter November 2024

Nov
15
thread
Scholar's Edition; Behind the ... Scholar's Edition; Behind the Scenes Analysis.
#flagreturn #obonsociety #pacificwar #ussmissouri #ww2

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【朝日新聞】宇治田原の堀口さんの「寄せ書き日の丸」　米国から80年ぶり返還／ "The 'Yosegaki Hinomaru' by Horiguchi from Ujitawara Returned from the U.S. After 80 Yea

Nov
1
thread
【朝日新聞】宇治田原の堀口さん... 【朝日新聞】宇治田原の堀口さん... 【朝日新聞】宇治田原の堀口さん...
　【京都】田原村（いまの宇治田原町）の堀口秋夫さんは太平洋戦争中の1944年12月8日、フィリピン・レイテ島で亡くなった。米兵が戦利品として米国に持ちさった堀口さんの「寄せ書き日の丸」が、返還活動をしている米国の団体から遺族のもとに80年ぶりに帰ってきた。
 
　秋夫さんのめい堀口あや子さん（76）と、あや子さんのいとこ松本健治さん（74）が宇治田原町役場で24日にあった返還式に出席し、秋夫さんが田原村から持っていった日の丸を受けとった。
 
　遺族の2人によると、日の丸には近所の69人の名前があるものの、当時を知る人は亡くなっているため、秋夫さんのことでわかっていることは少ない。それでも、あや子さんの父が弟の早世を生涯悔やんでいたことや、もしものことがあれば家族が不幸になると考えて秋夫さんは独身のままだったといった記憶が親戚のあいだに残っている。
 
　松本さんは式典で「不幸な歴史の教訓をけっして忘れず、平和の尊さを訴えたい」と話した。取材には「80年たって初めて秋夫さんが家に帰ってきました。言いようのない思いがあります」と答えた。
 
　遺留品の返還活動を2009年にはじめた米国オレゴン州の非営利団体OBON（オボン）ソサエティ（レックス・ジークさんと敬子・ジークさん夫婦が代表）から頼まれて、府遺族会が宇治田原町の遺族を突きとめた。
 
#army #flagreturn #friendship #japanesflag #missouri #nonbiologicalhumanremains #obonsociety #obonソサエティ #pacificwar #reconciliation #soldier #ww2 #yosegakihinomaru #京都府 #大東亜戦争 #寄せ書き日の丸 #日章旗返還 #靖国神社

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【NHK-WORLD】WWII Japanese flags given to group for return to soldiers' families

Oct
4
thread
【NHK-WORLD】WWII...
WWII Japanese flags given to group for return to soldiers' families
Three Japanese flags kept at the Battleship Missouri Memorial in Hawaii have been donated to a group working to return World War Two relics to families of Japanese servicemen.
The flags were entrusted to the memorial at Pearl Harbor by former US servicemen and their families. A ceremony to transfer the flags to the OBON SOCIETY, a US based organization that returns war relics to families, was held at the memorial on Thursday.
The Japanese flags were inscribed with signatures and messages by family and friends, then given to departing servicemen. Men carried such flags into battle as good luck amulets.
The president of the Battleship Missouri Memorial, Michael Carr, referred to next year as the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two.
Carr said, "This flag transfer becomes a symbol of our continued commitment to ensuring that the lessons of World War Two are never forgotten, that we strive for a future built on peace, mutual respect and understanding."
The co-founder of OBON SOCIETY, Rex Ziak, said: "This is the ship that's going around the world as the vessel that brought Japan to its knees." He went on to say, "now their thoughts have changed their feelings, and it is a simple unconditional friendship, the unconditional peace between US and Japan."
 
#army #closure #flagreturn #friendship #japanesflag #missouri #nonbiologicalhumanremains #obonsociety #obonソサエティ #pacificwar #peace #soldier #ww2 #yosegakihinomaru #大東亜戦争 #寄せ書き日の丸 #日章旗返還 #靖国神社

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【NHK・動画】戦艦ミズーリ記念館の日章旗 米の団体に引き渡し 持ち主調査へ／Japanese flag at Battleship Missouri Memorial Museum handed over to U.S. organization to investigate its owner.

