World War II Japanese artifacts in a Volusia County veterans museum are teaching us how much enemies had in common.
Deltona Mayor John Masiarczyk is the chief of the city’s Veterans Memorial Museum.
He also personally knew Deltona homeowner and WWII veteran Col. Richard H. Hintermeir, who contributed his spoils from the war after he died.
Some of the artifacts included items from pilot Masao Ota, who Hintermeir shot down, such as a Japanese silk flag Ota was carrying.
No one at the museum knew what the writing on it meant until a Mitsubishi employee came to Deltona. She was surprised at the flag’s authenticity, but was also perplexed.
“She said we could probably read it probably a lot better if you didn't have it upside down and backwards," Masiarczyk said.
The correction was made and it turns out the flag was signed by his co-workers, thanking him for joining the Japanese war effort.
Included in the artifacts are family photos and a fan, a gift from a female friend.
But when they found a little book, museum members-turned-sleuths thought they surely struck spy gold.
Believing it contained messages of vital importance, the museum sent it to Quantico to have it translated. However, the messages were only important to Ota.
“We thought we were gonna decode some battle plan or some, everything. When it came back, it's so true to form, and we all get a kick out of this story, it was nothing but names [and] addresses of young ladies he knew in Japan," Masiarczyk said.
The mayor said the book was much like the little black books many G.I.'s had during that same era.
Thanks to many of the artifacts, museum members realized the enemy was no different than American soldiers – a serviceman carrying family pictures, his country’s flag and a special item to be used after the war was over.
The Deltona Veterans Memorial Museum has contacted the Japanese Embassy to try to return some of Ota's belongings to his family.
They are waiting to hear back.