Japanese long tie wrap / sash with names - what is it ..... Kamikaze?

[RussM]

Hey Dan, that’s great news, well done!

[hftiii]

Guys, VERY neat piece of history and cool research! This is the kind of stuff that makes this forum great.

Tom

[Nick Komiya]

Regarding the owner's impression that the example looked too flimsy for use on large vessels, indeed this would have been only for small vessels like launches that transported officers, as battle ships would have flown larger sizes.

The regulation for these "officer-in-command" streamers required the length of the tail to be either 40 or 90 times the height. This example is the shorter version of the two length options, being 2.4 meters length=H 6cmx40, whereas the one in the museum in the link provided by Russ is a longer of the two sizes at 9 meters=H 10cmx90.

Larger vessels used streamers with more height and length, but there was no steadfast rule that assigned certain sizes according to vessel class. I assume battleship streamers to have had multi-piece construction in heavier material like the battle flags to be able to weather the higher wind stress.

[Danmark]

Thanks for that - makes perfect sense.

[Nick Komiya]

This is how these streamers were hoisted on a mast.

[RussM]

Great info Nick, where did you find those images? What is written on it?

[Nick Komiya]

That was on sale last December in the Japanese Yahoo auctions. The streamer shows the ship's name on top "Mikura (Current MSDF Minesweeper) followed by "Welcome aboard, Captain".

As you see, the current Maritime Self Defense Force still uses identical flags today, but these postwar versions seem to have tape-reinforced edges. Also, I show below a multi-piece construction version in heavier cloth.