![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP_17221583912233.jpg.jpg\")
Through him, Strombo reached out to the Obon Society, a nonprofit in Oregon that helps U.S. veterans and their descendants return Japanese flags to the families of fallen soldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Within a week, researchers found it belonged to Yasue Sadao by reading the script on the flag. They traced the corporal to a tea-growing village of about 2,400 people in the mountains roughly 200 miles (340 kilometers) west of Tokyo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The calligraphy turned out to be the signatures of 180 friends and neighbors who saw Yasue off to war in Higashi Shirakawa, including 42 of his relatives. Seven of the original signatories are still alive, including Yasue\u2019s 89-year-old brother and two sisters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When researchers contacted Yasue\u2019s brother by phone, he asked if the person who had his brother\u2019s flag was the same one who found it so many years ago, said Rex Ziak, who co-founded the Obon Society with his Japanese wife, Keiko.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere was just silence on the line and then he asked, \u2018Do you imagine he knows how my brother died and where he died?\u2019\u201d Ziak recounted. \u201cAnd that\u2019s when we realized that this person is very much alive in that family and this mystery of what happened to him is very much alive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Strombo is the only person who can provide those answers. He can roughly show where he found Yasue\u2019s body on the outskirts of Garapan and can tell the siblings that their brother likely died of a concussion from a mortar round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI knew he was young because I could see his profile as I bent over him. He was laying on his back, kind of on his left side,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Obon Society has returned about 125 flags and gets about five inquiries a day from aging soldiers who regret their actions and want to return the flags before they die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The group believes thousands of similar flags are likely hidden in attics across the U.S. that could give answers to countless other families. Strombo will be the first World War II veteran to return a flag in person to a Japanese family through the Obon Society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The trip is a journey of forgiveness and closure as he finishes the final chapter of his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only two other men in his platoon of 40 are still alive and he knows the humid islands where he fought for weeks are now a footnote in the war\u2019s larger history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt got so I kind of wanted to meet the family, you know,\u201d he said, his voice growing raspy. \u201cI know it means so much to them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marvin Strombo was behind Japanese enemy lines on a Pacific island during World War II when he realized the other five men in his squadron had moved on without him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":66843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":12,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,12,25],"tags":[],"coauthors":[5131],"class_list":["post-33630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"L7TB7TBLFRAGJHTVEXFKKG6D6U","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/2017\/08\/11\/wwii-veteran-93-brings-back-flag-taken-from-enemy-soldier\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP_17221583896459.jpg.jpg\")