The "Flag Pole" is symbolic not exactly a flag pole. The mountain itself is the flagpole as it stands up over his command but there may be a flag pole on it. Japanese did fly flags over the highest point as symbolic marker to their conquest. Such as the US flag being raised on Iwo Jima. I have a "death list", Samurai sword and battle flag that belonged to a Japanese Major from Iwo Jima. The list is a hand written ledger of living and dead men in his command in the battle. There are strike marks across the names as they were killed or wounded beyond combat. Each squad carried a flag and the individual who carried that flag is marked as such on the list. The Major's battle flag is punched with .30 cal and .50 cal holes, shrapp metal tears and finally a big splosh of blood.
A smaller scale such deposit was found on Negros. It was a Spanish Colonial vault built into the side of a mountain that the Japanese had captured and rebuilt with more steel and cement. Inside was some 500mt stacked into a pyramid. On top was positioned a full set of swords, the swords were not combat swords but symbolic. The blades were chisel cut and gold inlaid, the handles mounts with precious stones. When I saw the swords in 1998 I tried to buy out but the owners were at that time already being hounded by Jap nationals. The owners and I were playing cat and mouse with the Japanese while I was trying to generate the cash to buy. Ramos security hy-jacked the entire tunnel. Soon the sword owner and I found members of his family as dead bodies so he ditched the swords on Panay and soon after he was found dead. I am still tracking the swords as they are still on Panay.
The point being, you must think in Shinto. The flag pole is the mountain.
The Jap in the yellow box on the picture of Yamashta is the old man in the moniker in my TN identity. This was Yamashta's food taster. He was a friend of mine and died in 2001, Metro Manila.
Zobex