Oct
4
thread
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/h... https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20241004/k10014601081000.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawF-ZK5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHZFIPK6AhqgItNJ1HylCkVxEwDu8_kkLMqtf1S8_otCZWBN56P62gOVH4g_aem_ryN9H2A0_FhuHq_2XRkjyw
来年で第2次世界大戦の終結から80年となるのを前に、アメリカ ハワイの戦艦ミズーリ記念館に所蔵されていた日章旗3枚が3日、遺族に日章旗などを返還する活動をしている団体に引き渡されました。
 
 
引き渡されたのは、ハワイの戦艦ミズーリ記念館に所蔵されてきた寄せ書き入りの3枚の日章旗です。
日章旗は3日、遺族に戦時中の日章旗などを返還する活動をしているアメリカの非営利団体「OBONソサエティ」の関係者に手渡されました。
 
このうち戦艦ミズーリの元乗組員が持っていたという旗には「三原青年団」や「黒岩泉君」と読める名前などが記されています。
 
別の旗には「祝入団 関野勇君」と読める名前が書かれています。
 
戦艦ミズーリ記念館のマイケル・カー館長は「第2次世界大戦の教訓を忘れず、平和に基づく未来を目指すための取り組みを続ける決意の象徴となる」としています。
 
「OBONソサエティ」のレックス・ジークさんは「旗が寄贈されたことは無条件の平和と友情の証となった」と話し、今後、旗の持ち主について調査を進めたいとしています。
 
#army #closure #flagreturn #friendship #japanesflag #missouri #nonbiologicalhumanremains #obonsociety #obonソサエティ #pacificwar #peace #soldier #ww2 #yosegakihinomaru #大東亜戦争 #寄せ書き日の丸 #日章旗返還 #靖国神社

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【BSS山陰放送】ー戦争に引き裂かれた親子　息子が生まれた日に出征し満州で戦死した父親…初めての遺品が約80年の時をこえて息子に返還ー"A Father Who Died in Battle in Manchuria ... His First Keepsake''

Sep
27
thread
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWkAKe1YP5c
【BSS山陰放送】令和６年８月２５日に鳥取県日南の日南町役場で執り行われました「火山行一命日章旗返還」について「BSS山陰放送が」番組を放送して下さいました。
 

ー戦争に引き裂かれた親子　息子が生まれた日に出征し満州で戦死した父親…初めての遺品が約80年の時をこえて息子に返還ー
#army #closure #flagreturn #japanesflag #japanflag #nonbiologicalhumanremains #obonsociety #obonソサエティ #pacificwar #peace #soldier #ww2 #yosegakihinomaru #大東亜戦争 #日章旗返還 #靖国神社

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【日南町広報誌】「火山行一命日章旗返還」

Sep
24
thread
【日南町広報誌】「火山行一命日...
令和６年８月２５日鳥取県日野郡日南町にて執り行われました「火山行一命日章旗返還」につきまして日南町の広報誌に記事が掲載されました。
#army #closure #flagreturn #japanesflag #mediacoverage #nonbiologicalhumanremains #obonsociety #obonソサエティ #pacificwar #peace #soldier #ww2 #yosegakihinomaru #大東亜戦争 #日章旗返還 #護国神社 #靖国神社

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【Smithsonian Magazine】A Japanese Soldier’s Son Receives a Memento of His Father, Who Was Killed During World War II

Sep
23
thread
After inheriting the flag from h... After inheriting the flag from his grandfather, Scott Stein decided to return it to the descendants of its original owner. Tsukasa Hiyama, who is holdi... Tsukasa Hiyama, who is holding the flag, poses with his family and community members during the return ceremony. Tsukasa Hiyama unfurls the fl... Tsukasa Hiyama unfurls the flag at his mother's grave.
A Japanese Soldier’s Son Receives a Memento of His Father, Who Was Killed During World War II

The so-called good-luck flag, which hung on an American veteran’s wall for many years, returned home last month after nearly eight decades
 
On the day Asae Hiyama gave birth to a son, her husband left to serve in the Imperial Japanese Army.
 
