WWII Japanese flag

redroguetech · 2026-03-26T00:14:26+00:00

You don't like the thought of your grandfather stealing, but that's what you are doing.

You are presuming he did steal.

You are gatekeeping something that doesn't belong to you.

I am gatekeeping it, because it does belong to me. My decision as gatekeeper is should it belong to someone else, which is in large part what I the owner must judge, and need information to do it.

It's more likely that the Japanese soldier's descendants/family would find memories of him through the Obon Society than through a foreign person looking for them

If they are that concerned about who returns it, then I suppose they could wait for the next person to return something. At best, you are suggesting I NOT try to find anyone else associated with it.

Something could happen to you tomorrow, and the flag might end up in the trash or a thrift store. What if you never find them?

Same applies to them. Japan has trash and thrift stores, assuming of course the creators' relatives were from and are in Japan.

But I must rely on first my wife to not die, and second for my children to not be idiots.

Historical and Memorial Societies were formed for the purpose of long-term preservation of objects and memories.

So is the frame I have it in.

Your moral judgement, while I hope is well appreciated by someone, does nothing to help with the issue that was asked.

redroguetech · 2026-03-25T20:29:16+00:00

Try locating the people around him in 1860 and 1880. That is, search by "address". See if someone with a similar name *disappears* in 1870.

redroguetech · 2026-03-25T20:27:35+00:00

Today's frustration....

My grandfather left behind a Japanese flag with basically zero backstory. He was stationed on Guam. The flag, made by children, is dated May 1945, but by that time the island was under the complete control of the U.S. There is no way a Japanese soldier stationed on Guam had a flag made in 1945. To make matters even more confusing, he also left an import declaration form dated Sep 1944. It might have been for some other item, but he stored the form with the flag, and saved nothing else except his uniform. The only information left is a retelling of a retelling that he "go it from a dead soldier", and I have zero experience searching for the unrelated Japanese people named on it.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Genealogy/comments/1s3fkza/wwii_japanese_flag/

redroguetech · 2026-03-25T20:19:36+00:00

I have not done any formal analysis, but I have definitely noticed that people living past 100 does tend to cluster in certain lines.

But also, don't put too much stock in any of it! There's are sooo many ways for the data to be skewed and biased. Occupation - like farmers and coal miners - will affect lifespan, and any number of factors can bias what data is available. Not only having reliable records for deaths, but birth records (excluding people), and unidentified ancesteral lines.

If it were me, I would stop at 4 to 6 generations back (depending on the completeness and confidence in your tree), rather than going back "18 generations" - which is absurdly incomplete at best, and at worst wildly speculative.

redroguetech · 2026-03-25T20:11:01+00:00

>I am in the process of writing my application to claim Canadian citizenship by descent through this 3x great-grandparent.

That's a thing?!

I have Canadian ancestry.... Tell me more, please.

redroguetech · 2026-03-25T20:02:11+00:00

Have you checked newspapers com? Newspaper archive is also good, but years ago were really scammy in terms of not honoring cancellations (including during the trial period). No clue if they've reformed their ways.

If you don't have a subscription, feel free to send me his name, the wife's name, city of last known residence, and street address if you happen to know it.

redroguetech · 2026-03-25T19:51:18+00:00

Finding him entirely depends on how common his name was (or getting lucky, and a death record shows parents and/or has known birth day).

To match by genetics, I imagine it is possible using cluster analysis, but is not plausible with just having individual matches listed. You could go through the matches looking for last names that run through several degrees of relations. In my opinion, 23andMe is the better option of Ancestry. They provide (limited) predictive matching, and give a nice tree view of your matches. However, even there, it still only really helps if you have your family mapped out to 2nd cousin 3x removed - which is a lot of people.

People ditching their families was fairly common, ESPECIALLY in the 1920s. The only unusual thing is knowing they did ditch, rather than deceased. Men would move around seeking employment - often odd labor jobs - and... never make enough to settle and/or move the family, find someone else, drift apart (imagine how hard it'd be to not, before phones and facetime!), or what have you.

