Article about: Hello, I own a military surplus store with a small militaria museum and we had a customer bring in a hinomaru that was a bring back from his grandfather. I was hoping to get a little more in
I own a military surplus store with a small militaria museum and we had a customer bring in a hinomaru that was a bring back from his grandfather. I was hoping to get a little more information on it for him. It's one of the busiest ones I've seen. The red is very clear and vibrant. There's also at least two of the shrine stamps (I believe is what they are?) in the corners.
He's considering donating it to our museum, but I wanted him to know an approximate value before he decides. While I know some on forums like this are hesitant to suggest value based only on photos, I'd be grateful if I could get some kind of ballpark for him.
Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!
(My apologies on image rotation. They're right on my end and couldn't see any way to rotate them here.)
This flag appears (to me) to be unusual in that a military unit is mentioned ... usually when a military unit is mentioned one thinks of forgery; however, this appears authentic.
In the corners:
武運長久
Bu'un Chōkyū; Continued Luck in the Fortunes of War
武 top right
運 bottom right
長 top left
久 bottom left
Right margin:
舩上高射砲第五部隊
5th Anti-Aircraft Shipboard Artillery Battery/Unit
Left margin:
昭和十＊年十月二十二日＊＊＊＊
Showa 1＊ Year, October 22 ＊＊＊＊
Showa year in the teens ... 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 .... ????
南＊バイアス濱上陸
I'm not certain about this, so hopefully Nick can chime in and clarify. Not certain the first kanji is minami/south; something like "Landed at South ~biasu Harbor." .... *IF* .... if, if, if.
The balance of the writing appears to be the signatures of well-wishers. I don't see any other mottos.
This flag is unusual in that it was not a send-off gift to any particular soldier, and the sheer number of people signing suggests a large community like townspeople of where an army unit was based. However, that scenario normally involves also signatures from women of the town, which are missing, all being men.
The unit was the 3rd Shipboard Antiaircraft Gun Regiment. Their job was to set up defenses onboard commercial cargo vessels chartered by the army. So the all male community is likely to be the civilian crews of these cargo ships, who wanted to wish their army protectors the best in an army operation.
This operation was the Canton Operation of Oct. to Dec. 1938 in which the Japanese Army made a mass landing east of Hong Kong at Bias Bay (now called Daya Bay). This can be told by the bold writing on the left edge of the flag, which says, "At XX hours in the morning of October 22nd 1938, made landfall at Bias Bay South China".
So the antiaircraft unit that had received this well-wishing flag from the ship crews they were protecting, must have added the bold writing to both edges upon the successful completion of their mission.
This flag might have been taken from such a cargo freighter by a GI in the Pacific War, but by then, it was already an old memento from the 1938 campaign.
Rather than a normal personal good luck flag, this is more in the nature of a "mission accomplished, campaign memento", which makes it rare.
Thank you guys so much for this amazing info! I never thought I'd be able to tell the owner even half of what you provided. Fascinating to know how this one stands apart from other prayer flags.
Would either of you care to ballpark a value I can tell him?
Hinomaru information/translation/valuation
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by nick komiya
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