It was 1944 and United States Marine forces had just invaded the western Pacific Island of Saipan. Marvin Strombo, a U.S. soldier, was behind enemy lines and fighting for his own life when he came across the body of a Japanese soldier. In the soldier’s pocket was an item that Strombo would treasure for years to come.

The item Strombo took from the Japanese soldier’s pocket before he escaped enemy fire and returned to his own company was a Japanese flag that was covered in Japanese calligraphy. Strombo knew the item must have been something very special to the soldier who clung to it as he lost his life at the hands of the enemy.

Strombo held tightly to the Japanese soldier’s treasure the duration of the war. When the war finally came to an end for Strombo, he took the decorated flag home with him, and displayed it in a glass case on the wall of his Montana home for 73 years.

After Strombo’s own war wounds began to heal, he thought more and more of the family the Japanese soldier had probably left behind. He spent time thinking about how important the flag he had hung in his house for so many years might be even more important to them than it was to him.

After years of thinking and planning, Strombo decided to return it to the family. The problem was that he had no idea where to begin his search to find them. How, after 73 years, would he ever find the soldier’s family?

Oceans away in the tiny Japanese village of Higashishirakawa, Japan, the fallen soldier’s family still grieved for the oldest brother they had lost. His body had never been recovered and it seemed like the war had never ended because they couldn’t lay his body to rest. His brother Tatsuya Yasu and sisters Sayoko Furuta and Mikayo Yasue remember their brother leaving for the war after tucking the flag into his pocket. There had been a farewell celebration for their brother, and the flag had been covered with well wishes for the soldier by family and friends.

Back in the United States, Strombo found out about the Obon Society who helps return Japanese artifacts to their owners. One month after contacting them, the family of the owner of the flag had been found. The soldiers name was Corporal Sadao Yasue, and his family was in a small tea-growing village in Japan. Strombo jumped on a plane and headed to Japan to return the flag that he knew would mean more to the soldier’s family than it could have possibly ever meant to him.

When Strombo landed in Japan, a ceremony was held for him to return the flag to the Japanese soldier’s family. Tatsuya, the soldier’s brother, accepted the flag graciously from Strombo, while his sisters wept at the closure the flag would finally bring their family.

Tatsuya said the flag still smelled like his older brother and their mother’s kitchen. “It’s like the war has finally ended, and my brother can come out of limbo,” he said.

We are happy for Corporal Sadao Yasue’s family to finally found the peace and closure they have long been waiting for and we applaud Marvin Stombo for returning the flag to the family. Share this story if it inspires you!