Japanese Kamikaze War Flag

Usually it isn't possible to get much information about the flags when I obtain them and have to go by what is written on them. In this instance, I was able to get the story behind the flag from the person I purchased it from.

Any original WW2 flag with the "Kamikaze" written on it is extremely rare because in most cases the upper levels of the military kept secret who was to go as a kamikaze pilot until the day they were chosen to go. This flag was used to wave goodbye to kamikaze pilots on thier final mission. This is what I was told:

When the man was young, he lived near one of the air bases where kamikaze pilots took off on their final mission. His father was friends with one of the cooks on the base who would be notified the night before when kamikaze pilots would be taking off the next morning since he needed to prepare their final meal. The cook passed along this information to his father and the next morning a small group of people from the town would go out to the end of the runway with flags to cheer the kamikaze pilots as they took off on their final mission. This is the flag that his father made for him that he waved toward the pilots as they took off from the base - likely one of the last things many of these pilots saw.

The top of the flag reads "Kamikaze Tokkou Tai" (the official full name of kamikaze pilots). The second line reads "Buun Chokyu" (a Japanese good luck war prayer found on many signed flags). The third line reads "Hondo kessen" which means roughly "Final War" and the bottom line reads "Ichi Oku Kokumin" which means "The Entire Country Stands Behind You"









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