World War 2 ship flying a Japanes flag?

[Fullblooded Patriot]

I've seen American ships, from WW2, flying a Japanese flag. I was wondering if this had a meaning?

[NAVA1974]

I've seen American ships, from WW2, flying a Japanese flag. I was wondering if this had a meaning?

I know of two examples of maritime flag useage that could account for two national flags flown from one ship:

1) During wartime, when an enemy vessel is captured, the victors fly their flag over the loser's flag, (this is the only case where two national flags may be flown from the same mast / pole)

2) In peacetime, a vessel of one nationality will fly a "courtesy flag" of the nation they are visiting. (The flags are flown from different positions on the ship, not one over the other on the same mast.)

Neither of these seem to explain why a USA warship would be flying a Japanese flag during the war. Was the Japanese flag defaced with indicators for the number of ships or aircraft that the USA ship had destroyed? Typically a US warship or aircraft would have a little flag painted on them for each enemy vessel destroyed, but I have never heard of a US ship actually flying the flag of a destroyed or captured vessel.

Nick A
Columbia Maryland

[Peter Ansoff]

Alternatively, is it possible that the flag in question was a signal flag? The "India" flag has a similar design to the Japanese merchant ensign. The colors are different, (black on yellow instead of red on white), but they might look similar in a black-and-white photo.

Is there any chance that you could provide a link to one of the pictures?

Peter Ansoff

[Fullblooded Patriot]

I've just heard another reason, kamikaze, it signaled that this ship has been hit by a kamikaze. the ship i saw this onwas the USS Lexington in Courpus Cristy, TX.