Hello CalvinJH,
As others have mentioned, the first flag (the rising sun flag with the train station names) is a very poor fake.
The second one seems to be a fake as well; primarily becase of some repetitive phrases done by the same hand 轟沈 (gōchin), 忠勇 (chuyū), for example. I can't say with 100% confidence that it's fake...there is a chance it's authentic, but if its showing up on the same site with other fakes, I'd avoid it. It is not a bad fake because of the impressive mix of names and phrases, but usually with so many things on the flag you would see some hint of who it is getting sent to, and who/what group is sending it (you'd see something like "good luck Mr. Tanaka, from all of us at Mitsubishi Steel, Nagoya branch"). I don't see anything like it on this flag. Its just a canvas for a bunch of random phrases and names.
The first two links to the flags at Stewart's Military Antiques are broken, and the flag at the third link looks like a very anemic fake. I would avoid that shop as they either do not know what they are selling, or worse, they are trying to sell fakes to people.
The fourth flag (Griffin Militaria) looks quite good, and has the sort of dedication that one usually (though not always) sees. Impressive collection of signatures and phrases radiating out from the center, and a variety of writing styles. Looks like the real deal. And looks to be in pretty good shape.
The image of the fifth flag (also Griffin Militaria) is showing the wrong side of the flag. I don't like this one as much as the previous flag. It seems to have the same suspicious jumble of patriotic phrases done in a suspiciously similar style, as the second flag in this post. The phrases are placed somewhat haphazardly around the red disc. I could be wrong. It could indeed be genuine. But my gut feeling is that of all of these flags the fourth one seems to me to be the most credible.
Good luck!
