Original U.S. WWII “Seabee Special” Japanese Good Luck "Tojo" Flag - GI Made to Sell and Trade with Well Wishes & Temple Stamps - 13¼ x 18”

Original Item: Only One Available. These types of flags are growing increasingly difficult to come across anymore. While it may appear as a Japanese hinomaru yosegaki good luck flag, this is a recreated example. Its a genuine WWII Japanese with US Marine "kanji". Many Marines after the initial invasion would construct these flags from silk or from already existing Japanese flags, and had a “regular business” making them. The Marines that made them often used the parachute silk and mercurochrome from medical supplies for the writing. One Marine even stated that “we sold and traded them to those stupid squids as fast as we could make them.

”This is a great small sized Japanese national flag which appears to be the size of a “Rifle” flag, to mimic the flags that Japanese soldiers would attach to the front of their Arisaka rifles. It measures 13¼ x 18” and is dyed, with the original corner reinforcements retained.

The large text at the center is the standard Prayers for Eternal Good Fortune in War. There are two stamps in the corners which mimic temple stamps. On the lower right of the flag, the characters 東條 英機 (Tōjō Hideki) can be seen, second from the right, written top to bottom, a sure sign of a "Tojo" flag.

The Good Luck Flag, known as hinomaru yosegaki (日の丸 寄せ書き) in the Japanese language, was a traditional gift for Japanese servicemen deployed during the military campaigns of the Empire of Japan, though most notably during World War II. The flag given to a soldier was a national flag signed by friends and family, often with short messages wishing the soldier victory, safety, and good luck.

The Japanese call their country's flag hinomaru, which translates literally to "sun-round", referencing the red circle on a white field. When the hinomaru was signed, the Japanese characters were usually written vertically, and radiated outward from the edge of the red circle. This practice is referenced in the second term, yosegaki, meaning "sideways-writing". The phrase hinomaru-yosegaki can be interpreted as "To write sideways around the red sun", describing the appearance of the signed flag. This particular example completely unique is written in old KANJI the writing are mainly Japanese names of this soldier's family and friends with quotes and phrases.