Marvin Strombo, who had taken the calligraphy-covered Japanese flag from a dead soldier at a World War II island battlefield 73 years ago, returned it Tuesday to the family of Sadao Yasue. They had never gotten his body or — until that moment — anything else of his.
Yasue and Tatsuya’s sister Sayoko Furuta, 93, sitting in her wheelchair, covered her face with both hands and wept silently as Tatsuya placed the flag on her lap. Strombo reached out and gently rubbed her shoulder.
‘‘I was so happy that I returned the flag,’’ Strombo said. ‘‘I can see how much the flag meant to her. That almost made me cry ... It meant everything in the world to her.’’
The flag’s white background is filled with signatures of 180 friends and neighbors in this tea-growing mountain village of Higashishirakawa, wishing Yasue’s safe return. The signatures helped Strombo find its rightful owners.
The smell of the flag immediately brought back childhood memories. ‘‘It smelled like my good old big brother, and it smelled like our mother’s home cooking we ate together,’’ Tatsuya Yasue said. ‘‘The flag will be our treasure.’’
https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2017/08/15/wwii-veteran-returns-dead-japanese-solider-flag-family/IWbCzf32fZohJzbrcFLbQJ/story.html
