A flag carried by a Japanese soldier killed in motion throughout World War II was handed over Thursday by the USS Lexington Museum in Texas to a nonprofit group for return to the person’s household.

Known as a Good Luck Flag, it's lined with the signatures of Shigeyoshi Mutsuda, his household and associates. The Corpus Christi museum the place it was displayed for 29 years gave the flag to the Obon Society, a nonprofit group that has returned about 500 related flags, often known as non-biological human stays, to descendants of Japanese service members killed throughout the conflict.

“This is all that’s left of this man” to return to his household, mentioned Obon Society co-founder Rex Ziak. “They feel exactly the same as Americans when they receive the bones or teeth” of kinfolk who had been recognized and returned many years after being killed in conflict, he mentioned.

Hirofumi Murabayashi, consul basic of Japan in Houston, expressed appreciation to the museum for willingly handing over the flag and mentioned the switch symbolizes the friendship between the United States and Japan.

“He (Mutsuda) was killed in action and his body was not found … there’s no remains,” Murabayashi mentioned.

“The only remains will come back to the family” to be reunited along with his spouse, who died in May at age 102, however whose funeral has been delayed till the flag is returned, Murabayashi mentioned.

The flag, often known as Yosegaki Hinomaru, has been displayed on the museum aboard a WWII plane service because it was donated in 1994, in accordance with museum director Steve Banta. He known as the donation routine and mentioned the museum has been unable to find who gave the flag to the museum due to what he known as record-keeping points on the time.

Mutsuda’s signature on the flag was acknowledged by one among his sons, now 82, who noticed a picture of the flag and in addition acknowledged the signatures of different household, associates and neighbors, confirming the flag was carried by his father, in accordance with Ziak.

The signatures match these in a household photograph of Mutsuda holding the flag and surrounded by members of the family earlier than he left for conflict, Ziak mentioned.

Who discovered the flag and beneath what circumstances shouldn't be recognized, Ziak mentioned.

“Often soldiers will search battlefields for sensitive information, like maps, and find flags and other things and collect them as souvenirs,” Ziak mentioned.

The flags may very well be rolled and carried simply and repair members “brought them home by the thousands” as souvenirs, in accordance with Ziak.

The story of how, and even the place, such objects had been discovered is then usually misplaced to the passage of time, in accordance Ziak, because the veterans return dwelling and retailer them away till they're discovered after the service member’s dying.

The flag can be returned to the 2 sons and daughter of Shigeyoshi Mutsuda in Tokyo later this month throughout a ceremony at a shrine to Japanese conflict useless in Tokyo.

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