fujisan-ni-noboru-hinode: This Japanese Flag was captured by a soldier of the U.S. Army National Gua
fujisan-ni-noboru-hinode: This Japanese Flag was captured by a soldier of the U.S. Army National Guard 27th Infantry Division at Hell’s Pocket, on Saipan, on July 26th-27th, 1944. Hell’s Pocket was located in an area known as Death Valley, where heavily entrenched Japanese Army troops held up American infantry forces for several days through fierce combat, utilizing defilades in the environment. The flag’s original Japanese owner had the flag folded in half and tied around his waist when he was killed, evidence of which can be seen as a bullet or shrapnel hole in the top of the rising sun, along with bloodstains from his wound, which would prove fatal. In the top-left of the sun itself, one can clearly see the original inscription, written by the US solder who captured it, “From a dead Jap, Hell’s Pocket, Saipan”. -- source link