A monthly newsletter

Issue No. 10 May 2015

月 刊 ニ ュースレター

第 10 号

2 0 1 5 年5 月

OBON 2015
Returning personal items to their families.
個人の遺留品をご遺族の元へ

ここE V E R Y O N E H A S A F A M I LY
誰でも一人一人に家族がいます

OBON 2015: 70 years-70 flags
OBON 2015 staff is now preparing to fulfill theirPage 2: Profile of a Return

goal by traveling to Japan during OBON season toPage 3: Taiwan

return seventy Yosegaki Hinomaru representing
the seventy years of peace. If we can make thearrangements we will also bring with us adistinguished veteran of WWII who is intent on
promoting peace and reconciliation between ourtwo countries.
If you would like more information, please see page 8.

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Table of Contents

Page 4: Taiwan
Page 5: Taiwan
Page 6: Recent Returns
Page 7: Scholar’s Corner
Page 8: Contact OBON 2015

OBON 2015 May NEWSLETTERProfile of a Return
OBON 2015 received this flagfrom a resident of the Virgin
Islands. The Japanese veteran’s
association, whom OBON 2015
has a close relationship, wasable to trace the flag back to its
home where we found Mr.
Okada, a nephew of the missing
soldier. He proudly received thepacket sent containing theYosegaki Hinomaru of his long
lost uncle.
Mr. Okada wrote OBON 2015 a thankyou letter (see below). He told us noremains of his uncle ever returned toJapan, which makes this flag aprecious treasure.. He took this flag to
the family shrine to show his ancestors
the spirit of an Okada had finallyreturned. And he said that his family
will keep this and preserve it as anheirloom.

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OBON 2015 May NEWSLETTERTaiwan
A History: As theirsailing ships approached
the shoreline in 1544, thePortuguese tradersdeclared this to be a“beautiful island”
pronounced “ilhaformosa.” The namestuck; Formosa waswritten on most every
western map for
hundreds of years.
The native’s called thesePortuguese and Chinese“Tayouan” which translates
as “foreigners.” Eventuallya settlement was taggedwith this name and thatwas later corrupted into theword “taiwan.” It isapparently from thisindigenous language that
we have the modern nameof “Taiwan”.

The island had been
an independenttributary state toChina but these
foreign traders
brought commerce
which attracted a
migration of Han
Chinese in the 1600s.
They quickly merged
with, or displaced thenative population.
As the Chinese “Quig”
government became
weakened from the sale ofopium and aggressive
European colonists, a war
broke out between China andJapan over another tributarystate, Korea. It was a shortfight; Japan won. As part ofthe peace settlement thecontrol of Taiwan was given tothe Japanese in 1895.

OBON 2015 received this curious Yosegaki Hinomaru that contained an intense stain in the upper left-handarea. Even more surprising was the writing which turned out to be a combination of Japanese andTaiwanese/Chinese. We did not have any idea who created this flag….or why.

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3Some research into thesubject revealed that during
the war for the Pacific many
Taiwanese young men
volunteered to fight for theJapanese against the EuroAmericans.

The OBON 2015 scholars
connected with other Japanesecitizens who have a knowledgeof Taiwan. Soon a communityof volunteers in Japan and in
Taiwan emerged to help search
for the home of this flag.

Today this episode isconcealed and disputed, butpublic records show that
more than 200,000 young
Taiwanese men served todefend Japanese territories.

The citizens of Taiwan foundthis to be a great curiosity andthousands followed along eachday as the search continued.
Even the media reported about
the search.

OBON 2015 May NEWSLETTERTaiwanEventually the family belonging to Mr. Wu
De-chuan was located and they readily
declared they wanted their grandfather’s
flag returned. A small delegation ofJapanese volunteered to carry the Yosegaki
Hinomaru to Taiwan, uncertain of who theywould meet or what the reaction would be.
Among these Japanese was Mr. Mr. Hideki
Nagayama, a Tokyo based newscaster andstrong supporter of the Taiwanese.
To their surprise, on May 9th a large crowd greeted them and assembled in a public building.
Speeches were made and the history between Japanese and Taiwanese was recited.

During these speeches it was learned that this young Taiwanese man, Mr. Wu De-chuan had joined theJapanese Navy. He deployed to sea and later returned to Taiwan at which time to met his future wife.
They married and had a child. Then, apparently, he was called back into active duty. It was during thissecond deployment that he lost his life. An estimated 30,000 Taiwanese died fighting for Japan.

