Third World War II Japanese flag returned

The flags are known as Yosegaki Hinomaru, or good luck flags. Hinomaru also means friendship and so the flags have also been referred to as friendship flags.

Carol Koelbel, who was married to the late John D. Koelbel, said her father-in-law, John A. Koelbel, acquired the flags while he was serving in the area of New Guinea during World War II with the Army.

The flags, made of silk and featuring the symbol of the red sun, were signed by friends and family members who were sent off to war. It was a token the solider took with them.

Upon receiving the flags, Post Commander Jim Shubert said the decision was made to return them to families of the Japanese soldiers through an organization called OBON Society.

The flags have not been laundered and are filled with signatures. The OBON Society deciphers that writing. Sometimes the village of the soldier will be listed on the flag as well as other clues. From there, a group of experts will look to return the flag to a living member of the soldier’s family. The society has a vast network of scholars and connections with government agencies allowing a nation-wide search for family members of missing soldiers.

Two flags found their way back to relatives of Japanese soldiers who fought in the conflict in 2020, and now a third will be returned as well.

Shubert said the third flag belonged to the late Yoshio Yoneshiro, who died at Okinawa on June 4, 1945. The flag will be returned to his first daughter, Hisako Suzuki, who is a resident of the Hokkaido Prefecture.

Shubert said Post 25 and Carol Koelbel were able to send letters to Suzuki with the flag via the OBON Society. The letter details what they know about the flag, and their desire to see it returned to the family of the fallen soldier. Shubert said he hopes to hear back from her as they have heard back from the two other flag recipients.

Returning the items is important, Shubert said. He said the flags don’t “belong to us” but the soldiers who died and even maybe went missing. When a solider does not return home, it is a precious thing, Shubert said, to have something that belonged to that individual.

“I had an uncle that was killed in World War II and he is MIA. We didn’t get anything back from him. Some personal effects were sent home, but he’s missing. With the Japanese and the flags, it is a spiritual thing,” Shubert said. “They didn’t get a letter from the government. They got a rock in a box and that was it. And so, with the flags, it is something their dad, uncle or whomever had – it belonged to that person.”

Shubert said while someone in the United States who possess the flag might see the item as a “treasure” the flag means “even more to the Japanese.”

“I would strongly encourage anyone who has a flag to contact the OBON Society or us at the American Legion so the flag can be returned to the family of the soldier that carried it,” Shubert said. “You can always take a picture of the flag to have to keep.”

The first flag sent in by Post 25 was returned to Noboru Horiya. The flag was carried by his father, Mitaro Horiya.

After receiving the flag, Mr. Horiya wrote to the local post in 2020 that he was very young when his father was called to war in 1943, and that he never expected to receive an item that belonged to him considering the nature of his death.

“I don’t really know how this flag was discovered under these circumstances, but I sincerely appreciate that the flag, carried by a fallen enemy soldier, was carefully kept by some opponent during the war at the risk of his life in order to finally return it to the war-bereaved family,” Mr. Horiya wrote.

Post 25 received similar gratitude when a second flag was returned to relatives of the solider who carried it, also in 2020. This flag originally was carried into the Pacific Theatre by Takeji Kubota, who died Aug. 13, 1945 at Luzon, Philippines. His nephew, who resides on Niigata Prefecture, Junichi Kubota, received the flag from the OBON Society.

“I really appreciate your consideration in returning the flag…the personal item of my uncle finally returned home,” Mr. Kubota wrote Post 25 in 2020. “In Japan, we have a Buddhist festival called OBON to honor the spirit of our ancestors in mid-August. This year will be the first year of OBON for my uncle since he truly returned home. It is a short letter, but this is words of gratitude to you with all my heart.”

Shubert said he would like to see a statewide and national effort for flags to be turned over to the OBON Society in order that they might be returned to family members. He hopes others would be encouraged to come forward that have similar tokens.

For more information, or to turn over a flag, call Shubert at (208) 245-2410.