From NYC to Japan: The journey home of a WWII heirloom

NEW YORK CITY - One New Yorker has helped to return a piece of history to its rightful owners – nearly 80 years after World War II ended.

"I've had the flag since my grandfather passed," says Scott Stein. "It was always at his house as a child, we'd go there, and it'd be prominently in one of the rooms of his house, and I would stare at it in fascination as a young child and my grandfather, told me one day that it would be mine."

Scott Stein is the grandson of Bernard Stein, who fought in the Philippines and had a Yosegaki Hinomaru, or a Good Luck Flag, in his possession. The flag was covered with signatures of loved ones. Bernard left the flag for Scott after he passed in the 90s.

"The young man would carry it with him," says Rex Ziak, the co-founder of the OBON Society. "It was almost like he was bringing his homeland and his home with him on this one textile."

Through the efforts of the OBON Society, a nonprofit organization, co-founded by a wife and husband and duo, the flag was traced back to its original owner in Japan — seven years after Scott Stein first reached out. It belonged to Corporal Yukikazu Hiyama, who died just days after WWII ended.

"In 15 years of work, over 600 flags," says Keiko Ziak, the co-founder of the OBON Society. "We hand it back to the family where it belongs."

The flag was recently presented to Tsukasa Hiyama, the 81-year-old son of the fallen soldier, who was surrounded by generations of his family in a poignant 'Returning Ceremony' in Tottori Prefecture, Japan. The flag is the only memento he has of a father he never got a chance to know.

"I felt proud," adds Stein. "Just the reaction of the family there to receive it, as opposed to it just sitting in my house as something that was my grandfather's, but it's something more powerful being returned."