<![CDATA[Reunited, by a long shot: Japanese soldier's photo album returns to family, 74 years after his death]>

When Jarat Chopra meets the siblings of Japanese soldier Hideo Kishi in Kyoto prefecture on Sunday, he knows precisely what he will say to them.

The Kenya-based lawyer will tell them he took good care of the picture album Kishi had carried into his final battle in the Philippines in 1945, and that for the last two decades, he had been trying to track the family down to return it.

He hopes its return, even after all these years, "will bring them some calm and peace".

Chopra, 55, had amassed a collection of war items after becoming interested in battlefield mementos as a young man.

Hideo Kishi is believed to have died in the Philippines in April 1945. Photo: Julian Ryall

Inevitably, such items were picked up by Allied soldiers in the aftermath of battles and eventually found their way back to Australia, Britain, the US and elsewhere.

Chopra does not know the route the small photo album took before it came into his possession, and there were scant clues about who it should be returned to.

"I have had the album for 40 years or more, but in the early 1990s, I got a real impulse to return it to its proper place," he said. "The problem was there was no one to turn to; no one to facilitate that."

Chopra approached the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, where souls of Japan's war dead are revered, but he did not get any leads. Nothing came up either, when he consulted officials at the Japanese consulate in Boston.

Then in July this year, Chopra learned of the Obon Society.

Its founders, Washington-based couple Rex and Keiko Ziak, established the group in 2009 after Keiko's family received a flag her grandfather had taken into battle. It was sent by a small, understaffed division from Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

Realising that potentially millions of flags, letters, pictures and family heirlooms were scattered worldwide " with many now being sold to collectors online " the Ziaks set about reuniting such war items with their rightful owners to bring closure and some reconciliation.

"The Japanese concept of the spiritual world is very different to that of ours in the West, so when a family member disappeared in the war, anything that was returned " his wallet, a letter, a flag " became him," Rex said.

Hideo Kishi's photo album included an image of people from his village in Kyoto. Photo: Julian Ryall

Rex said there was a spike of war items being returned in 1995 " the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II " which saw objects such as "good-luck flags", or yosegaki hinomaru, being sent to Japanese embassies. The deluge of items returned, however, means most of them remain in storage in Tokyo, where authorities are overwhelmed by the task of finding the descendants of Japanese soldiers.

Meanwhile, as old soldiers began dying, more items were discovered. Obon has accepted well over 1,000 flags and other items from around the world. Some arrive anonymously, while others are accompanied by notes that provide some clues about the original owner's identity. A few come with small donations that allow the Ziaks to continue their work.

To date, Obon has managed to return about 300 personal items to deeply grateful relatives in Japan.

After Chopra sent Kishi's photo album to Obon, the Ziaks managed to piece together its owner's story from a newspaper cutting that was tucked inside. The article, from a local Kyoto newspaper, reported that Kishi's parents had received a letter from then-Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, who had met their son during an inspection of Japanese troops in the Philippines and wanted to congratulate them for raising such a fine young man.

The album also contained a picture of Kishi on horseback and a remarkably well-preserved image of his neighbours and friends in Kyoto.

Obon's team of volunteer researchers were also able to confirm that Kishi died in April 1945 during fierce fighting on the Philippine island of Leyte. It is likely the album was then picked up by a US soldier as a battlefield souvenir before finally landing in Chopra's hands.

Chopra said he has always felt the album was "out of place" in his possession. "I have been carrying this piece of tragedy with me for a long time. It doesn't belong to me. It should be in its proper place," he said.

The lawyer knows better than most how it feels to not know the story behind the loss of a loved one.

He is trying to piece together the last days of his great-uncle, Lieutenant-Colonel Diwan Chand Chopra, who was in the Indian Medical Service. The older Chopra was believed to have been killed when the SS Rooseboom, a Dutch vessel, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine as it was evacuating troops from Singapore, a day before the city fell into Japanese hands in February 1942.

Chopra is also trying to retrieve a sword that belonged to Dewan Mulraj, a relative who ruled the Indian state of Multan until he was defeated by British forces in 1849. It was kept as booty by General William Whish, who commanded the British troops, and later taken to the United Kingdom.

Chopra is currently negotiating with the Royal Artillery regiment, where the sword was later donated, to have it returned to his family.

"So on one side, my family was defeated in battle and our possessions were taken as trophies and relics, but on the other, I have a number of Japanese items I am trying to return," he said. "It's slightly unsettling, but it is definitely the right thing for me to do."

Rex says Chopra's meeting with Kishi's three brothers and sister, all of whom are in their 80s, will be highly emotional.

"Often when we hand one of these flags or another item over, the families talk to it," he said. "They are consoling it, reassuring the soldier that he has returned home safely."

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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