WWII Japanese Bring-backs from Saipan

[DPonikvar]

These were brought home from the Pacific by my father-in-law.  He was a Navy machinist mate from Cleveland who drove landing craft to put the Marines on the beaches.  He was part of the contingent that landed the 2d and 4th Marines on Saipan on 15 June 1944, then he was left on Saipan with some of his crew to provide sea transport for supplies and wounded on Saipan when his transport ship departed on 22 June 1944 to pick up another load of Marines for the Guam invasion.  According to the story he told his son years later, he was walking on the beach on Saipan when a Japanese soldier came running out of the trees toward him, with malicious intent.  My father-in-law had to shoot him with his M1 carbine, then retrieved these items from the body.   Supposedly, he had the flag wrapped around his body. If you look closely, there is a blood-stained bullet hole in the rising sun of the flag.  After the battle, my father-in-law was transferred to the Waipio Amphibious Operating Base in Hawaii, where he helped train troops for the island-hopping campaign at the end of the war.

 

I am interested in obtaining a translation of the inscriptions on the flag and on the headband/banner with the image of a samurai sword(?).  Any thoughts on the purpose of the small red and white ribbon in the photo of the banner?

 

One additional memento is the newspaper clipping (from a Cleveland newspaper in 1944) showing a copy of propaganda leaflets being dropped by B-29's over Japan.  These were being printed in Cleveland.  Again, anyone able to read Japanese who might provide a translation?

 

[manayunkman]

What a great heirloom this collection is.

 

It should really be posted in the bring back section of the forum called Poils of War.

 

 

[DiGilio]

I am not a native Japanese speaker and am typing this quickly on my phone, but this is what I see. 
 

As for the leaflet, the black arrows on the right side say “danger.”
 

Left side of leaflet:
 

“First care, second medicine 

 

Until the military clique surrenders, America must bomb Japan. Everyone should know that America has the power to continue this bombardment until beautiful Japan becomes a wreck. The military clique is afraid of punishment so is continuing the war. Everyone only suffers. As a consequence of a minority of egoists, the whole nations people must suffer. Demand that the leaders stop this hopeless war. That is the only way to prevent the bombs.”

 

The thing with the sword says 義勇奉公 and is facing the wrong way. Not sure the correct meaning in this context. Voluntary service or courageous service… something along those lines. 

 

The flag at the top says a common set phrase for these… “pray for good luck and safety in war.” The rest is people signing it and such. 

[SoCalvin]

That is an awesome group of very personal items (on both sides of the pacific for both men). I had recently read that a certain group were attempting to return some of these 'bringback" to the families of the Japanese soldiers (maybe in the Military Trader?). The flags are called Hinomaru no Yosegaki (roughly translated to The Sun Orb and Write One After Another) and were regularly presented to the Japanese soldiers going off to fight, signed by family, friends and co-workers. I did a bit of research since I have one of the flags as well and always wondered exactly what it said but have never had it translated either. Very cool in any case.

[katieony]

An interesting and historic group of bring-backs.  Thanks for sharing them!

[DPonikvar]

Thanks for the feedback.  Very useful and informative.

 

Here is another part of the collection.  This was awarded to my father-in-law when they crossed the International Date Line heading for the Saipan invasion.  It is dated 10 days before the Marines hit the beach there.  Note that it specifies that his ship (the USS Comet) is bound for "Saipan Mariana Islands".  At that time, that information was likely classified.