Probably recovered during the Battle of Okinawa. Looks like his platoon mates signed the flag, or members of the platoon who survived the battle. 2nd MarDiv actually occupied Nagasaki 2 weeks after the bomb was dropped.


As a side note, years ago I sat in on an interview of a WWII Marine as part of the veterans history project. The veteran took part in most of the major battles to include Okinawa. His presentation was pretty sober, given that the battle became mid evil after weeks of slogging through monsoon created rains. He was very descriptive right down to some close encounters (hand to hand) with the Japanese defenders. There was utter hatred toward the Japanese soldiers with atrocities committed on both sides. However, he survived and actually participated in the occupation of Nagasaki.