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. It's a genuine WWII Japanese with US Marine "kanji" and a plethora of Kanji stamps. 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 pair of flags, one being a Seabee Special flag and the other being a plain Meatball flag.

The “Seabee Special” flag measures 23 x 33 ½” and has six painted Kanji characters in one corner, with a great deal of small Kanji stamps, some possibly temple stamps, around the sun and in other places. There are no corner reinforcements but there are tie strings in two corners, though there is tearing in spots around them. There is some minor tearing in spots along the edge. On this example, the sun is a separate stitched piece of fabric. 

The plain Meatball flag appears to be rayon, and measures 26 x 39”. The sun is dyed, and both leather corner reinforcements are retained along with their tie strings.

A great pair of flags, ready for display.

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.