Japanese Good Luck Flag - Blood Stained - Translation needed.

[ncreptile]

I mention blood stained not for the "oooo" factor but to hopefully get more attention than just begging for a translation.

Can anyone reliably translate this for me? I'm having a hard time getting this done.

Information

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[Flying10uk]

I'm having a hard time getting this done.

Well where have you tried so far? Presumably it would be easy for someone who speaks and writes fluent Jappenes to translate this. Unfortunately, most people here are probably are not fluent in Jappenes.

[ncreptile]

Well where have you tried so far? Presumably it would be easy for someone who speaks and writes fluent Jappenes to translate this. Unfortunately, most people here are probably are not fluent in Jappenes.

I'm not sure where to ask other than fiverr which could get expensive fast.
I got off gunboards months ago and have not intention to go back.

Open to suggestions?

[browningautorifle]

Is there a college close to you where foreign students accumulate?

[ncreptile]

Sadly no, I am in the middle of the mountains, fairly far from any decent sized college.

[Herschel]

Be prepared for possible disappointment when you get the writing translated. I mentioned these flags to a retired USAF COL who collects WWII militaria. He said the flags were in great demand by US occupation troops in post WWII Japan. The enterprising
Japanese filled the demand by producing replicas. Some of the writing on the replicas was like $%&#% you American GI.

[Flying10uk]

Be prepared for possible disappointment when you get the writing translated. I mentioned these flags to a retired USAF COL who collects WWII militaria. He said the flags were in great demand by US occupation troops in post WWII Japan. The enterprising
Japanese filled the demand by producing replicas. Some of the writing on the replicas was like $%&#% you American GI.

If that turns out to be the case then surely it is a collector's item in it's own right after 70 plus years, just not WW2?

We could all speculate as to what this flag may say but until it is translated we really don't know.

[beachdog77]

There are some resources on the web to get these identified through the Obon society and a few other places. I cant say whether or not is is real, it could very well be. But here is what I can tell you. This are called a Yosegaki or Yosegaki hinomaru in Japanese. Like has been said earlier in the thread there are a lot of post war ones made to make a buck but there are many authentic ones too. Most of the time what is written are well wishes or motivational words. Other times friend and family just write their names on them and give them to the departing soldier as a memento. Ok I'm not by any means a professional at Japanese. Not by any stretch but this is what I can tell you. There is both Japanese Kanji and Hirigana on this, so it's not made up gibberish. Photo 1. The two large characters at the top and every thing on the first row on the left side are probably this mans information. Bad news is that it is written in highly stylized equivalent of our english cursive with a heavy artistic flair. I cant read that. Most of what I can read is in the bottom right corner, however it is bleed through from the other side so it's backward. But even so, here we go! I see well wishes note left by some one named Mori and another by Motomatsu, pretty common last names. An incomplete sentence I can read says “ soldier ...illegible word... of the island...” and another is a partial word that is guess would be Ratsu-wan which means “ Sharpness” and another says what I think is Heitai chikara meaning loosely “Soldier strength” another half sentence I can half way read says “complete/finish to the end... then more words I dont know. But from what I can see it does not say army or navy on it which can be a good thing. These flags were made for draftees that had only gotten a draft notice in the mail, they themselves did not usually know what branch of the service they were going into. If it said (super super army man kick booty) it would for sure be suspicious. But from what i can see its typical good luck wishes.
Also there is no profanity written on it, I know a good bit of that so I would notice if it was there.
Again I could be wrong with what I read on this, it is old, hard to read and kanji characters are complicated.
hope that helps in some way.

[painter777]

I have one stored away that belongs to my Daughter in law. Her Grandfather 'collected it' in WWII.
The story and many more pictures are first link below:

https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=61225


I ended up on the War Relics Forum posting in the Japanese Militaria forum and got my answers. I've dug out the post, my pictures are gone, but the replies are still there.
If you want help there.... be respectful and don't call it Jap.
I seen one flag there that took a while to see them, but when you did you could see there were Japanese Zeros painted in a diving formation.

Link to my post there:
Bring Home Japanese Flag Questions

Good Luck,

Edit.. I now see the OP hasn't been here in 3 months........

[usabaker]

Can anyone reliably translate this for me? I'm having a hard time getting this done.

I have a family member who has a Japanese husband, the problem is he is in the Philippines right now. But send me the pictures you want to be translated to my email and I will send them to her and see what she can do. send to usabaker at gmail