Page 8A
NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
World War II vet brings fallen enemy’s
keepsake on long journey home
BRIEFLY
Quake hits Pacifi c
Ocean off coast of
California, Oregon
BROOKINGS (AP) —
The US Geologic Survey has
recorded a 4.6-magnitude
earthquake in the Pacifi c
Ocean off the coast of
Northern California and
Oregon.
The temblor struck
Thursday about 115 miles
northwest of Eureka,
California.
KTVL-TV reports there
were no injuries or damages
caused by the earthquake.
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
PORTLAND — Marvin Strombo
was behind Japanese enemy lines on
a Pacifi c island during World War II
when he realized the other fi ve men
in his squadron had moved on without
him.
The young U.S. Marine, part of
an elite scout-sniper platoon fi ghting
a 1944 battle on Saipan, nervously
scanned the terrain. He spotted a body
on the ground, a dead Japanese soldier
lying on his left side. The young man
looked peaceful, as if asleep, and some-
thing white poked out from his jacket.
Strombo knelt and pulled out a silk
fl ag, all the space around the bright
red emperor’s sun fi lled with elegant
calligraphy. He hesitated, then took
the fl ag and scrambled to reunite with
his squadron as they entered the Japa-
nese-held town of Garapan.
More than 70 years later, Strombo is
returning the Japanese fl ag to his fallen
enemy’s family.
The 93-year-old arrived Friday in
Tokyo, the fi rst stop in a 10,000-mile
journey into the remote mountainside
to bring the keepsake back to the man’s
home village — back to a brother
and two sisters who could never say
goodbye.
He was met by Japanese news
media, who gathered around his wheel-
chair to interview him.
“I realized there were no bullets
or shrapnel wounds, so I knew he
was killed by the blast of a mortar,”
Strombo recalled in Portland this week
before boarding a fl ight to Japan.
Then, quietly: “I think that soldier
wanted me to fi nd him for some
reason.”
The fl ags were a good-luck charm
that linked Japanese soldiers to their
loved ones and their call for duty. Some
were signed by hundreds of classmates,
neighbors and relatives.
Allied troops frequently took them
from the bodies of their enemies as
souvenirs. They have a deep signifi -
cance because most Japanese families
never learned how their loved ones
died and never received remains.
For Strombo, the fl ag hung in a
glass-fronted gun cabinet in his home
in Montana for years, a topic of conver-
sation for visitors and a curiosity for his
four children.
He never spoke about his role in the
battles of Saipan, Tarawa and Tinian,
which chipped away at Japan’s control
of islands in the Pacifi c and paved the
way for U.S. victory.
Saturday, August 12, 2017
Authorities:
Oregon father
killed wife, kids
AP Photo/Don Ryan
In this Aug. 7 photo, WWII veteran Marvin Strombo, right, and Obon
Society executives director Rex Zika hold up a Japanese fl ag with names
written on it in Portland.
“I think the solider
wanted me to fi nd him
for some reason.”
— Marvin Strombo,
World War II veteran
He wrote letters to fi nd out more
about the fl ag but eventually put it
aside. He knew no Japanese and, in
an era before the internet, making any
headway was diffi cult.
Then, in 2012, the son of his former
commanding offi cer contacted him
about a book he was writing on the
platoon.
Through him, Strombo reached out
to the Obon Society, a nonprofi t in
Oregon that helps U.S. veterans and
their descendants return Japanese fl ags
to the families of fallen soldiers.
Within a week, researchers found
it belonged to Yasue Sadao by reading
the script on the fl ag. They traced the
corporal to a tea-growing village of
about 2,400 people in the mountains
roughly 200 miles west of Tokyo.
The calligraphy turned out to be
the signatures of 180 friends and
neighbors who saw Yasue off to war in
Higashi Shirakawa, including 42 of his
relatives. Seven of the original signa-
tories are still alive, including Yasue’s
89-year-old brother and two sisters.
