So I thought I'd share a story about this subject and have been meaning to for some time.  

 

I purchased some Eighth Service Regiment Newsletters (Daily Script) back in July of 2015 off eBay.  I bought these because this was the regiment my father was in back in WWII.  He was part of the Occupation Forces there in Sasebo on the Japanese island of Kyushu immediately following the dropping of the bombs and subsequent surrender of Japan.  In those newsletters I noticed there was an article about some basketball players from the Eighth that were participating in local basketball Olympics.  The newsletters contained a lot more information than just about this basketball team.  Below is those clippings.

 

 

 

 

Fast forward to July 2016 and I noticed there was a silk Japanese flag on eBay that was associated with the Eighth Service Regiment and it had to do with these men mentioned above being the Olympic Champs.  I put in bids attempting to win the flag but was ultimately unsuccessful.  Disappointed as I was I did message the seller advising him that if for some reason the sell fell through I would still be interested.  Here is an excerpt of what occurred next.

 

 

 

Anyway, Christian came through and sent the flag to me at no cost of which I was so grateful to him.  When I received the flag it had been folded many times and placed in a small sandwich type plastic bag.  When I took the stack of silk flag material out of the bag I was so disappointed with its condition.  For every fold, that's how many pieces there was of the flag.  I stopped and put the flag back carefully into the bag and put it away as I didn't have the time nor inclination to take on what I thought would be a restoration job on the flag.  I did call around to local flag restorers to see what it would cost if they took on the restoration and let's just say the cost was prohibitive for me.  I forgot about the flag for quite some time.  

 

About a year or so ago I came across the flag and while my wife was out for the day I took over the kitchen countertop which was slick granite and decided I would take a stab at putting the flag back together.  It took me about 3 or 4 hours but I was gleefully able to put the pieces of this fragile silk flag back together long enough to take some good photographs of it, knowing that it would be about the best I could do.  

 

Here are the results and as you may note the names on the flag correspond to those in the newsletter.  Each name in english followed by what below I would assume their names in Japanese.  On the flag is also the names of places I think would be where the team played.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was so glad to be able to piece the flag back together and to take pictures of it before it totally disintegrated.  Now the portion of those newsletters and the flag are joined together as part of these men's story.

 

 

Great job saving the history Brother!

Awesome!

Cheers !

Dave

Great job Matt. Are you going to try and get it in a frame again? Ken 

7 hours ago, The Rooster said:

Great job saving the history Brother!

Awesome!

Cheers !

Dave

 

Thanks my friend!  I guess I should've attempted to put that together much sooner than I did but I thought it was going to be an extremely difficult and very time-consuming job.  It wasn't as bad as I thought.  Cheerio!

6 hours ago, otter42 said:

Great job Matt. Are you going to try and get it in a frame again? Ken 

 

Thanks Ken but unfortunately that's just not going to happen.  The silk was so fragile there was no way I was going to get it in a frame without paying a conservator a huge amount of money to do it.  Luckily I'll always have the photograph which dawns on me just now that I could put in a frame very easily if I wanted to do that, which I might.  As soon as I picked up the flag to put the pieces back into a larger plastic ziploc the silk threads pretty much just came apart everywhere.  Thank God it lasted long enough for me to take pictures!  Have a Blessed evening Ken!

Wow, you were fortunate to get the photos! So sad a piece like that fell a part. Take care brother and have a blessed and Merry Christmas!

1 hour ago, otter42 said:

Wow, you were fortunate to get the photos! So sad a piece like that fell a part. Take care brother and have a blessed and Merry Christmas!

I know, really fortunate.  It is sad that it fell apart.  You and yours have a Merry Christmas as well brother!  

4 hours ago, aznation said:

 

Thanks Ken but unfortunately that's just not going to happen.  The silk was so fragile there was no way I was going to get it in a frame without paying a conservator a huge amount of money to do it.  Luckily I'll always have the photograph which dawns on me just now that I could put in a frame very easily if I wanted to do that, which I might.  As soon as I picked up the flag to put the pieces back into a larger plastic ziploc the silk threads pretty much just came apart everywhere.  Thank God it lasted long enough for me to take pictures!  Have a Blessed evening Ken!

Here ya go !

1 hour ago, The Rooster said:

Here ya go !

Thank you very much kind sir!  You know I appreciate it!