With the surrender of American forces at Wake Island on 23 December 1941, this flag was captured by LCDR Taro Fukatsu of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Upon his return to Japan in the spring of 1943, he gave the flag to his mother before he was killed at sea on 25 October 1944, during the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
USMC photo
The flag was returned to the Marine Corps in 1956 and currently has a place of honor at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, on display in the institution’s WWII Gallery.
DAVE DOES HISTORY 
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