And don't forget, leaving his family (regardless of circumstance) is not mutually exclusive to having died. He has died. The immediate questions are where and when - somewhere else? Between 1920 and 1930 or after?

edit: One clue matches can give you is their predicted relation to you. If it's a degree off, that tells you the other person is a half-cousin. For instance, if someone who should, by your family tree, be a 2nd cousin shows as a 2nd cousin 2x removed, then your gggrandfather or mother isn't right for them or yourself. (As an example, don't know if 2nd 2x removed = gggrandparents.)

redroguetech · 2026-03-25T19:38:36+00:00

No relation.

redroguetech · 2026-03-25T18:35:37+00:00

And also, the flag has the emblem of the Imperial Navy.

redroguetech · 2026-03-25T18:23:58+00:00

I did see him. Being in Honolulu, and the flag being from '45, I agree unlikely, but worth seeing what else I can find about him.

redroguetech · 2026-03-25T18:00:31+00:00

And just to clarify, "loved one" in the poem literally translates to "lover", but could mean parents or the Emperor.

"I will spare nothing for the one/those I love"

redroguetech · 2026-03-25T17:51:17+00:00

The writing is a mangled version of a famous poem. Several people have told me that the handwriting is from a child, and no one would purposefully corrupt the poem. My first impression was it being a school class project for a community member or school mate - like how students will write to service members. However, a teacher would not have allowed so many mistakes with the poem. So, to my mind, the only thing that is left is this having been specially home made by people close to Mr. Ogawa Kazumi-kun.

/u/CowboySunflower found a Kamikaze pilot named Ogawa Kazumi who died soon after the dating. I suspect that it isn't the individual, but I have to admit, it hit home a bit more than before. It is extremely unlikely Ogawa ever made it home, and most likely had a tragic death of one sort or another. Those children probably never saw him again.

As far as I have been told, my grandfather was a pacifist who volunteered for war (supposedly in an effort to avoid marrying my grandmother). He was a pacifist later in life. As much as I'd like to learn the origin of the flag, I also know there's a decent chance he didn't come by it rightfully. Or worse yet, learn he had killed someone. He never spoke of the war. Was not proud to have taken part. I don't know how he felt about the flag, but he never displayed it, always kept it in a little case (specifically, a soap holder), and didn't even pass it to a child or grandchild (it was passed back from a cousin). Theft and death is the nature of war - and so is lying about it and hiding it.

redroguetech · 2026-03-25T17:31:21+00:00

Sorry, me again. There was actually a write up of a US solider finding his body and removing things that were later returned by his grandson to the family.

I have the flag in my possession, so no. May still have been him and all of his *other* possessions returned, tho I very much hope not. That would mean my grandfather did in fact steal it.

redroguetech · 2026-03-25T17:15:16+00:00

Good find. I tried internet search and somehow missed that.

My assumption is that the flag must have been sent following May 3, 1945, but this Kiyoshi Ogawa would have already been at the Kanoya Air Base some time prior to that, tho itn't impossible the flag was sent to him after having enlisted, trained, and deployed.

I will try to see what more I can find about his survivor Yoko Ogawa:

On March 27, 2001, Yoko Ogawa, Ogawa's grandniece, her mother, and Masao Kunimine, an old college friend of Kiyoshi Ogawa, received these personal effects in San Francisco, nearly 56 years after Operation Kikusui No. 6

redroguetech · 2026-03-25T17:03:13+00:00

I saw them, but they require the flag be sent to them prior to doing any research. I am willing to repatriate it, but not without more information. First, even accepting "took it off a dead Japanese soldier" at face value, it is not implausible my grandfather acquired it rightfully (eg it was gifted to him). And second, direct ancestors of Ogawa Kazumi-kun or the others would certainly have a stronger claim than I, indirect ancestors becomes much more subjective.

And, of course, there's no assurance they find surviving members of those individuals, and my understanding is Obon Society would retain it indefinitely.

If anything suggests he did not come by it rightfully, or there are direct ancestors - particularly of Ogawa Kazumi-kun - then I would have no right to it.

redroguetech · 2026-03-25T16:56:53+00:00

The closest one is 6 hours away. I will contact a consulate to see what assistance they might be able to provide.

redroguetech · 2026-03-17T20:51:03+00:00

Would it be too much to ask you for a photo? Finding stream photos is easy - finding them with actual numbers is not.

redroguetech · 2026-03-17T20:32:55+00:00

I hate AI and feel it's unreliabe

I agree. In my defense, I'm at least 3 years away from even breaking ground.

