Name/Title
WWII Japanese Good Luck FlagEntry/Object ID
34.15Description
World War II Japanese Pilot Senninbari (One Thousand Stitches) Scarf or Belly Belt. Material: textile. Size: 15" x 46". Description: white silk rectangle, fringed at ends; hundreds of tiny orange dots cover the scarf, each dot contains a tiny orange thread stitch; centered at the top of the scarf is a large orange circle or sun; two black Japanese language characters are painted on each side of the sun loosely translated "with eternal military courage"; stamped on one end is an orange square containing orange graphics; stamped at the other end is a circular official United States Government release: "Passed by Joint Intelligence, Examined in the Field".Context
When a Japanese soldier was called to active duty, the women in his family or community usually made good luck mementoes. One was a senninbari. This term literally means “thousand-person-stitches”, but is usually translated into English as “thousand stitch belt or scarf”. They were usually cloth strips of a size to be worn around the waist, or sometimes as a neck scarf or as a headband (hachimaki). A woman from the family or a community group like the Women's Patriotic Association (Aikoku Fujinkai) or the National Defense Women's Association (Kokubo Fujinkai) would stand in a busy location like the entrance to a train station and entreat passersby to add one stitch each. When one thousand stitches had been collected, the belt was believed by some to have special power to protect the bearer from the hazards of battle. The stitches are usually just arranged in multiple rows, but some were also done in patterns like the flag, a patriotic slogan or a tiger. The stitches did not always number exactly 1,000. This souvenir was found in the estate of Lawrence Yess. Lawrence Yess served in the U. S. Marines of the 28th Regiment, 5th Division and fought in the Battle Iwo Jima, February 1945, an island in the Pacific which was the site of one of the bloodiest and most famous battles of World War II against Japan. This talisman was recovered from the Iwo Jima battle field.Cataloged By
Legacy Photo ImportMade/Created
Artist Information
Attribution
Japanese WomenDate made
circa 1945Lexicon
Legacy Lexicon
Object Name
Scarf, TalismanClass
Personal SymbolCategory
Communication ArtifactsCreate Date
July 22, 2015Update Date
September 15, 2026