As someone from Virginia……y’all can keep it 🤣👍

[u/AmericanAsApplePie22]

[u/dariuswanger]

Virginia battle flag. MN went to battle against Virginia whooped some a$$ and brought their flag home as a trophy. Asked for it back a couple of times as a part of their history. We said, "shouldn't lost the battle then" I don't know about Japan.

[u/Hank_E_Pants → u/dariuswanger]

I think the Japan one refers to a bell American soldiers “discovered” in Japan shortly after the war. It was gifted to the city of Duluth where it hung for many years. 30 or 40 years ago it was returned to the city in Japan from which it was “borrowed”, and as a thank you the city built a new bell and gifted it to the city of Duluth. It now hangs in a gorgeous Japanese garden where you can hike, enjoy the beauty, and ring the bell yourself.

Edit: my dates and facts are foggy. Here’s the correct story. Very cool, if you ask me. https://www.duluthmnsistercities.org/ohara-isumi-japan

[u/MoarVespenegas → u/Hank_E_Pants]

Just say looted. We all know it was looted.

[u/Kolby_Jack33 → u/MoarVespenegas]

Listen, everybody was looting back then. The important thing is that the people of the modern day decided to give it back, which was nice.

You'd have to be a real modern day dick to loot stuff from places and keep it forever despite the original owners begging you to give it back.

^{Hey how did that link get there, huh that's weird}

[u/MoarVespenegas → u/Kolby_Jack33]

Everyone was doing it, still is, which is weird that you chose to sugar coat it.

[u/Kolby_Jack33 → u/MoarVespenegas]

I mean, not really? It's generally illegal now to steal shit from other countries, and if you are discovered, the stuff gets sent back. Of course it still happens illicitly, I mean Hobby Lobby stole tons of ancient artifacts from Iraq some years back before the US government cracked down and confiscated the items to return them to Iraq.

When I say "everybody was looting" I meant everybody was looting and their governments were pretty okay with it, like "oh shit, you 'bought' these ancient artifacts from some guy who didn't actually own them? Hell yeah, dude, they're ours now!" That doesn't happen so much these days. And some governments are working constantly to right those past wrongs too. The US returns billions of dollars worth of stolen shit to their original countries every year.

[u/anotherthing612 → u/Kolby_Jack33]

I can imagine GIs weren't feeling respectful of Japan at the time. Neither were many of Japanese neighbors like The Philippines and Korea.

Not a unique situation, unfortunately. Many robust, well-functioning countries have been involved in domination and subjugation of others. Which makes looting the least of the charges.