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WWII Vet Returns Flag Taken From Fallen Japanese Soldier In 1944

A World War II veteran from the Inland Northwest traveled to a village in rural Japan Tuesday to personally return a "good luck flag" he picked up from the body of a fallen Japanese soldier on the Pacific island of Saipan in the summer of 1944.

"Taking the flag kind of bothered me because it is so special,” said Marvin Strombo, 93.

Recently, Strombo contacted an Astoria, Oregon-based nonprofit called the Obon Society to see if they could track down relatives of the flag's original owner. The clues were in calligraphy—signed well wishes written on the white spaces of the Japanese flag by friends and family.

Strombo and his escorts received a warm welcome and profuse thanks from the fallen soldier's brother, sister and descendants at the family home in central Japan's Gifu Prefecture.

https://youtu.be/9KL9If-okeU

Obon Society co-founder Rex Ziak said the Yasue family did not know where or how Lance Corporal Sadao Yasue died until Ziak relayed Strombo's story of the battle and finding the flag on Saipan.

The Obon Society receives World War II battle souvenirs from American veterans and returns the heirlooms to Japanese family members—if they can be identified—with the assistance of government and private researchers in Japan. 


Strombo served with a U.S. Marines unit that fought on Tarawa, Saipan and Tinian, three of the most famous Pacific island battles. He lives in western Montana. 


Ziak and his wife Keiko previously led a group of aging WWII U.S. veterans from the Pacific Northwest to Japan to return 70 inscribed flags in 2015. Those flags were ceremoniously handed over to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at his offices in Tokyo. 


What made Tuesday's rare, personal handover possible was that the elderly Marine veteran was strong enough to make the trans-Pacific journey and that the family on the Japanese side was interested and willing to receive their former enemy. 


The Japanese name for "good luck flag" is yosegaki hinomaru, which literally translated means “group-written flag.” It was traditionally presented to a serviceman prior to his deployment. This keepsake became a favored war prize for U.S. servicemen who fought in the Pacific theater. 


Now more than 70 years after the war's end, the Obon Society along with the Japanese consulates in Seattle, Portland and elsewhere get dozens of inquiries every month from American veterans or their wives and children asking how to return war memorabilia. 


Strombo had long desired to return the flag but didn’t know how to go about it, according to a statement emailed by the Obon Society. It wasn’t until he visited a Japanese culture class at the University of Montana last year that Strombo learned what the Japanese writing on the flag was and what the flags meant to the families of the fallen.

That set in motion a 10,000-mile journey that Ziak captioned as "a final chapter to WWII."

https://youtu.be/F_Y75F9gzUw

U.S. WWII veteran Marvin Strombo, 93, Tuesday returned a Japanese ''good luck flag'' to Tatsuya Yasue, left. Strombo plucked the flag from the body of Yasue's older brother after a battle on Saipan in 1944.
/ Obon Society
/
Obon Society
U.S. WWII veteran Marvin Strombo, 93, Tuesday returned a Japanese ''good luck flag'' to Tatsuya Yasue, left. Strombo plucked the flag from the body of Yasue's older brother after a battle on Saipan in 1944.
Tatsuya Yasue, 89, thanked U.S. Marine Marvin Strombo, back to camera, and his family for personally returning a WWII flag that once belonged to Yasue's fallen brother.
/ Oban Society
/
Oban Society
Tatsuya Yasue, 89, thanked U.S. Marine Marvin Strombo, back to camera, and his family for personally returning a WWII flag that once belonged to Yasue's fallen brother.

Copyright 2017 Northwest News Network

Correspondent Tom Banse is an Olympia-based reporter with more than three decades of experience covering Washington and Oregon state government, public policy, business and breaking news stories. Most of his career was spent with public radio's Northwest News Network, but now in semi-retirement his work is appearing on other outlets.
Tom Banse
Tom Banse covers national news, business, science, public policy, Olympic sports and human interest stories from across the Northwest. He reports from well known and out–of–the–way places in the region where important, amusing, touching, or outrageous events are unfolding. Tom's stories can be found online and heard on-air during "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered" on NPR stations in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.