It was the summer of 1943, and the young couple had been married for a year. Asae waited dutifully until 1945, when she learned that her husband, Yukikazu Hiyama, had died in China. Officials said that he had been killed in combat, but Asae never received his remains or any of his possessions.
 
Without any material confirmation of Yukikazu’s death, Asae felt as if he had vanished. Their son, Tsukasa Hiyama, grew up knowing very little about his father, though he thought of him often.
 
“Since childhood, I often imagined what my father was like,” Tsukasa, now 81, tells the Washington Post’s Cathy Free. “What kind of person was he? What did he smell like?”
 
These questions lingered, but Tsukasa received few answers. He and his mother rarely spoke about Yukikazu. At the same time, Asae seemed to believe that he might one day walk through the door. Up until her death in 2000, she never received the closure she needed.
 
Then, in April, Tsukasa got a phone call. Researchers had identified a Japanese flag that had belonged to Yukikazu. They had been working for years to track down Tsukasa, who had never possessed a memento of his father.
 

During World War II, many Japanese soldiers carried good-luck flags, which featured handwritten well wishes from friends and loved ones. They varied in size but were usually small enough for their owners to fold up and wear inside their uniforms. They also happened to be an item that Allied soldiers collected as battlefield souvenirs.
 
One of those soldiers was Bernard Stein, who served in the Philippines with the United States Army’s 38th Infantry Division. When he returned from the Pacific, he brought Yukikazu’s flag home with him and hung it up in his den.
 
“He never talked about his wartime experiences,” Bernard’s grandson, Scott Stein, tells Stars and Stripes’ Seth Robson and Hana Kusumoto. “He must have seen some intense stuff in the war, but there were no mental health things when he returned. He just kept it bottled up.”
 
Scott has distinct memories of seeing the flag on the wall as a small child. He wondered where it came from, but like Tsukasa, he rarely asked about such matters. Still, he sensed that the flag was important to his grandfather.
 
“I would stare at it in fascination,” Scott tells Fox 5 New York’s Jennifer Williams. “My grandfather told me one day that it would be mine.”
 
When Bernard died, Scott inherited the flag, which he initially hung on his own wall. Eventually, however, he took the war souvenir down and stored it away. “I started to realize a while back that maybe it wasn’t the best home decor,” he tells the Post. As time passed, he also realized that he didn’t want to pass the flag down to the next generation. Instead, he wanted to send it home.
 
Around 2017, Scott learned about the OBON Society, an Oregon-based organization that works to return missing good-luck flags and other belongings to the families of Japanese soldiers. Since it launched in 2009, the group has identified the rightful owners of more than 600 flags.
 
When the researchers received Scott’s flag, they spotted numerous clues: Yukikazu’s full name is written on it, as are the names of his well-wishers. Still, it took them a long time to find Tsukasa, who lives in Tottori, Japan’s least populous prefecture. He has no siblings, as his mother never had any other children.
 
“She never remarried because she never believed her husband was dead,” Rex Ziak, the OBON Society’s president and co-founder, tells Smithsonian magazine. “She always expected him to come home to her and held that hope until her final breath.”
 
At a ceremony last month, Tsukasa accepted his father’s flag. He invited dozens of friends, family and community members to witness the return. Some of them had their own connections to the artifact, as their ancestors’ names are featured on it, too.
 
“The return of my father’s flag has brought a significant sense of closure,” Tsukasa tells the Post. “When I held the flag in my hands, it felt as if I could sense my father’s warmth for the first time.”
 
