Gun show haul including good luck flag(UPDATED)

Try having it authenticated and looking up the family name. They would likely very much appreciate having it returned.

Screw that. If it's authentic, it's a war trophy that was taken fighting an enemy that started a war of aggression and conquest and inflicted untold harm on hundreds of millions of people.

If anyone has a moral claim on it, it's the family of the soldier that killed the Japanese guy who it belonged to.

I'm sceptical that it's authentic - the reason you can't find pics of a Kyokujitsu-ki good luck flag is because they were done using a Hinomaru, which was (is) the national flag. The Kyokujitsu-ki was used as the naval and IJA ensign. It's like how Canadians will send flags to troops overseas now on the maple leaf, and not on the Canadian Army flag. I'm no expert, far from it, but it doesn't look right to me. Including the direction of the writing. Having the meatball centred is how the IJA had it, but they weren't square AFAIK, still in the 2:3 aspect ratio. But... I'm FAR from an expert.
 
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Jesus, i wouldve thought more of you guys were keeping up with current events lol. Yes my comment was a jab at the drama teacher mistaking japan for china during his visit with the japanese president. It was no slight or questioning of genuineness.
 
Jesus, i wouldve thought more of you guys were keeping up with current events lol. Yes my comment was a jab at the drama teacher mistaking japan for china during his visit with the japanese president. It was no slight or questioning of genuineness.

I thought it was awfully clever myself. Well played.
 
Screw that. If it's authentic, it's a war trophy that was taken fighting an enemy that started a war of aggression and conquest and inflicted untold harm on hundreds of millions of people.

If anyone has a moral claim on it, it's the family of the soldier that killed the Japanese guy who it belonged to..

I completely agree!
 
*UPDATE* Had the flag roughly evaluated by Collectors Guild and they figure it's worth $300USD-$500USD so pretty much $100000CAD. Imperial Army flags being used as good luck flags is very rare and increases the value hugely. I could not find a frame the right size but have ordered a custom frame for it, will post a picture when I get it all set up. I have had the flag translated and here is the info given to me, thank you to Austinweiss13 from a different forum for the translation and the cool picture.

A lot of it is signatures and there's some interesting phrases such as 見敵必滅 "certain death upon sighted enemies", 必勝 "certain victory", 仇敵撃滅 "destroy the bitter enemy".
40d921a1b14c801709313a2551a64f14.png
 
*UPDATE* Had the flag roughly evaluated by Collectors Guild and they figure it's worth $300USD-$500USD so pretty much $100000CAD. Imperial Army flags being used as good luck flags is very rare and increases the value hugely. I could not find a frame the right size but have ordered a custom frame for it, will post a picture when I get it all set up. I have had the flag translated and here is the info given to me, thank you to Austinweiss13 from a different forum for the translation and the cool picture.

A lot of it is signatures and there's some interesting phrases such as 見敵必滅 "certain death upon sighted enemies", 必勝 "certain victory", 仇敵撃滅 "destroy the bitter enemy".
40d921a1b14c801709313a2551a64f14.png

At $3 - 500 usd that places it about on the low average end for good luck flags. If the value was increased hugely it should be in the realm of $1k US.

A good framing job with appropriate archival materials will cost as much as the flag is valued at. Whether that's worth it or not is up to you.

I'm still very very sceptical that it's authentic. Fakes were churned out by the boatload during the early post war occupation of Japan. If the slogans are all patriotic and none are names of family and friends I'm even more sceptical...

There's a gent on warrelics.eu that's well into these things. I'd run it by him before sinking money into a framing job if it was mine.

I'm not trying to rain on your parade, I'd be very happy for you if it was authentic, but I'd really want to get some expert opinions here.
 
At $3 - 500 usd that places it about on the low average end for good luck flags. If the value was increased hugely it should be in the realm of $1k US.

A good framing job with appropriate archival materials will cost as much as the flag is valued at. Whether that's worth it or not is up to you.

I'm still very very sceptical that it's authentic. Fakes were churned out by the boatload during the early post war occupation of Japan. If the slogans are all patriotic and none are names of family and friends I'm even more sceptical...

There's a gent on warrelics.eu that's well into these things. I'd run it by him before sinking money into a framing job if it was mine.

I'm not trying to rain on your parade, I'd be very happy for you if it was authentic, but I'd really want to get some expert opinions here.

I had said that much of the writing is signatures. I'm trying to find somewhere local so I can get it looked at and authenticated properly.
 
I had said that much of the writing is signatures. I'm trying to find somewhere local so I can get it looked at and authenticated properly.

Right, that's what some guy on gunboards said. The problem is that once you account for his translations, that's almost 50% of the kanji on the flag accounted for.

Given that they were signed by relatives, co workers, friends, etc, that's unusual. It would suggest a soldier with an awfully small group of well wishers. Usually you'd expect to see dozens of individual signatures. Maybe it's something else entirely? A company or platoon battle flag? Was that even a thing?

Nick Komiya on war relics would be able to give you a definitive answer for sure. He's probably one of the most knowledgeable Japanese collectors on the www.

On the other hand, the flag on the cover of this book looks remarkably similar to yours...

http://www. gethistorytoday.com/

Yosegaki were the most common war trophy brought home from the Pacific. Almost every Japanese soldier had one and they were frequently taken as war trophies. They're still very commonly available in the $500 range. If yours is indeed rare and valuable, then it would definitely be worth shelling out $500 for an archival framing job with the proper mounting and paper and glass.
 
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thanks for the update, that is a really cool find! when i was in elementary school we had a show and tell during history class. one of the students brought in a nazi flag and officers uniform that her grand father had taken from a camp during ww2. i cant remember which camp now but i remember finding it incredible to see it. ive been fascinated with ww2 firearms for as long as i can remember. thanks for sharing this with us.
 
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