U.S. Vet Returns Captured Japanese Flag-- Part 4: Nearly Half of Japanese Soldiers Killed Overseas Have Not Been Found

Marvin Strombo was not only able to return Sadao Yasue's flag, but could also provide the Yasue family with some answers involving his death.

He said that he found Sadao Yasue's body on the outskirts of Garapan, a village in Saipan, when he got lost and found himself near the Japanese front line.  He told them that their brother likely died of concussion from a mortar round.  That Sadao was lying on the ground on his left side, looking as if he was sleeping and without severe wounds.

Garapan is in the United States Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands.

And, importantly, with those details, the family can now hope that they might be able to find his remains now.

The remains of nearly half of the 2.4 million Japanese war dead overseas have yet to be found.  It is an increasingly pressing issue as bereaved families are reaching old age and memories fade.

In 2012, Marvin Strombo was connected to the Obon Society, an Oregon-based non-profit that helps U.S. veterans and their descendants return Japanese flags to the families of the fallen soldiers.

Tuesday's handover meant closure for Strombo, too.  "It means so much to me and the family to get the flag back and move on," he said.

A Great Story.  --GreGen

U.S. Vet Returns Captured Japanese Flag-- Part 3: "My Brother Came Out of Limbo"

The return of the flag brought closure to the Yatsue family.  "It's like the war has finally ended and my brother can come out of limbo," younger brother Sadao Yasue, 89, said.

Tatsuya Yasue last saw his older brother  the day before he left for the South Pacific in 1943.  he and two siblings had a small sendoff picnic for his oldest brother outside his military unit over sushi and Japanese sweet mochi.  At the end of it, his older brother whispered to him to take care of the parents as he was going to the the Pacific island s where chances of returning were minimal.

A year later, the Japanese government sent the family a wooden box with a few stones at the bottom -- a substitute or the body.  They knew no details of Sadeo's death until months after the war ended, when they were told he died somewhere in the Mariana Islands, presumably on July 18, 1944, the day Saipan fell.  The brother was just 25.

"That's all we were told about my brother," he said.

--GreGen

U.S. Vet Returns Captured Japanese Flag-- Part 2: "It Meant Everything In the World To Her"

U.S. veteran Marvin Strombo reached over to Sayoko Furata's shoulder and gently rubbed it,.  "I was so happy that I returned the flag," he said.  "I can see how much the flag meant to her.  That almost made me cry.  It meant everything in the world to her."

The flag's white background is filled with signatures of 180 friends and neighbors in this tea-growing mountain village of Higashishirakawa, wishing for Yasue's safe return.  It was those signatures that helped Strombo find the flag's rightful owners.

The brother of Sadao Yasue, the slain Japanese soldier, Tatsuya Yasue said the smell of the flag brought back old memories.  "It smelled like my hood old big brother, and it smelled like my mother's home cooking we ate together.  The flag will be our treasure."

The return of the flag brought closure to the 89-year-old farmer and his 93-year-old sister, Sayoko Furuta.

A Very Touching Story.  --GreGen

U.S. Vet Returns Captured Japanese Flag-- Part 1: Taken From a Dead Soldier's Body

From the August 16, 2017, Chicago Tribune "U.S. vet: 'I was so happy that I returned the flag' by Mari Yamaguchi, AP.

Higashishi, Japan.  Tatsuya Yasue buried his face into the flag and smelled it.  Then he held the 93-year-old hands that had brought the treasure home, and kissed them.

Marvin Strombo, who had taken the calligraphy covered Japanese flag from a dead soldier during a World War II battlefield 73 years ago, returned it Tuesday to the family of Sadao Yasue.  They had never gotten his body or -- until that moment -- anything else of his.

Yasue and Tatsuya's sister, Sayoko Furuta, 93, sitting in her wheelchair, covered her face with both hands as Tatsuya placed the flag in her lap.

A Touching Story After All This Time.  Time to Heal.  --GreGen

Returns Japanese Flag 67 Years Later

From the Dec. 16, 2011, WREG Channel 3 TV, Memphis, Tennessee "WWII Veteran Finds Peace by Returning Japanese Flag 67 Years Later" by Daniel Hight.

Carl Coker, 90, was a Marine on Guam and found a flag on a Japanese soldier.  He now wants to return it to return it to one of the families whose name is wriiten on it.

"Well I got me a Jap flag.  I didn't know if my buddies had any, but I thought I had a real trophy.  I don't need it anymore, but I have a yearning to get that flag to these people.

He contacted the Japanese consulate in Nashville who came and picked it up.  Some of the names on the flag are hard to read.  The flag will be shipped to Tokyo where it will be transcribed.  If a family can't be found, it will probably end up in a museum.

Regardless of whether relatives are found, that flag has a lot of history to it.

Since this article is eight months old now, I did a search to see if any of the families had been found and came up with nothing new.  I imagine it was a small flag as it was found in a Japanese helmet.

It Is the Right Thing to Do.  --GreGen