The family brought this photograph to the returning ceremony. Mr. Wu De-chuan is pictured in the third
row from the bottom, second from the right and is the only person shown wearing a dress suit and tie.
He died August 20th, 1944, near Shanghai at the age of 28.
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OBON 2015 May NEWSLETTERTaiwanThe soldier’s two grandsons (white and blue shirt
holding flag, right) received the flag accompaniedby many relatives.

The Yosegaki Hinomaru returning ceremony was held in a community center where speeches and stories
were exchanged followed by a traditional meal supplied by the community.

Afterwards, the Yosegaki Hinomaru was carried to a local shrine where prayers were made, welcoming thespirit of the lost young man back to Taiwan. From there they proceeded to the family’s residence tointroduce the spirit back home. Family portraits, including this lost grandfather, adorned the walls of thefamily home.
The following day the family, accompanied by all the Japanese representatives, traveled to the family
gravesite to introduce the Yosegaki Hinomaru to their ancestors.
The Japanese were warmly received by the Taiwanese and treated with extraordinary kindness and respect.
Everyone involved in the ceremony was deeply moved, and felt they had all made new lifelong friends. TheTaiwanese family now wants to travel to Japan to express their gratitude for returning this family treasure.
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OBON 2015 May NEWSLETTER

Thank you for your Support

Name of the soldier: Mr. Giichi Okamoto. He survived thewar and returned home alive. Presently Mr. Okamoto lives inShizuoka Prefecture. He is 94 years old.

Name of the soldier: Mr. Toyokazu Sakai
The flag was returned to his sister in Osaka, Japan.

He is the eldest brother of 8 and remembered clearly thatday he had lost his flag.
In a telephone conversation he related that day in 1942
when he was in China. He had tucked his Yosegaki
Hinomaru inside his helmet for safe keeping but apparently
an explosion or chaotic military action caused him tobecome separated from his helmet, and the flag was lost.
He was very pleased, and surprised, to have this precious
keepsake returned to him after 73 years of separation.

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Name of the soldier: Mr. Shingo Nakamura

Name of the soldier: Mr. Michitaro Okamoto

The flag was returned to his son in Nagaoka, Japan.

The flag was returned to his nephew in Saitama, Japan.
OBON 2015 May NEWSLETTEROBON
2015’s FUTURE
The Scholar’s Corner
This Yosegaki Hinomaru came to OBON 2015 from a family living in California.
It had belonged to their grandfather; he was a soldier of the U.S. 25th Infantry
division and fought in the battle of Leyte in the Philippines. This flag wascovered with curious circular stamps, which OBON 2015 had never before seen.
This writing says “Jin Chu
Ho- Koku” which translates
as “Be loyal and faithful tothe country; do your best.”
Name of the soldier:
Mr. Masao Hamashima.
The circular red stamp indicates thisflag had been taken to a shrine.
OBON 2015 identified the stamp as
belonging to the famous “AtsutaShrine” in the city of Nagoya.

Atsuta Shrine; Nagoya
The 17 black circular stamps on this flag were quickly identified byOBON 2015 scholars to be postal cancellation stamps from China.
These are the sorts of cancellations that appear on mailed letters.
Further research revealed they were from military post offices andeach from a different prefecture, all gathered during the month ofJanuary in 1939.
Whether Mr. Hamashima was a pilot,a railroad engineer or an postal
inspector is unknown. What is known is that he traveled a great deal
and covered many thousands of miles in a short time. It is unlikely acommon soldier would have had the access or the time to embellish
his unique keepsake in this novel way.

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7OBON 2015 May NEWSLETTERContact OBON 2015
Seventy Years - Seventy Flags
This year OBON 2015 will return to Japan Seventy Flags in recognition of the SeventyYears having passed since the end of the hostilities between Japan and America.
The American families want these personal items returned back home.
We Need Your Help
We are accumulating as many flags as possible now to meet our objective.
If you have a flag, or know of someone who does, please contact OBON 2015.

Or, if you can contribute any amount to help cover the cost of travel andaccommodations, we would greatly appreciate your financial support.
OBON 2015 is an affiliate of Astoria Visual Arts,a 501(C)3 non-profit organization.
Please send your tax-deductible contributions to:
AVA/OBON 2015
P.O. Box 282
Astoria, Oregon 97103

If you have a flag, or know someone who does, please contact OBON 2015. We will
gladly answer any questions and fully explain our process. It will give us great
pleasure to research the flag in your possession and return it to its proper family.

OBON 2015
P.O. Box 282
Astoria, Oregon 97103
contact@OBON2015.com!
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