Yosegaki Hinomaru translation help

Hello,
I heard this is the place to have Yosegaki Hinomaru translated so I was wondering if anyone could help translate or verify a likely/unlikely authenticity. I'm sure there are many requests for this type of help so I apologize if this seems repetitive. I am in possession of a few of these flags and I know the least about this one. I am very curious. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

The most prominent bits

The large letters at the top
祝 應召
Congratulations on your enlistment

The vertical writing on the right side
祈武運長久
Pray for your everlasting luck in battle

Inside the red disc
誠心
Sincerity

The rest are names. Looks OK to me. The recipient's name may have been on the left side, but its all but lost due to the damage of the flag.

Wow, Thank you very much! I feel like you've helped me unlock a treasure chest with the information you've provided. I have 3 more flags I'm curious about. If it's not too much trouble for you could I post them here for translation?

Tommygun said:

Wow, Thank you very much! I feel like you've helped me unlock a treasure chest with the information you've provided. I have 3 more flags I'm curious about. If it's not too much trouble for you could I post them here for translation?

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Sure you can post them. Worst case is nobody will respond to you. (But normally that's not the case.)

Thank you, here's another I know nothing about

#3

Other than "May your military fortunes be long lasting" inscribed in large characters up top I was told this flag has mostly names. Which is interesting because it seems to be all in the same hand writing. Anyone know why that is? Any other info besides names inscribed on the flag?

Post #5
It is a flag from Shimomura in Hyogo Prefecture. Shimomura village has been absorbed into neighboring cities, and is now part of Toyooka city.

Across the top of the flag it says
尽忠報国 (read right to left on the flag, as was the writing style until the mid-1900s)
Jinchū hōkoku
"Give all for your country"

The rest of the writings are names. I don't see the name of the recipient.

Post #6
A lot of names and a couple of patriotic slogans. I question the authenticity of this flag. It just seems to be random names written on a flag. The patriotic slogans feel fake.

Post #7
The recipient is
小瀧義夫君 Kotani Yoshiō-kun

It was presented by the mayor of Hodogaya Ward (Yokohama),
望月隆治 Mochizuki Takaji (or maybe Takaharu)

Often the flags that have names written by the same hand, will be fake (or highly suspicious). The flags are similar to our own high school yearbooks (if you are from the US). Each person signing his own name makes the flag special. One representative signing on behalf of your friends almost defeats the purpose of the flag.
However, in this particular case it seems it might be OK. If it is from the city hall, it may well have been signed on behalf of the city hall authorities by an appointed clerk.

Wow thank you for all the great info! Again, I feel you have unlocked information and history that has been lost for decades. I really appreciate it!

In regards to the flag from Shimomura there are 2 shrine seals, one round, one square at the 12 o'clock position above the sun on the flag. Very faded but any info on these would be greatly appreciated!

Now I'm very curious about the authenticity of the flag you mentioned! I definitely would not have suspected it to be a fake. I found it for sale at an air show almost 20 years ago crumpled in a ball in the pocket of what appeared to be an authentic pilots A2 jacket from WWII. It seemed like it had been stored for a long time in that pocket because if I opened it from its balled up state and let go of it it would contract back to its original balled up shape. The material is the most frail of all the flags. It's unknown what the material is but it's much lighter than the others. The wear marks and burns are symmetrical almost as if they were worn while the flag was folded. The red sun has bled over to the white areas of the flag from what appears to be moisture. There's also a strange piece of tag board adhered to the flag (lower left corner). On the other side of the flag on the paper you can see listed American names written out by a type writer in what appears to be a roster of some sorts. Almost as if someone mounted the flag (with some form of adhesive) to a board with the names on it. The paper is old. Really strange. The flag passes a black light test. Also it seems there are multiple peoples hand writing on the flag but I'm no expert.

I trust your analysis Majestic as it seems you've encountered many of these flags before. And I understand as it appears the flag may be old that doesn't guarantee authenticity. From what I know US servicemen in search of war souvenirs were swindled in the days following the war by people looking to make a buck. I am curious though, what do the slogans say? Are they that far off from original sayings or slogans at the time?

Photo of the shrine seals

Sorry, that seal is too faded to see anything.
The flag in post #6 could be authentic - bear in mind I'm just taking a guess after looking at a few pictures over the internet, so my opinion is far from authoritative. It seems to lack a focal point, a central slogan or encouraging message. It's just names (several of the signers are named Kanemura, which is neither a negative nor positive), and patriotic slogans. Not that the slogans are fake, its just unusual for me to see some of these placed on the flag as if someone picked them out of an encyclopedia and put the on the flag without any thought or personal connection to either the giver or the receiver. "loyalty to the country" "kill all enemies" "belief in certain victory" "pray for good luck in battle"...None of these are wrong, but all together they feel inauthentic to me. Maybe Toritoribe-san will give his opinion. He is Japanese and has a keener sense for these things than I do.

I, too, think the flag in the post#6 is questionable. There are too many slogans there, which are written with almost every signature, and some of them are uncommon or odd.

The red stamp doesn't look like a shrine one. It seems to me that only one kanji (金？ 盆？) is written in the circle.

Toritoribe said:

I, too, think the flag in the post#6 is questionable. There are too many slogans there, which are written with almost every signature, and some of them are uncommon or odd.

The red stamp doesn't look like a shrine one. It seems to me that only one kanji (金？ 盆？) is written in the circle.

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Thank you for the input! Very interesting.

I'm curious, what do those Kanji that you mentioned mean?

I was talking about the round stamp. The square one is too faint to recognize, as Majestic-san mentioned.
金 means money, gold, etc., and 盆 is tray or a Japanese festival, but a single kanji is often used as an abbreviation to represent the name of a company, shop, trademark or like that.

Tommygun said:

I'm curious, what do those Kanji that you mentioned mean?

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Google can give you decent translations for individual kanji.