Project Returned Memories Kiseki* – Helping War Memorabilia Come Home
Items left behind by former Japanese soldiers in many battlefields throughout Asia and in the Aleutian Islands were discovered and brought home by U.S. and allied soldiers as souvenirs at the conclusion of WWII in the Pacific.
Scores of these items have been collected by Yasuhiko Kaji, MD, a Japanese doctor living in Ohio, USA. Dr. Kaji has been purchasing Japanese war memorabilia with his own funds and returning them to their original owners and families in Japan since 1971.
In support of his humanitarian service, Project “Returned Memories Kiseki” was started as a nonprofit organization. Photos of the war memorabilia are now available to the public on the Internet. Many of these items have been associated with and returned to families related to the Japanese soldiers who were the original owners. There are also many artifacts in our collection for which we are still seeking the original owner’s families or descendants. Any help in identifying these relatives would be appreciated.
If you possess such items and would like to donate them towards this effort, please send us pictures and detailed information about them. We will be happy to post them on our site. We would ask for your assistance in this endeavor to “let war memorabilia come home.”
We sometimes received requests from former Allied soldiers’ families to search for items left in Japan. They are posted on our “Artifacts of Former Allied Soldiers” page. Please contact us if you know of anyone who may be interested in returning these items to their original owners. In addition, if you possess artifacts of former Allied servicemen and wish to return them to their original owners, families, or relatives, please contact us. We will post them on our English page.
If you have any information or inquiries about the war memorabilia, please contact us at the following email address.
senso_ihin@outlook.jp
[* Miracle in Japanese]