A ragged flag and torn flag, nearly eighty years old was posted last month from a home not far from London. It doesn’t look like much but it is infinitely precious, both to the person who sent it and to the family in Japan that created it. If the family can be found, this flag may be the only thing that remains of their brother, father, uncle or grandfather who went missing in the Second World War. If it is returned to them they will have something to mourn after all these years.

The women who posted it is the daughter of a British soldier who fought the Japanese in the War. She hopes the flag can be repatriated and she says in her letter: “I have no illusion how my father came by this flag but I do hope that somehow, just maybe we can put a tiny piece of the horror of war to rest.”

The new episode of Tales of Textiles is about Yosegaki Hinomaru, good luck flags signed by the friends and families of Japanese soldiers going off to war. Many became war trophies for Allied soldiers and now finally, after all these years, some of them are being returned to the families of the men for whom they were first made. For their descendants this small piece of cloth is so much more than a textile, it represents the return of their relative’s spirit home.

This episode deals with war and loss, death and mourning.

You can find a full script of this podcast, pictures, links and show-notes at www.hapticandhue.com/listen.

If you would like to find out  about the Obon Society you can find them at https://obonsociety.org/eng/