Japanese Flag

[Anthony Egretz]

I just bought this flag of ebay for my club to go with our Japanese WW2 Relics. What was it it used for also is it real or reproduction.
Cheers Anthony

[MichaelB]

Hello Anthony-
Your flag appears to be a fairly standard size (what are the exact measurements?) Japanese "national" flag. There really is no way to tell whether this is a WW2 period flag or not if there is nothing on it to ID it. Sometimes flags or other textiles have small paper tags pasted to them that give clues as to when they were mfg/purchased. If there is nothing else on your flag, then it could be pre-, WW2 era, or post-WW2 manufacture/purchase.

MichaelB

[Anthony Egretz]

Ok when we get we will look for tag and size is 950 mm x 730mm

[MichaelB]

Very good Anthony. Be sure to post if you see anything attached to the flag. Like most people, the tags were generally removed prior to the item being used, but you never know. ...And thank you for the measurements.

MichaelB

[Nick Komiya]

From a current flag shop site, here is how they are used
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National Holidays in Japan are also called "Flag Days", because people used to put up these flags in front of their homes on those days.

One thing you can do is to check whether the white cotton (?) glows in blacklight, indicating use of "Blankophor" fluorescent whitening agents developed by IG Farben in 1940, which only saw widespread use in the postwar years. If it glows, it is definitely post war. If it doesn't glow, it has a chance of being earlier, but could still be an untreated post-war product.

Material-wise they tried to persuade people to be patriotic and buy silk flags during WW2 (read this article about silk promotion during WW2 The Development of the Army Field Cap (1932-1938)) whereas this extravagant choice would have found little support after the war.

[Anthony Egretz]

Will do,I'll keep you guys updated

[Anthony Egretz]

The flag arrived today, it's very nice and it's defently not a fake. Now to find a big enough frame to put it in, as I was going just to hang it but one of the corner that can be seen in the photos is damged.

[Nick Komiya]

It is a current national flag, which you can buy any day from any flag shop, so there never was a question of whether it could be fake, only whether it was of wartime vintage. These flags are like a blank piece of paper. It's not a fake until you draw on it and call it what it's not.

[Anthony Egretz]

I had some people from the military musuem look at it and they say it looks ww2 or before ww2 made for sure, so I did a great score.