Barbara O'Hare held onto a flag she inherited from her father in 2001, but now it's going back to the soldier's daughter in Japan.
ROBBINSVILLE -- Since 2001, a Robbinsville woman held onto a Japanese flag her father brought back from World War II, never knowing how he got it but was always curious about the signatures on it.
Then last February, at the 70th annual Los Banos Prison Rescue Dinner in New York City - honoring those who served in the 1945 rescue operation of allied POWs in the Phillipines - Barbara O'Hare brought her flag.
World War II veteran of the 11th Airborne Division Harold Gross took notice.
O'Hare said Gross is a member of the Japanese Language Group in Connecticut and suggested she take the flag to another member, Hiroshi Asada, who could translate the messages on the flag.
Kakuichi Tachigami's flag from World War II. "Last year I just decided to bring the flag to see if anyone was interested," O'Hare said. "I didn't bring the flag to New York that day with the purpose of finding its owner. It took a life of its own."
Asada said he was able to decipher the last name on the flag to be Tachigami with the help of his mother and aunt. Then he tracked down the deceased soldier's 81-year-old, only-surviving daughter living in Fukuyama City, Japan, who will now get her father's flag shipped back to her in March.
"I always knew there was some family behind it," O'Hare said. "The fact that we found them is amazing to me."
O'Hare said she inherited the flag in 2001 after her father, World War II veteran Ralph Muentener, passed away. He served with the 11th Airborne Division's 511th Parachute Infantry.
"(My father) never discussed it with me," O'Hare said about the flag and the war in general. "You know those WWII guys don't discuss the war. I don't know how he got it. I'm glad I don't know that part."
Asada said during the World War II time period, Japanese families often signed flags for their soldiers to take into battle, like how Americans may have taken photographs of loved ones.
He said the Tachigami soldier most likely died on the battlefield when O'Hare's father took the flag.
"One theory is maybe her father killed him," Asada said. "There are blood stains on the flag. They maybe came face to face. There could be other possibilities."
He said other than the flag being discolored with stains, it was in pretty good condition, but the messages written on it were still difficult to decipher.
"Some of it's hard to read because it's in cursive," Asada said. "Typically the flags (given to Japanese soldiers) have some kind of line dedicated to such and such person. This flag doesn't have anything like that. That made the search difficult."
When he finally deciphered the last name to be Tachigami, thankfully Asada said it was an uncommon name, he traced down about 200 households with the name in Fukuyama City, in the Hiroshima Prefecture.
"I thought 'Oh maybe I can find them,'" Asada said. "I randomly phone called numbers, did social media searches. I didn't get anywhere."
Then he said a friend living in Japan informed him the Japan government agency Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare deals with tracking down war veteran families in situations like these.
"(The agency officer) thought we probably couldn't find the family member," Asada said.
But sure enough, 81-year-old Hideko, daughter of deceased soldier Kakuichi Tachigami was found in ailing health.
"I don't want to hold up keeping the flag any longer," O'Hare said, thinking of Hideko, who is losing her memory.
O'Hare said she and Asada - who kept the flag in Connecticut for the past few months while tracking down the Tachigami family - will make a presentation with the flag about their project at the 2016 Los Banos Prison Rescue Dinner on Feb. 27. Then the flag will be shipped to Hideko in March.
"I think about the people involved," Asada said. "The soldier carrying the flag until the end. He never came back but the flag traveled from Japan to the U.S. and now back to Japan."
Lindsay Rittenhouse may be reached at lrittenhouse@njadvancemedia.com. Find NJ.com on Facebook.