Grandson of World War II veteran reunites souvenir flag with Japanese family
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.
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"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.
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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.
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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."
It is the only memento this son has of his father, according to Stars and Stripes.