A man in New York inherited a Yosegaki Hinomaru flag, also known as a fate 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 to restore the souvenir flag — 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 US Army boot camp at Camp Croft, South Carolina, then in the Philippines with the US Army’s 38th Infantry Division, known as like 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 didn’t talk openly about the war or his experiences during the war.
As a lifelong collector with an appreciation for the past, Stein was in the process of restoring the flag when the expert recommended he return it in 2017 after seeing news of a similar flag being returned to Japan.
Stein did research and found the Obon Society in Oregon.
It is a non-profit organization that facilitates family reconciliation by returning “non-biological human remains,” such as a flag, that were taken during wartime.
Many Japanese soldiers carried their country’s flags 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 trace the relatives and family of the original owners, I prepared the flag to be sent to them for an eventual return trip to Japan,” Stein said.
After a seven-year search, the Obon Society linked 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 organized a return ceremony with the whole family.
The man held a portrait of his father and mother – explaining that his mother waited her whole life for her husband to come home.
She passed away without ever being seen again, a representative from the Obon Society told Fox News Digital via email.
“After receiving the Yosegaki Hinomaru flag, the boy took it to the cemetery to be unfurled in front of his mother’s grave – to ‘show’ her that her husband had finally returned home.”
The representative noted, “These flags are considered ‘non-biological human remains’… as they evoke the same intensity and closure within the Japanese MIA family that the return of bones and teeth brings to American MIA families. ”
It’s the only memory this boy has of his father, according to Stars and Stripes.
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Image Source : nypost.com