Anyone familiar with Company "M" of the Battle of Attu and a American-Japanese Corporal Yashida who provided them with a flag to fly?

Just inherited my grampa's letters and scraps and found an unbelievable typewritten poem by a Sgt. G. Kinsman about this story. Want to know what happened ...

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"It won't be long now until I come home, darling."
(Donald B. Greenwood - 'grampa' - in a letter home to his wife in Oct. 1943 - he came home in Sep. 1945)

Hi, and welcome to the forum. We don't get many ladies around here, hope you stick around.

I think i can speake for most on here when i say yes, would would love to here it.

I am not familiar wth the inident you menion, as i tend to study the European front.

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'England confides that every man will do his duty' Nelson
'I'm a Norfolk man, and glory in being so' Nelson

Proud to be a GRUNT

Thanks for the welcome! I'm happy to find this place ...

here's an excerpt from the poem written on June 12th, 1943. You'll forgive me for not typing the entire poem!:

"... the flag that we have in mind at this time,
in the hearts of us all it will stay,
the emblem of freedom, and proudly it flew
on the Island of Attu in May

...our troops have assualted, and battles were won,
but Old Glory, our flag wasn't there
no one remebered to bring it with them
it was not that boys did not care ...

...a flag was presented to Company "M",
by a Japanese soldier so grand
Corporal Yashida, just one of the boys
who is fighting to save our land

... the flag of our country should always be flown
wherever soldiers will stand
and our soldiers are proud,and they shout it out loud,
it's the emblem of God's Chosen Land.

[ 27. October 2002, 07:03 PM: Message edited by: grampas girl ]

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"It won't be long now until I come home, darling."
(Donald B. Greenwood - 'grampa' - in a letter home to his wife in Oct. 1943 - he came home in Sep. 1945)

I can't say I'm very familiar with those events either. The poem is very nice, thanks for posting it, and welcome to these Forums 'maam. [img]smile.gif[/img]

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"The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance." Socrates

Yes indeed - glad to see you here, granpa's girl !

I'm ashamed to say that I hadn't even heard of Attu until your post
But there are a lot of websites about it, none of which seem to mention your 'incident'. I'll keep looking....

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

Have not heard of it either...

But I liked the poem a lot! Thanks!

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"War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." - Jean Dutourd, French veteran of both world wars

"A mon fils: depuis que tes yeux sont fermes les miens n’ont cessé de pleurir." - Mère française, Verdun

Hello GG, and thank you for the nice poem. [img]smile.gif[/img]

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Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.