The badges were often signed by friends and family members of the military, before being taken to war as a good luck charm.
A US naval museum will return the flag of a Japanese WWII soldier to the owner’s family, nearly 78 years after the end of the conflict, Kyodo News reports.
The flag of the late soldier Shigeyoshi Mutsuda was presented Thursday to the Obon Society, an Oregon organization that helps find and deliver personal belongings lost during war.
The organization, along with museum representatives, plans to return the badge, which carries numerous messages from those close to him, to Mutsuda’s family on July 29 in Tokyo.
«I did not imagine that this miracle could happen. My mother would have been happy if she were alive,” said Toshihiro Mutsuda, the military’s son.
The flags were often signed by the soldiers’ friends and family, before being brought to war as a good luck charm in Japan. Since its creation in 2009, the Obon Society has returned more than 500 of these flags to families and communities in the Asian country.