He also brought the flag to his mother’s gravesite, where he unfurled it as his wife and family looked on. After all these years, a memento of Asae’s husband had finally come home.
#army #closure #flagreturn #japanesflag #nonbiologicalhumanremains #obonsociety #obonソサエティ #pacificwar #soldier #ww2 #yosegakihinomaru #大東亜戦争 #寄せ書き日の丸 #日章旗返還 #靖国神社 #鳥取県

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【Air University Public Affairs】Air University repatriates WWII era Japanese flag

Sep
18
thread
Col. Ryan Stebb... Col. Ryan Stebbins, the 42nd Air Base Wing’s Force Support Professional Development School director, and Japanese Col. Hirokazu Honda, an Air War College student, pose for a photo with a Japanese “Good Luck Flag” at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama, Sept. 16, 2024. The Yosegaki Hinomaru (Good Luck Flag) was commonly carried by Japanese soldiers in WWII while going into battle. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Evan Lichtenhan) A portrait of U.S. Army Cpl. Ar... A portrait of U.S. Army Cpl. Arthur G. Thompson. Thompson brought home a Japanese flag that he found after the Battle of Luzon in the Philippines, that is now in the process of being repatriated. (Courtesy photo) A World War II ... A World War II era Japanese “Good Luck Flag” displayed at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. Sept. 16, 2024. The Yosegaki Hinomaru (Good Luck Flag) was commonly carried by Japanese soldiers in WWII while going into battle. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Evan Lichtenhan)
MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. --  Like many World War II veterans, U.S. Army Cpl. Arthur G. Thompson, serving with the 117th Engineer Regiment, returned home with souvenirs from his time at war. Among them was a Japanese flag that he found after the Battle of Luzon in the Philippines.
 
As years passed, Thompson often expressed his desire to find the family of the Japanese solider who carried it into battle, but not knowing where to begin, it continued to be passed down for two generations, and has most recently been in the possession of his granddaughter Sarah and her husband, Col. Ryan Stebbins, the Eaker Center for Leadership Development Force Support Professional Development School director.
 
“Since I am the only service member in the family, the flag was given to us,” said Stebbins. “When we got stationed at Air University, Sarah decided to contact the historian to see what he could recommend with the flag. After considering many options, it became clear that we wanted to honor Cpl. Thompson’s wishes and try to repatriate it back to Japan.”
 
Although the decision to repatriate was fairly easy, locating the recipient proved to be a challenge. Mr. David Bonner, the Air University historian responsible for coordinating the repatriation, met with Japanese Col. Hirokazu Honda, an Air War College student, to translate the information on the flag. 
 
“I am very honored to join this project,” said Honda “Because for us, our military members, at that time we were enemies. He served for his country, same as us. It has special meaning, that flag, and it has a meaning of good luck, both in war and a wish to come home safely. The war was a hard time, but this flag coming back to his society, it will be a very happy day.”
 
The flag was identified as a “Good Luck Flag.” During the Pacific War, it was common for Japanese soldiers to carry a Yosegaki Hinomaru (Good Luck Flag) or a Senninbari (Thousand Stitch Band) when going into combat. The four kanji characters at the top of the flag are roughly translated as “May your fortunes be everlasting.”
 
Honda was able to quickly identify the soldier as Shinyo Huruyasiki, and noted that his home in Japan was easy to identify as his name is unique to a specific region in his homeland. Once identified, Bonner found a nonprofit that assists with the repatriation process.
 
“I will be sending the flag to The Obon Society,” said Bonner. “It’s a nonprofit organization that specializes in repatriating Japanese war memorabilia. They were recommended by both the National Infantry Museum and the Japanese Embassy.” 
 
Thompson’s family feels grateful that after nearly 80 years, the family of Shinyo Huruyasiki will once again possess an important and special piece of history.
 
