Background: This flag was taken off the body of a dead Japanese soldier in the Pacific theater during 1942 (I can get a few more details on that later). It belongs to my wife's family and I wanted to see if any of you could give me more information, such as a translation of the text, which I understand is usually printed by friends/relatives/well-wishers, that might provide them with the provenance of this flag.
Details: The flag is about 3ft by 16 inches (estimating) and made of silk (or something similar) with leather supporting the grommet (barely visible in top right/bottom left).
Question: Is there a protocol for repatriating such an item?
My apologies in advance if this violates r/askhistorians reddiquette.
I can't read all of it--the vertical text on the sides is quite difficult and I will leave it to somebody else. But the text on the top 国報身 献、is a wartime slogan that means something like 'serve the country, give up one's body' and the name of the soldier on the bottom horizontal text, I think, is Hisanaga Takeshi. It also gives the family name of the Lieutenant General of his unit (I'm assuming), which was Tominaga and would probably help in locating his family. It's also dated Showa 18 or 1943.
I can't answer your question directly, but you might try x-posting this /r/japan
