Invasion precursor

The fighting began Feb. 19 and ended March 26, and for the first time in the Pacific war the Americans suffered more dead and wounded than the Japanese.

The American victory cost 25,000 U.S. casualties, including nearly 7,000 killed, most of them Marines. Only 216 Japanese were captured, and most of those were taken only because they had been too wounded to continue fighting.

For many Americans, Iwo loomed as a precursor to how brutal an invasion of the Japanese main islands would be.

For the Japanese, it was another in a long series of desperate island defenses that ended in death for nearly everyone.

More than 1 million Japanese soldiers are still listed as missing in action from the war. It was as if they never existed.

“Nothing came back,” said Mr. Ziak. “Not a button, not a bone. Nothing.”

In many cases, the family received a box containing a letter confirming a soldier’s death accompanied by a piece of wood, a pebble, a piece of coral — something associated with the place where a soldier died. In Shiro Koga’s case, his family received a piece of burnt wood from Iwo.

That’s why the flags, with their hopeful notes, have significance.

“It’s almost like the inside of a yearbook for a graduating senior,” Mr. Ziak said. “These people have been with this person all of his life and they don’t know if they are ever going to see each other again.”

Typically the flags contain the soldier’s name and characters across the top that say “long life and victory” or words to that effect. A wife might have dipped a child’s hand in ink to sign, a sister or mother might have written that that they will take care of the house, a college professor might wish the soldier well. Every now and then there will be a message ex-horting the soldier to give the Americans hell or some such patriotic message.

“We have talked to people who have signed these and it’s really almost that the spirit of this will provide you with comfort, we’re with you in spirit,” said Mr. Ziak. “These are the last remaining trace of these soldiers. These flags are viewed as the spirit of that person coming back.”

Victor and vanquished

Edgar Lane and Shiro Koga are representatives of another time, victor and