A monthly newsletter

Issue No. 8月 刊 ニ ュースレター

第 8号

March 2015
2 01 5 年 3 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 - OBON 2020
The First Returning Ceremony
On March 23rd OBON 2015 will host a special
ceremony hosting several veterans who fought inthe jungles of the South Pacific face to face with

Page 2: Ron Charest
Page 3: High School Video
Page 4: 41st Infantry Division

the Japanese. These veterans will present toPage 5: 41st Infantry Division

OBON 2015 battlefield souvenirs they brought

Page 6: Scholar’s Cornerhome but now want returned to Japan andrepatriated back to their families. (see p. 4 & 5)!
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Table of Contents

Page 7: Contact OBON 2015

OBON 2015 March NEWSLETTER

Ron Charest
OBON 2015 was sent a Yosegaki Hinomaru by Ron Charest of Woodbridge, Virginia.
This was a war memento handed down from his father. OBON 2015 scholars wereable to locate the family and the item was returned.
Mr. Charest describes his feelings about returning the flag.
“As a veteran, once the significance of this flag was explained to me, I had no second
thoughts about returning it to the family of the original owner. I knew that would havebeen what I wanted, had it been my flag.”“I also think getting thisflag back to the familyof the original owner
was what my Dad
would have wanted me
to do. It was a relief forme to hear the flag had
been returned. I like tothink my dad is resting
just a little bit easier
now as well.”Armand Charest: during WWII

Armand Charest: Retired

OBON 2015 scholars located the elder brotherof the soldier and his wife near Hiroshima andthey were eager to receive the flag.

Ron Charest added, “I deeply appreciate the OBON 2015 team for making it possible
to return this flag to the proper owners.
!
2OBON 2015 March NEWSLETTERA Unique Bilingual Video
Last fall OBON 2015 was contacted by a high school student from Los Gatos HighSchool in Los Gatos, California who was working on a project. His teacher had aYosegaki Hinomaru and he thought returning it to Japan would be an ideal “Senior ClassProject.” He contacted OBON 2015 looking for help.
The flag looked suspicious.
OBON 2015 staff sent images totheir scholars and they
confirmed it was a forgery. It had
been created by someone,
probably after the war, with theintention of scamming theunsuspecting occupational forcesout of their money. (See scholar’scorner, p.5, for more details)
This student, Mayuki Sasagawa, was disappointed, but during followup conversations
OBON 2015 found him to be bright, ambitious and ready to refocus his creative energy
into a different direction. He decided to try to communicate the Yosegaki Hinomaru story
with other young people around the country and tell them about the movement to send
personal items back to their families in Japan.
Mayuki decided to make a video. A script was created and with the assistance of hisinstructor Ann Jordan, Mayuki set to work planning the production. A local publicaccess station provided studio space and Mayuki’s friend operated the video camera.
Mayuki’s video serves two purposes; it communicates his message and it serves as anaid for anyone learning the Japanese language. A link to this unique video is here;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOqEP_Ju2uA,or you can search “Flags of our Ancestors” on YouTube.
Mayuki is a native
Californian but his parents
were born in Japan. Since
Mayuki speaks perfect
English and perfect
Japanese, a clever bilingual
video was created showing
simultaneously two viewsof Mayuki, and speaking
both languages.

!
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OBON 2015 March NEWSLETTER

41st Infantry Division
The 41st Infantry Division has the unique distinction of being among the longest serving
military units in all of WWII.
The 41st was a ‘Northwest’ unit made up of men from Oregon, Washington, Idaho,Montana and North Dakota. Originally formed in 1917 and serving in WWI, the units
were returned to National Guard status after 1921.
In early July of 1940 these Guardsmen began to receive enhance training. By 1941 theirnumbers increased to 18,000 men and training continued at Fort Lewis, Washington.

The 41st Infantry Division were known as the “Sunsetters.”
Their shoulder sleeve insignia shows a bright, setting sun.

After Pearl Harbor the 41st Infantry
Division was mobilized and sent to theSouth Pacific. The first group reached
Melbourne in April of 1942; within acouple months the entire division wasassembled. They trained for combat,including 100 mile marches along thebeach. They were told the Japanese
would not be difficult to fight andeveryone would be back home shortly.

