Returning A Wallet

Today, I was proud to be the last leg of a journey of a wallet back to where it began it's journey, Japan. My co-worker back in Detroit (Paul) had a father in the Coast Guard stationed in Maui. During that time his father met a Marine coming back from Iwo Jima. This marine gave his father a wallet that he had picked up off the battlefield from a fallen Japanese soldier. This wallet was then given to Paul and he has had it ever since.

Last week Paul sent me the wallet to my attention. It appropriately arrived on Memorial Day (USA). After receiving the wallet I looked up the phone number for Yasukuni Jinja.

Now, Yasukuni has been the source of quite a bit of controversy for some time now. All of the men and women who died for the protection of Japan are enshrined here. Putting politics aside, this place is special in that it honors the men who gave their lives to protect their country and the family they loved back home. My philosophy is this; on the big scale war is a clash of cultures but on the small scale it is the stories of individuals on both sides who give their lives for many reasons.

I called Yasukuni and was put in contact with a Mr. Oyama (Pictured above). This past week Mr. Oyama and I had gone back and fourth with e-mail and found that the name on the wallet was Yutaka Hagino. When we arrived at Yasukuni Mr. Oyama met with us at the museum and discussed the handing over of the wallet. Mr. Oyama will be doing some more research on the wallet but, the owner of the wallet may have been in a Naval Air unit (#125) on Iwo Jima protecting one of three air fields from American bombers.

Mr. Oyama carefully cataloged all of the items in the wallet and will be sending a formal thank you certificate with Paul's name for me to send to him from here.

This was definitely a great experience for me in that I think that the soul of one man can finally rest easy that his spirit now lies where it is supposed to be, at Yasukuni.

Click Here to see the rest of the pictures from Yasukuni Jinja.

Click Here to see the contents of Yutaka Hagino's Wallet.