Worm
slimy ninja
My grandfather served in WWII for the US Marine Corps. He told us a few things about his time in WWII while he was alive, but preferred not to talk much about it. He had mentioned over the years that he he was stationed on or passed through Saipan and Tinian in the Mariana Islands, and that he was on a ship that transported one of the bombs. He also told us that he was medically discharged because he threw a grenade in the heat of battle incorrectly and threw out his elbow (ha!). We also knew that he had received the Bronze Star, which is shown in the attached image album. Grumpa, as me and my sister (lovingly) called him growing up, passed in late 2015.
In the process of sorting through his things after he died we found a box of items from WWII that neither my mother or myself knew about. It contained ribbons from his service, photos with writing on the back, and a flag.
The flag is a Japanese flag which my grandfather presumably (total guess on my part) recovered off of a fallen Japanese soldier. The flag contains a large amount of Japanese writing, an amazing depiction of a tiger, and hand prints, which I can only guess belonged to the Japanese soldier's family.
I was at a loss when we found these. I can only wonder who the women (and man) in the pictures are and why my grandfather saved them all these years. And the flag just blows my mind. I would love to know what it says.
I post this here because I thought the flag in particular was an amazing glimpse into both sides of the war. And I'm curious as to some of the other items.
Can anyone identify the top two ribbons? I've done a little research and seem to have found what the bottom set of three ribbons are, but not the top two.
What do the pictures say/who are they? Memento pictures from Japanese soldiers?
What is the flag's background? Translation (-I think I'll post to a translation sub as well)? Am I right that it was a memento taken to war?
Link to album: http://imgur.com/a/EBmef
I just posted this over to reddit in order to see if I could get any success with a translation - head over and give me an upvote to get a little help if you are a redditor.
https://www.reddit.com/r/history/comments/5qj1rc/my_grandfather_passed_and_we_found_a_box_of_wwii/
In the process of sorting through his things after he died we found a box of items from WWII that neither my mother or myself knew about. It contained ribbons from his service, photos with writing on the back, and a flag.
The flag is a Japanese flag which my grandfather presumably (total guess on my part) recovered off of a fallen Japanese soldier. The flag contains a large amount of Japanese writing, an amazing depiction of a tiger, and hand prints, which I can only guess belonged to the Japanese soldier's family.
I was at a loss when we found these. I can only wonder who the women (and man) in the pictures are and why my grandfather saved them all these years. And the flag just blows my mind. I would love to know what it says.
I post this here because I thought the flag in particular was an amazing glimpse into both sides of the war. And I'm curious as to some of the other items.
Can anyone identify the top two ribbons? I've done a little research and seem to have found what the bottom set of three ribbons are, but not the top two.
What do the pictures say/who are they? Memento pictures from Japanese soldiers?
What is the flag's background? Translation (-I think I'll post to a translation sub as well)? Am I right that it was a memento taken to war?
Link to album: http://imgur.com/a/EBmef
I just posted this over to reddit in order to see if I could get any success with a translation - head over and give me an upvote to get a little help if you are a redditor.
https://www.reddit.com/r/history/comments/5qj1rc/my_grandfather_passed_and_we_found_a_box_of_wwii/
Last edited by a moderator:
upvote coming
for Ron, later on. 
