Posted 14 years ago
stepback_a…
(363 items)
This is an original photo of a U.S. Marine displaying a captured Japanese flag. There is a name and the year 1944 written on the back of the photo. Flags, helmets, rifles, and swords were highly sought after souvenirs by U.S. G.I.s. while in the Pacific theater.
What is the name on the reverse?
An interesting side note - I asked my Dad about picking up souvenirs, he said they never did because the going was usually so tough that they had all they could do just to carry their own equipment. He says sometimes they were so tired they could hardly put one foot in front of the other. He is proud of the fact that he was always able to carry his own load as sometimes someone would "give out" and others would have to carry his load too.
He did bring home several weapons but they all came from the huge piles of surrendered weapons when they occupied Japan after the war. I'm guessing that's where most of the war souvenirs came from unless someone had access to shipping them home or some way to store and move them. - My Dad was with the Americal Division, 132nd Inf., Co K, Weapons Platoon. He joined the 132nd just after Guadalcanal and was with them on Bougainville, Cebu and Japan.
my brother collects these flags, from what I recall these flags were made by the soldiers family and they wore them around their body?
My grandfather was Iwo Jima. He went into a cave and found some items on a dead man, including a flag. The next morning some men surrendered from that same cave.
I'll post a picture I just "dug out " of my hard drive, of some GIs with a Japanese flag. I think this one is what they call a 'battle flag' with the radiating stripes symbolizing the rising sun. I often wonder if the rising sun idea has anything to do with the interest in Japan for Coleman lanterns. The coleman logo is a rising sun. I recall sending a few lanterns I had on eBay a while back, to Japan.