I recently came upon a veteran having several souvenir items from the Pacific campaign to include a quite nice officer's Samurai sword.

However, I am posting today to ask of the informed about the odd markings on Japanese flags that we come upon. We all know that most of the ink writings or legends on the flags are prayers or good wishes to the offing soldier however, I have two flags that not only have the typical ink markings but also small illustrations. The flag shown here has a small seemingly fighter type air plane. Could it be that the flag's owner was a pilot or even more interesting, a Kamikaze pilot?

Any information or interpretation will be both very interesting and appreciated.

Thanks.

John

Again, another like flag as above having the typical inked inscriptions but this one having a fat or barrel shaped man.

Could this be a derogatory depiction of the 'fat' capitalist Americans?

Thanks again,

John

I have a similar flag with a "fat man" drawing-however I believe the drawing is not a man but a depiction of a flower bud or blossom-just a little bit of the stem shows-yours and mine are virtually identical--thought you would find this interesting-regards!

First flag I have seen with a Zero on it cool.

hi dow
you had me thinking what i turned up in the japanese ww2 odd ball items probly ten years ago i surfaced two japanese zero plane tires that belonged to the rear of the aircraft it was the landing tires a pair of them one had the full picture of a japanese zero plane presed in to the rubber these had to have been sent home by soldier who liberated a suppy shed i am in this great hobby for over fifty years and i never saw any outher japanese plane tires ever i finaly found a man from switzerland his unckle has a museum with a fully restored japanes zero plane in it and was over joyed to own them so as you see i found the right guy we never know what else will show up thats an odd ball hope you enjoyed this e mail god bless andy militarynut

The cartoon is a Japanese folklore figure