It’s a miracle, say household of Japanese soldier killed in WWII, as flag he carried returns from US

TOKYO (AP) – Toshihiro Mutsuda was solely 5 years previous when he final noticed his father, who was drafted by Japan’s Imperial Army in 1943 and killed in motion. For him, his father was a bespectacled man in an previous household picture standing by a signed good-luck flag that he carried to struggle.

On Saturday, when the flag was returned to him from a U.S. struggle museum the place it had been on show for 29 years, Mutsuda, now 83, stated: “It’s a miracle.”

The flag, often called “Yosegaki Hinomaru,” or Good Luck Flag, carries the soldier’s title, Shigeyoshi Mutsuda, and the signatures of his relations, pals and neighbors wishing him luck. It was given to him earlier than he was drafted by the Army. His household was later instructed he died in Saipan, however his stays have been by no means returned.

The flag was donated in 1994 and displayed on the museum aboard the USS Lexington, a WWII plane service, in Corpus Christi, Texas. Its that means was not identified till it was recognized by the household earlier this yr, stated the museum director Steve Banta, who introduced the flag to Tokyo.

Banta stated he realized the story behind the flag earlier this yr when he was contacted by the Obon Society, a nonprofit group that has returned about 500 comparable flags as non-biological stays, to the descendants of Japanese servicemembers killed within the struggle.

The seek for the flag’s authentic proprietor began in April when a museum customer took a photograph and requested an skilled concerning the description that it had belonged to a “kamikaze” suicide pilot. When Shigeyoshi Mutsuda’s grandson noticed the picture, he sought assist from the Obon Society, group co-founder Keiko Ziak stated.

“When we learned all of this, and that the family would like to have the flag, we knew immediately that the flag did not belong to us,” Banta stated on the handover ceremony. “We knew that the right thing to do would be to send the flag home, to be in Japan and to the family.”

The soldier’s eldest son, Toshihiro Mutsuda, was speechless for a number of seconds when Banta, carrying white gloves, gently positioned the neatly folded flag into his palms. Two of his youthful siblings, each of their 80s, stood by and seemed on silently. The three kids, all carrying cotton gloves so that they wouldn’t injury the decades-old flag, fastidiously unfolded it to indicate to the viewers.

The soldier’s daughter, Misako Matsukuchi, touched the flag with each palms and prayed. “After nearly 80 years, the spirit of our father returned to us. I hope he can finally rest in peace,” Matsukuchi stated later.

Toshihiro Mutsuda stated his reminiscence of his father was foggy. However, he clearly remembers his mom, Masae Mutsuda, who died 5 years in the past at age 102, used to make the long-distance bus journey nearly yearly from the farming city in Gifu, central Japan, to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine, the place the two.5 million struggle useless are enshrined, to pay tribute to her husband’s spirit.

The shrine is controversial, because it contains convicted struggle criminals amongst these commemorated. Victims of Japanese aggression throughout the first half of the twentieth century, particularly China and the Koreas, see Yasukuni as a logo of Japanese militarism. However, for the Mutsuda household, it’s a spot to recollect the lack of a father and husband.

“It’s like an old love story across the ages coming together … It doesn’t matter where,” Banta stated, referring to the Yasukuni controversy. “The important thing is this flag goes to the family.”

That’s why Toshihiro Mutsuda and his siblings selected to obtain the flag at Yasukuni and introduced the framed pictures of their dad and mom.

“My mother missed him and wanted to see him so much and that’s why she used to pray here,” Toshihiro Mutsuda stated. “Today her wish finally came true, and she was able to be reunited.”