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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, MARCH 13, 2017
WWII vet hopes Japanese flag can be given back
assistants on both sides of
the Pacific are scrambling to
fulfill.
Their most recent success
was capped last weekend in
Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania,
when Cynthia Kester, grand-
daughter of a U.S. Marine
in World War II, presented a
good-luck flag to the grand-
nephew of a Japanese soldier
killed in 1945.
“We were enemies then.
We are friends now,” Kester,
60, told Eisuke Oniike, 58,
who traveled from his home
in Japan to receive the flag.
The exchanges are good
for the souls of both giver and
receivers.
“Our first thought was it’s
purely for the benefit of Jap-
anese families, but we over-
looked the fact that this is so
enormously important for the
Americans,” Rex Ziak said.
With the help of his
daughter, Sandy Williamson,
Strombo composed a short
letter that will accompany his
flag to Japan if Yasue Sadao’s
family is found.
Flag delivered
to Obon Society
By KIM BRIGGEMAN
Missoulian
MISSOULA, Mont. —
With a little luck, Marvin
Strombo’s good luck flag is
on the first leg of its journey
home to Japan.
It’s been in Strombo’s
possession for more than
70 years, since the day the
Marine private from Dixon
claimed the distinctive flag
and a saber off a Japanese
officer killed in the Battle of
Saipan in 1944.
The saber was stolen in the
1970s from Strombo’s home
on Fairview Avenue, where
Marvin still lives at age 93.
One of his biggest fans,
Joe Tachovsky of Wiscon-
sin, came through town on
Tuesday to take Strombo to
lunch and pick up the flag.
On Thursday, Tachovsky
delivered it to representa-
tives of the Obon Society at
the Columbia River Maritime
Museum in Astoria.
Rex and Keiko Ziak
founded the Obon Society in
2009 to help repatriate such
war keepsakes with relatives
in Japan.
“I hope the family gets
it,” Strombo told the Missou-
lian. “I think it would be some
comfort to them.”
The hinomaru yose-
gaki flags were traditionally
signed with well-wising mes-
sages by family and friends
and presented to a Japanese
man before he went to war.
University of Montana
assistant professor Rob Tuck
identified the probable bearer
of Strombo’s flag as Yasue
Sadao when Strombo visited
Tuck’s class in November. As
Strombo sees it, that informa-
tion and the fact that Yasue
carried a saber and was there-
fore an officer should help
locate descendants.
Tachovsky, an author and
restaurateur based in Min-
Some comfort
Kira Veracruyssen/Missoulian
Marvin Strombo of Dixon, Mont., holds a flag that he took from a Japanese officer who died during the Battle of Saipan
in 1944. He hopes it will be returned to the family of the soldier. A University of Montana assistant professor identified
the soldier as Yasue Sadao.
neapolis, is the son of Lt.
Frank Tachovsky, the com-
mander of Strombo’s scout-
sniper platoon in the 6th U.S.
Marine Regiment that oper-
ated behind enemy lines on
Saipan.
He’s seeking an agent
and publisher for his book
“40 Thieves: Saipan,” which
he researched, wrote and
reworked after his father’s
death.
Strombo is the oldest of
three surviving “thieves” left
from his father’s platoon,
so nicknamed because they
were masters of covert opera-
tions and because, as Strombo
explained, “every time we
needed a bottle of something
we somehow got it.”
‘Our first thought was it’s
purely for the benefit of
Japanese families, but we
overlooked the fact that this
is so enormously important
for the Americans.’
Rex Ziak
founder the Obon Society
Roscoe
Mullins
of
Culloden, West Virginia, and
Bob Smotts of Dahlonega,
Georgia, are the others.
Tachovsky has befriended
all three and tapped their
memories for his book. He’s
Former lawmaker can’t lobby for
Gov. Brown, legislative counsel says
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Former state
Rep. Peter Buckley will be
barred from lobbying his for-
mer colleagues in the Legisla-
ture in his new role advising
the governor on state pension
and revenue reform, accord-
ing to an opinion by legislative
counsel.
The Thursday opinion,
first reported by The Regis-
ter-Guard, states that a 2007
ethics law prohibits a for-
mer legislator from trying to
influence lawmakers on pol-
icy during the regular legisla-
tive session after his term ends.
The law would apply to Buck-
ley, a longtime Ashland repre-
sentative who retired last year,
wrote lead legislative attorney
Dexter Johnson.
Gov. Kate Brown’s office
said Friday that it would fol-
low the legislative attorney’s
opinion that Buckley may not
lobby legislators, The Regis-
ter-Guard reported.
Buckley, who helped write
the state’s budget for several
years, accepted the part-time
position as Brown’s senior
adviser on transformation and
budget stability Tuesday. The
job comes with an annual sal-
ary of about $65,000.
extremely fond of Strombo,
and made this stop as part of a
cross-country road trip that’ll
take him down the West Coast
and to Las Vegas, visiting
grave sites and families of the
men from his father’s platoon.
He too will be gratified if
the flag can be returned to its
rightful family.
“Anything I can do for
Marvin,” Tachovsky said.
‘Flags of Their Fathers’
The Ziaks and the Obon
Society got a boost last
Memorial Day when CBS
News highlighted their efforts
in a feature called “The Flags
of Their Fathers.” The pro-
gram focused on a successful
repatriation of a hinamaru ini-
tiated by Terry Stockdale, son
of the late Glenn Stockdale of
Billings.
It generated an over-
whelming number of requests
that the Ziaks and their net-
work of researchers and legal
In it, Strombo introduces
himself and says he was born,
raised and continues to live in
Montana.
“I have wanted to return
this flag for a very long time,
but we did not know how to
do it,” Strombo’s letter says.
“I hope the return of this
flag brings your family some
comfort.”
He writes that he’s always
had respect for the Japanese
soldiers because they fought
so hard.
“We were all just trying to
survive and fight for what we
believed in,” Strombo says.
“Your loved one was
already passed when I found
him on the outskirts of Gara-
pan, Saipan. After I brought
the flag home, I felt bad.
“I have always believed
that it did not belong to me,
it belonged to you. I pray this
flag finds its way home and, if
you are reading this, it has.”
IT’S
ST. CATRICK’S DAY
AT THE
CLATSOP COUNTY
ANIMAL SHELTER!
Join us for some
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th
Alcohol industry jobs outpace software Sat., March 18
Associated Press
PORTLAND — Oregon’s
software industry has been
growing fast, but the state’s
economic development agency
says it has been outpaced by
another sector — the alcohol
industry — since the Great
Recession.
The state Office of Eco-
nomic Analysis says software
employment was up by 6,900
jobs between January 2008
and September 2016. But the
alcohol industry was up by
7,400 jobs during the same
time span.
Senior state economist Josh
Lehner says people who brew
beer, distill alcohol and make
wine may have lower wages
on average than those in the
software industry, but the
booze business brings other
economic benefits.
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