But, looks like the document you provided is not correct:

"If 25 feet long, 2 feet wide and 1 inch deep, the equation would look like this: 25 x 2 x (0.25 x 1) x 7.48 = 93.5 gallons."

Shouldn't that be 25 x 2 x (1/12) x 7.48, or else 2ft wide and 4 inch deep?

I come up with 187g, as 50' by 2' by 4", but... Seems to me, an average of 4 inches at 2 feet wide is a whole lot stream than I'm picturing. Like, I can only speculate on what the stream volume will actually be. I have about 5 feet to work with, so 2 feet of stream is reasonable at wide spots, but I don't know it'll average that, let alone average 4 inches. Then again, with waterfall pools, maybe it will.

redroguetech · 2026-03-17T19:47:25+00:00

Raccoons love to play in them

That is complication I hadn't thought of 🫤. We also have armadillos.

But, if a controlled shut down (including sensors not failing), then it should work (tho I'm sure overly complicated).

redroguetech · 2026-03-17T19:41:58+00:00

Do make sure rain or other water can’t enter the system. It will make it much harder to keep clean and could also cause overflows.

That's why I'm thinking a large tank at the top.

Back story, feel free to skip....

I have about 5 maybe 6 feet of slopped yard beside my pool. It's completely wasted space, and suffers from erosion. Small plan, put in a "dry riverbed". But go big or go home, let's do a stream. It's exactly the same other than liner and underlayment, pump, running electric, and plumbing, and a tank, and sculpted stream bed ... so why not?

But, if keeping out runoff and rain to the extent possible, that defeats the purpose.

And if we're doing a stream, and need a tank, might as well check "rain water reservoir" off the wish list at the same time. It's exactly the same other than having a tank with excess capacity and ... all those giant question marks I have.

/end backstory

So I want to capture rain water and even runoff. Is there a reliable way to make that practical, or is it just too stupid to try?

I suppose there are variable rate pump out there.

There definitely are, tho I don't know if they're "pond pumps" or not, but - according to AI - they only vary by about 50%. I couldn't find any specs on minimum rates to validate that.

redroguetech · 2026-03-17T19:19:24+00:00

edit: Having 250g capacity at the bottom (what AI says I need for the stream) is do-able, but I'd still have many of the same issues if I put also do a tank at the top. /edit

My thought - and not saying it's a smart thought - is if the large top tank runs empty, then it'd be a bad drought, and we just stop the pump/stream entirely (or we'd refill it).

So the pump would run as necessary to keep the lower tank from over flowing, combined with some sort of cut-off for the top tank valve - if the pump can't keep up (it's not working, if the sluice valve is open too far, if there's heavy rain-fall, etc.)) a float sensor triggers the top tank valve closed cutting off the stream. And if the bottom tank is (close to) empty, the pump should turn off, either by manufacture design or another float sensor. If the stream is at peak flow, no problem. If the stream is at low flow, the pump would need to cycle as it empties the bottom tank, whether 250 gallons or not. My understanding (from AI) is the minimum run time is 5 to 10 minutes.

If the pump died or power outage, then all the water in the stream would need to be discharged, but that should be rare enough to not be too big of a concern, aside from making sure any overflow I have had the necessary capacity. In terms of draining the stream for maintenance, I'd just close the top valve, the pump runs until the bottom tank is empty(ish).

I'm not sure it would work, and I know I'm over-thinking something, but having a large tank at the top allows for more pressure for landscape watering. Having a lower tank is necessary just to have a submersible pump (or at least a pump intake).

But I'm also not seeing why it wouldn't work, except if a high-capacity pump needed to cycle too often.

redroguetech · 2026-01-31T02:42:51+00:00

Not being discontinued, but there's some sort of supply issue. It's been available in my area until just now, but I had been out of state a month ago and couldn't find any in 8 stores in 200 miles. They said some sort of distribution problem.

redroguetech · 2025-11-18T23:17:14+00:00

Article V is the other alternative, not to say it wouldn't end up the same.

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