Names and personal messages are written in calligraphy on a yosegaki hinomaru, a traditional gift for Japanese servicemen before deployment. Signed by family, friends, co-workers and neighbors, who include their communal hopes and wishes which are remembered each time the flag is unfolded. I wonder if my Uncle Nicholas Manzanares carried letters from his loved ones with him as he stormed the beach at Saipan? I wonder if a Japanese soldier carried them home hoping one day to reunite them with the Manzanares family?
Patricia and I are returning a yosegaki hinomaru on our next trip to Japan. My friend Kiyoshi Yamauchi English Professor at Niimi University will help us return this heirloom to its family of origin. “The flags of our fathers.”