When researchers contacted Yasue’s
brother by phone, he asked if the person
who had his brother’s fl ag was the
same one who found it so many years
ago, said Rex Ziak, who co-founded
the Obon Society with his Japanese
wife, Keiko.
“There was just silence on the line
and then he asked, ‘Do you imagine he
knows how my brother died and where
he died?’” Ziak recounted. “And that’s
when we realized that this person is
very much alive in that family and this
mystery of what happened to him is
very much alive.”
Strombo is the only person who can
provide those answers. He can roughly
show where he found Yasue’s body on
the outskirts of Garapan and can tell the
siblings that their brother likely died of
a concussion from a mortar round.
“I knew he was young because I
could see his profi le as I bent over him.
He was laying on his back, kind of on
his left side,” he said.
The Obon Society has returned
about 125 fl ags and gets about fi ve
inquiries a day from aging soldiers who
regret their actions and want to return
the fl ags before they die.
The group believes thousands of
similar fl ags are likely hidden in attics
across the U.S. that could give answers
to countless other families. Strombo
will be the fi rst World War II veteran
to return a fl ag in person to a Japanese
family through the Obon Society.
The trip is a journey of forgiveness
and closure as he fi nishes the fi nal
chapter of his life.
Only two other men in his platoon
of 40 are still alive and he knows the
humid islands where he fought for
weeks are now a footnote in the war’s
larger history.
“It got so I kind of wanted to
meet the family, you know,” he said,
his voice growing raspy. “I know it
means so much to them.”
SALEM (AP) —
Authorities have fi nished
their seven-month
investigation into the deaths
of fi ve members of an
Oregon family, confi rming
initial fi ndings that a man
killed his wife and children
before fatally shooting
himself in the head.
The fi ve members of the
Kroeker family were found
dead Jan. 4 in a burned
home near the western
Oregon town of Hubbard.
Marion County deputy
district attorneys Brendan
Murphy and Melodie
Dickey said Friday that
43-year-old Keith Kroeker
was solely responsible for
the deaths.
Autopsies of the severely
burned victims showed
wife Erin Kroeker died of
blunt-force trauma to the
head and the children — two
10-year-old boys and a
7-year-old girl — were shot
to death. All were in their
bed clothes.
The prosecutors say the
fi res were intentionally set,
with ignition points in the
home, a barn and a detached
garage.
More than 250
Oregon residents
mark ‘X’ gender
on licenses
EUGENE (AP) — An
Oregon rule change
allowing people who don’t
identify with their gender to
instead mark “X’’ on their
driver’s licenses or state ID
cards has been used by more
than 250 people since the
change enacted on July 3.
The Register-Guard
reported Friday that the
Oregon Transportation
Commission approved the
rule change.
It simplifi es the process
for people who in the past
have had to go through
tedious court procedures to
change their gender on their
licenses.
Oregon residents can
go into any state motor
vehicles offi ce during
business hours to obtain the
“X’’ designation.
The District of Columbia
implemented the same
option on June 26 and is the
only other place in the U.S.
where the designation is
available.
Jail guard
charged, accused
of performing sex
act on inmate
VANCOUVER, Wash.
(AP) — Prosecutors tacked
aggravating factors on to
the charges against a Clark
County corrections deputy,
which means the man who
is accused of performing a
sex act in the presence of
a female inmate is eligible
for an extended sentence if
convicted.
The Columbian reports
29-year-old Christopher A.
North pleaded not guilty on
Thursday to second-degree
custodial sexual misconduct
and indecent liberties
with forcible compulsion.
The prosecution fi led
aggravating factors with the
indecent liberties charge
for a vulnerable victim and
violating a position of trust.
Charging documents
accuse North of performing
the sex act on the inmate
after locking her in a
changing area. The woman
reported the incident after
she was transferred to
Clackamas County.
North turned himself in
July 26. He was arraigned
the next day, during which
he told the judge he’s
“ready to be a man about
what happened.
McKay Creek Estates
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Senior Finances, How to Help
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Employ strategies to protect the finances of
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