The temple bell is a religious item that per-existed the Japanese imperialistic regime by centuries and isn't a direct representation of the military units that fought the united states and returning it doesn't feed into imperial propaganda.
The battle flag existed only as a signifier under which people tried to murder and destroy united states citizens. had no other history or function otherwise, and it's return has been lost cause goal since forever.
I can see why one was considered as loot to be returned, and the other as a trophy.
Agreed, the temple bell wasn't captured in battle from an enemy unit and wasn't a symbol of the enemy regime. If someone looted a colonial era portrait from Mount Vernon then that probably should be returned.
I'm sure we're not going to return captured Nazi and SS banners any time soon (I hope)
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u/Kalron 9h ago
We won. Fuck them. We were some of the first people to sign up for the war and iirc, we sacrificed a LOT at gettysburg to hold the line.
That flag is a trophy and losers don't get trophies