Returning Japan's good-luck flags

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takenoko
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Returning Japan's good-luck flags

Post by takenoko »

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/ ... rue-south/

So apparently in the early 1900s, it was a real popular thing to give a flag to a soldier leaving to go on duty with a bunch of personal messages on it. Few of these good luck flags (yosegaki hinormaru) exist in Japan now, because a lot of the soldiers didn't return home, or if they did survive, the flag itself was banned when America occupied Japan after the war.

However, a lot of these flags have survived intact in America. In American culture, capture the flag is literally a thing kids grow up on. So when soldiers were taking the items off enemy soldiers, a lot of time they'd find a flag and bring it back to America with them.

https://obonsociety.org/eng/
The Obon Society's main goal is tracking down these flags and in an attempt at reconcilliation, to return these flags back to the families of the soldier who originally owned it. Some of the stuff I hear about the Pacific war sounds really brutal, but it seems like a good gesture to let go of the past
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