Translation Help For Hinomaru No Yosegaki

[Bobby]

Greetings! Can anyone provide translation help for this Hinomaru No Yosegaki? Also, does it appear to be period correct?

Addition to this post: My apologies. The images on my computer are in the correct orientation. But upon posting they are 180 degrees rotated. Not sure how to correct for this rotation.

2nd addition to this post: When I click on the images that I posted, they end up properly oriented. Not sure what is going on.

Thank you.

[Bobby]

So I rotated the images on my PC and re-saved. Still not displaying in the correct orientation after trying to post in this message #2. So I deleted them here. But as I mention above in message #1, when I click on those images, they open in the correct orientation.

[ghp95134]

I might have missed a slogan, but I think I got all.

Right margin, then going in a clockwise direction:

祝出征
Shuku Shussei
Congratulations on your Deployment; going to war

木内義房君
Kiuchi Yoshifusa-kun
Mr. Kiuchi Yoshifusa
Also Kinouchi [ki-no-uchi]

新興機械工業株式會社
Shinko Kikai Kōgyō Kabushiki Gaisha
Shinko Machine Corporation Co., Ltd.

工場長 白井吉之助
Factory Manager, Shirai Yoshinosuke

技師長 横田芳太郎
Technology Manager Yokota Yoshitarō

監査役渡邉久〇
Auditor Watanabe Hisa~

Left of recipient's name, next to sun:
桜航〇工業株式会社々長才村 〇一郎
Sakura Kō〇 Kōgyō Kabushikigaisha Shachō
Sakura [Aero or Sea depending on missing kanji?] Co. LTD
Saimura 〇Ichirō

About 7:00 o'clock position:
七生報國 Shichisei Hōkoku. Seven Lives Dedicated to the Nation

戰友勉強五十嵐正人
Comrade-in-Arms Study Hard! Igarashi Masato
[I wrote this down before figuring out that it included the writer's name! Normally I don't translate names, but this was worth it.

祈武運長久
Inori Bu'un Chōkyu
Prayers/Wishes for Continued luck in the fortunes of war

-- Guy

[Bobby]

Thank you Guy! Very much appreciate the help. I googled "Shinko Machine Corporation" and found a company using that name. Their company history section states that they originally formed in 1934, but apparently under a different name. But that original company name is not shown. And says that in 1961 the company name was changed to "Shinko Machine Co., Ltd." Do you think that this information, about the company name change in 1961, casts any suspicions that this Hinomaru no Yosegaki is actually post-WWII? Here is the link to the company web site: History | Company Profile | Shinko Machine

I also found that there is a Japanese soccer player, born in 1999 named Masato Igarashi, according to Wikipedia. Entry shown as: "Masato Igarashi (五十嵐 理人, Igarashi Masato, born 13 June 1999) is a Japanese footballer currently playing as a midfielder for Tochigi SC, as a designated special player." Could this name in both the Hinomaru no Yosegaki and this person just be a coincidence?

[ghp95134]

Bobby,

There is no doubt this flag dates pre-1945. Companies fold, change names, etc. No worries. I am not sure if the Shinko company established in 1967 has relation to the one on the flag or not.

The two Igarashis you mention are two different people separated by maybe 90 years. Their given names use different kanji:

Igarashi Masato on the flag: 五十嵐 正人
Igarashi Masato the footballer: 五十嵐 理人

And to verify the period, I did a search for "新興機械工業 + 白井吉之助" and found this (page 16)

Heading:
========
多摩の源流…多摩各地の産業のル-ツを探る企画の２回目は、昭和10年代 から、飛行機やエンジ
ン製造といった当時のハイテク産業� �集積していた三鷹市を取り上げまし� ��。

The origins of Tama...The second part of the project to explore the roots of industry in various parts of Tama is about airplanes and engineering, which have been around since the 1930s.
We focused on Mitaka City, which was home to many high-tech industries at the time, including manufacturing.
=======
In the table below (also on page 16) you can see the Shinko Kikai Kōgyō factory manager is your very own Shirai Yoshinosuke:

Cheers,
-- Guy

[Bobby]

Hello Guy. Thank you for the documents. I took the liberty of putting them through Google Translate. I have attached the translated page 16 that you provided.

If I may ask, under "location" what does "Iguchi 115" refer to?

And is the Google translated name "Kishinosuke Shirai" the same person as "Shirai Yoshinosuke". I can see that the Kanji look the same in the flag and in the document.

Thank you!

[ghp95134]

Google tends to automatically render Japanese names in Western format: given name followed by surname (e.g., Yoshinosuke Shirai).
I follow the Japanese standard of surname followed by given name, Shirai Yoshinosuke.

Shirai is the family name
Yoshinosuke is his given name

Iguchi 115 might be a location within Tama city. The article mentions Mitaka (三鷹 3-Hawks .. love that name) which is in Suginami Ward west of central Tokyo. So Iguchi might be around there.

I'm not familiar with the numbering system used. Maybe a phone number?

-- Guy

[Akira Komiya]

115 is the plot number under the older address system that is still used in some communities.
The name Iguchi is still in use, although it is now divided in to 5 subdivisions, Iguchi 1-chome to Iguchi 5-chome.
I don't know where Iguchi 115 would have been, but in general, Iguchi is located south of Musashi Sakai Station and is a little north east of the International Christian University campus which used to be the Musashi Works of the Nakajima Aircraft Company.
So it is possible that the Shinko Machinery Company was a subcontractor to Nakajima.
In fact, my mother was drafted to work at Nakajima Aircraft's Musashi Works during the war under the National Service scheme and lost a friend when a bomb directly hit the shelter where the friend was sheltering. (My mother as well as her other classmates were waiting for a friend who had to use the bathroom before going into the shelter, which ironically saved her life.)
Google Maps

[ghp95134]

Wow, Akira-san, thanks for the great geographical information; this sort of knowledge is what I like to know about historic items.

And what a great story from your mother!!!

My wife's mother and sister told me about having to practice aodake-yari to spear American paratroopers! She was graded in naginata. But she said all the women had to learn this sort of self-defense.


reddit source

Cheers,
-- Guy

[Akira Komiya]

There was a famous story about the training of women with bamboo spears; a newspaper man called Takeo Niina (新名丈夫）criticized the government writing that the unfavorable developments of the war made it a matter of life or death for Japan and that what was needed was not bamboo spears, but aircraft, particularly, Naval aircraft. Niina's newspaper article caught the ire of Tojo so much so that he was drafted into the army despite already being 37 and previously failing the draft inspection due to poor eyesight which was something unprecedented. In order to justify the calling up of Mr. Niina and claim that there were no ulterior motives in the call up, the army also called up 250 men of the same class into the 12th Infantry Regiment. Fortunately, Mr. Niina previously having served as a war correspondent, had some friends in both the army and particularly the navy so that he was discharged from the army only after 3 months and was immediately drafted by the navy as a war correspondent to prevent the army from trying to redraft him again. Thus, he was able to survive the war, but the other 250 men who were called up at the same time as Mr. Niina were not so lucky and were all sent to Iwo Jima. You can imagine what the fate that befell those men was.
竹槍事件 - Wikipedia