Japanese Flag From World War II Found in New Trier's Basement

When a construction crew was making preparations for the building of an addition to New Trier High School’s Winnetka Campus, they made quite a find.

Tucked away in the basement of a storage area was a good luck flag likely carried into battle by a Japanese soldier during World War II.

According to a school news release, Japanese flags were known as yosegaki hinomaru and were commonly given to soldiers by family members as “tokens of protection on the battlefield.” The flag found at New Trier was inscribed with several messages of love and encouragement in Japanese and accompanied by a portion of a 1944 Chicago Daily Times newspaper photo of U.S. soldiers with the caption “To the conquerors.”

After it was found, the flag was confirmed as a yosegaki hinomaru by OBOB 2015, a non-profit group that works to return the flags to Japan. The group is now working with several New Trier students and faculty in reuniting the flag with the relatives of its original owner - 70 years after the end of the war.

“This significant historical artifact, which we believe was brought to New Trier by one of our alumni, undoubtedly has deep personal meaning to a family in Japan,” said New Trier Winnetka Campus Principal Denise Dubravec. “Through the efforts of our students and staff, we hope to reunite this special flag with the relatives of the soldier who carried it into battle.”

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New Trier social studies and Japanese language students, along with members of the school’s Japanese Culture Club, have been working since last spring to find out more about the flag’s origin before ultimately sending it to OBON 2015, which will use its resources to try to track down relatives of the original owner.

Japanese language students and club members worked with Japanese teacher Naomi Suzuki to translate names and phrases on the flag as well as to track the region of a shrine connected to papers found with the flag.

“These flags are so meaningful to Japanese families who lost someone in the war. It is beautiful that OBON 2015 is trying to get them back to where they belong,” said senior John Murphy.