Chris Dorsey, left, and Ken and Toshimi Kudo pose with a Japanese "good luck" flag and their relatives' portraits at a community center in Taketa city, Japan, Feb. 12, 2025. (Jonathan Snyder/Stars and Stripes)
TAKETA CITY, Japan — A U.S. Army colonel’s great-grandson returned a “good luck” flag Wednesday to the nephew of a Japanese soldier who carried it into battle during World War II.
Chris Dorsey, an Army veteran and great-grandson of the late Col. Thomas Rogers, returned the flag — or yosegaki hinomaru — to the family of Fumio Kudo. The ceremony took place at a community center in Taketa city, Oita prefecture, on Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands.
The Obon Society, an Oregon-based nonprofit that helps U.S. veterans and their families return old war trophies such as flags and swords, along with the Japan Bereaved Families Association, helped return the flag. Japanese troops often carried small national flags signed in ink by their friends and family as tokens of good luck.
“The yosegaki hinomaru stayed with the soldier until the very end, put away securely in the chest pocket, close to the heart,” Hideo Suemitsu, president of the Oita Prefecture Bereaved Families Association, said at the ceremony. “It can truly be said to symbolize the soul of the fallen soldier returning home.”
Toshimi Kudo holds a portrait of Fumio Kudo during a flag-return ceremony at a community center in Taketa city, Japan, Feb. 12, 2025. (Jonathan Snyder/Stars and Stripes)
Kudo, from the Miyakono district of Kuju town in Taketa, died at age 24 during the intense battles in the closing days of World War II on the Philippine island of Luzon, according to the Obon Society.
Dorsey, of Dahlonega, Ga., is unsure exactly how the flag came into his great-grandfather’s possession, he told Stars and Stripes at the ceremony.
“He joined the Army in 1923 as a private, made it all the way to master sergeant and then was commissioned a lieutenant and made it all the way to full-bird colonel,” he said.
Dorsey received his great-grandfather’s military belongings six years ago after his grandfather passed away. Among the memorabilia, he found the folded and carefully preserved flag, he said.
A portrait of U.S. Army Col. Thomas Rogers is displayed during a flag-return ceremony at a community center in Taketa city, Japan, Feb. 12, 2025. (Jonathan Snyder/Stars and Stripes)
“In my spiritual life, I practice the ways of my Native American ancestors,” he said during the ceremony. “In one of our ceremonies in July 2024, a lost and confused spirit came to one of our tribal elders and myself. We soon learned it was a spirit of a Japanese soldier.”
Dorsey said a Lakota elder in his community suggested he contact a Shinto priest, who explained the significance and meaning behind the Japanese flag.
“Through this Shinto priest, he explained to me that their belief is that the spirit of that soldier is with that flag and will roam the Earth lost and confused until he returns home,” Dorsey said.
The priest recommended he contact the Obon Society to help find the soldier’s family.
“Thanks to the generosity of Mr. Dorsey, my uncle Fumio Kudo’s legacy has returned to Miyakono after 80 years,” Ken Kudo said at the ceremony. “My family and I are filled with both astonishment and deep gratitude.”
Dorsey said members of the bereaved families association plan to visit Arlington National Cemetery in September.
“They want to pay their respects to American soldiers that are fallen, and then we’re going to go to my great-grandfather’s grave,” he said.
Ken Kudo wipes away tears during a flag-return ceremony at a community center in Taketa city, Japan, Feb. 12, 2025. (Jonathan Snyder/Stars and Stripes)