#AirUniversity #army #closure #flagreturn #nonbiologicalhumanremains #obonsociety #pacificwar #peace #soldier #veteran #ww2 #yosegakihinomaru #大東亜戦争 #自衛隊

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【滋賀県】滋賀県三日月知事が定例記者会見

Sep
17
thread
【滋賀県】滋賀県三日月知事が定...
滋賀県三日月知事が定例記者会見にて訪米視察時にＯＢＯＮソサエティ本部を訪問された時のことをお話しされています。

ーーOBONソサエティとの交流、これはもちろん滋賀県だけにとどまるものではありませんが、戦争遺留品を返還する活動をしていただいている、させていただいていることを、ぜひ今後さらに促進させていくために、さらにどういったことをしなければならないのかなというような有意義な意見交換をすることができました。この日だけでも数点、レックスさん御夫妻のもとに全米から寄せ書き・日の丸等が届けられる。多い時だと、年間数百点届けられるものをどのように還していこうかと、御本人を特定して、御遺族の御理解を得てと、ここにはやはり米国各州のそして国内各都道府県の協力が重要なのではないかと、こういったことで一致をいたしまして、今後、全国知事会などでもこういった取組についてさらに理解が広がるように努めていきたいということをこの場で表明させていただきましたので、そういったことに繋げていきたいと考えております。ーー
#army #closure #flagreturn #japanesflag #japanflag #nonbiologicalhumanremains #obonsociety #obonソサエティ #pacificwar #peace #soldier #ww2 #yosegakihinomaru #大東亜戦争 #寄せ書き日の丸 #日章旗返還 #滋賀県 #靖国神社

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【ＦＯＸ】Grandson of World War II veteran reunites souvenir flag with Japanese family

Aug
28
thread
Scott Stein of New York, show... Scott Stein of New York, shown above with his son, wanted to reunite his grandfather's flag from World War II with the family of the original owner. The family of a Japanese solid... The family of a Japanese solider brought the flag to the burial site of the soldier's mother. (The Obon Society)
A New York man spent seven years working with a nonprofit to find the family of a Japanese soldier
 
A man in New York inherited a "Yosegaki Hinomaru" banner, also known as a good luck flag, from his grandfather — who served the United States during World War II.
 
Scott Stein told Fox News Digital in an email that he originally planned on having the souvenir flag restored — but after speaking with an expert, he decided to return the flag to its rightful owner.
 
His grandfather, Bernard Stein, served in World War II between 1942 and 1945 at the U.S. Army boot camp at Camp Croft, South Carolina, then in the Philippines with the U.S. Army’s 38th Infantry Division, known as the Avengers of Bataan, he said.
 
"This flag hung proudly in my grandfather's house for many years, and I was always fascinated by it as a child," Stein said.
 
Like most veterans, he said, his grandfather did not speak openly about the war or his wartime experiences.
 
As a lifelong collector with an appreciation for the past, Stein was in the process of having the flag restored when the expert recommended he return it in 2017 after he saw news of a similar flag being brought back to Japan.
 
Stein did research and found the Obon Society in Oregon. 
 
It's a nonprofit that facilitates the reconciliation of families by returning "non-biological human remains," such as a flag, that were taken during times of war.
 
Many Japanese soldiers carried their country’s flags inscribed with names and messages from loved ones for good luck, as Stars and Stripes noted. 
 
"After initial contact and correspondence with the Obon Society and learning of their mission to find and locate the relatives and family of the original owners, I prepared the flag to be shipped to them for an eventual return trip to Japan," Stein said.
 
After a seven-year search, the Obon Society connected the flag that had been carried in battle to a soldier named Yukikazu Hiyama — who died in 1945.
 
The flag was then given to the fallen soldier’s son. He hosted a returning ceremony with the entire family.
 
The man carried a portrait of his father and of his mother — explaining his mother waited all her life for her husband to return home. 
 
She passed away without ever seeing him again, a representative from the Obon Society told Fox News Digital via email.
 
"After receiving the Yosegaki Hinomaru flag, the son carried it to the cemetery to unfurl in front of his mother’s grave — to 'show’ her that her husband had finally returned home."
 
 
The representative noted, "These flags are regarded as ‘non-biological human remains' … since they evoke the same intensity and closure within the Japanese MIA family that the return of bone and teeth brings to American MIA families." 
 
#army #closure #flagreturn #japanflag #media #mediacoverage #navy #nonbiologicalhumanremains #obonsociety #pacificwar #peace #soldier #veteran #yosegakihinomaru #大東亜戦争 #英霊 #護国神社 #靖国神社

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