Members of the 41st Infantry Division wading ashore from a landing craft stuck on a submerged sand bar.

By December they were heading for NewGuinea; in January of 1943 the 41st Infantry
were engaged in the attack on Buna-Gona in
one of the first confrontations between
Japanese and American troops. It was here themembers of the 41st realized the tenacious
Japanese would be a determined, unflinching
opponent. Also they learned that the tropicaljungle was filled with disease, rot and dangerof the type they had never imagined.
!
4OBON 2015 March NEWSLETTER

41st Infantry Division
Left: Members of the
41st Infantry Division
emerge from thejungle after two weeks
of intense fighting.
Right: Two membersof the 41st show off
the battlefieldsouvenirs they hadtaken during a pause
in the fighting.

Members of the 41st pause for a photo from theirfoxhole home dug in the hard, coral ground.

The 41st Infantry Division fought innumerous battles around New
Giunea including Salamaua,
Hollandia, Aitape, Wakde Island andBiak, then on to the Philippines
where they fought at Palawan andZamboanga. After the Japanesesurrender the 41st Infantry Division
was deployed to Hiroshima as part ofthe occupational force.

Now, seventy years after the end of the war, the feelings have changed. Many veterans of the 41st
no longer carry hatred or distrust towards the Japanese.
The Division headquarters heard about OBON 2015’s efforts to return personal family items backto the Japanese so they included a story in their newsletter. Several Yosegaki Hinomaru emerged
from the homes of these veterans with instructions to send them back to Japan.
On March 23rd, members of the 41st Infantry Division will gather in Astoria, Oregon for aReturning Ceremony at which time they will officially hand over to OBON 2015 items theybrought home. This is the first occasion where a veteran group will officially return battlefieldsouvenirs for repatriation back to Japan.
Left: Mr. Leslie “Buck” Weatherill ofthe 41st had brought home asouvenir flag from the war. In 2013
Buck sent this flag to OBON 2015 inhopes of finding the family.
Right: OBON 2015 found thesoldier’s older brothers; a nephew
received the flag on their behalf.
Right, bottom: The original ownerof the flag, Mr. Shigeyuki Yoneyama
had grown-up in the Yamanashi
Prefecture, in central Japan. He diedon March 13th 1945 at Zamboanga
in the Philippines.
5OBON 2015 March NEWSLETTEROBON2015’s FUTURE
The Scholar’s Corner
The Yosegaki Hinomaru given to the teacher at Los Gatos High School appeared
authentic to the average person, but this is where true scholarship makes a difference.
OBON 2015’s researchers immediately noticed numerous problems with this flagsome of which were inconsistent with the 1940’s era in Japan and others which wereout-right wrong.

Some families took their flag toshrines where they received a
red shrine stamp. Heresomeone stamped a hanko
repeatedly across the flag trying
to impersonate a shrine stamp.
Clearly this was done to foolsome unsuspecting souvenirbuyer.
This says....”Yamato Nadeshiko
Nobuko” 『大和撫子 信子』.
Translated it means “a beautiful
Japanese woman namedNobuko”. This is never done.
Our scholars have never seen
anyone praise themselves on aYosegaki Hinomaru. The focus
is always entirely pointed
towards the recipient.

This character “国” came into
Here appears a slogan that wascommon in that era “一億一心” (100 million of people with oneheart) but it is written left to right.
This is backwards. No Japanesewriter would have written like
this.

!
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Here (and other places) thescholars noticed the exact
same penmanship with theexact same brush. Yosegaki
Hinomaru were created bydozens of people, all writing
their names and messages.
in their own hand, often withdifferent brushes at different
times. This clearly shows
one person filling in as muchas possible.

use after WWII. The character
used during the 1940’s was adifferent style “國”. This is amodern style of writing and thisgave our scholars a clear proof
the flag was not authentic andin fact created some time afterthe war.

OBON 2015 March NEWSLETTERContact OBON 2015
OBON 2015 needs your support. Please.
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
Your contributions will help us reach more families
and return more personal items.

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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OBON 2015 March NEWSLETTER